Strangest fact: 21st-century airline delays aren’t that bad, relatively. Several of the planes ran into trouble simply flying to Oakland to begin the race and had to start over. The Golden Eagle wrecked its landing gear and propeller before it even took off, as it hit a gopher hole, while the City Of Peoria was delayed by sandflies—both dangers in the days before paved runways.
The Oklahoma and Spirit Of John Rodgers each had to turn back once because of mechanical failure, and then a second time because of heavy fog. The Pabco Flyer broke a fuel line and had to land in a cow pasture. The Miss Doran (piloted by Mildred Doran, the only woman in the competition), made an emergency landing on the way to Oakland to start the race because of “fouled spark plugs.” Doran herself joked, “we threw [the tools] off at Long Beach because they were cluttering things up.” While searching for a mechanic, they also replaced navigator Manley Lawling, as he had gotten lost trying to find Oakland. (Probably for the best the Doran didn’t have those tools—Woolaroc pilot Arthur Goebel had to hang outside the plane while in flight to fix a landing gear during pre-race tests.)
Thing we were happiest to learn: San Francisco at least got an airport out of the deal. While Oakland Municipal Airport was the chosen starting line for the race, San Francisco was developing Mills Field (now SF International), originally intended to be a temporary facility. But the city spurred construction hoping they would be selected as an alternate starting point for Dole racers. (Only three changed their plans, as the air currents surrounding Mills were thought to be too dangerous.)
Thing we were unhappiest to learn: Basically everything else about the race. On August 10th, on its third attempt to reach Oakland, the Spirit Of John Rodgers flew into a fog bank and crashed into an ocean cliff, killing pilot and co-pilot. The following day, the Pride Of Los Angeles crashed into San Francisco Bay, although all three men aboard were able to swim to safety. The day after that, the Angel Of Los Angeles made a pre-race test flight and abruptly dove towards the ground. Pilot Arthur V. Rogers, a British WWI ace, died after either his foot or his parachute snagged on the plane.
Of the remaining planes, none of them passed the qualifying tests once they got to Oakland, so Dole pushed the start date of the race back several days. Several racers dropped out of the competition, leaving nine of the original 14, one of which was disqualified for low fuel capacity before the race started.
On August 16, between 75,000 and 100,000 people gathered to watch the start of the race, but the racers’ luck had not improved. Oakland was characteristically foggy, so the start was delayed by several hours. The Oklahoma took off first, but had to abort over San Francisco because of an overheating engine. El Encanto swerved off the runway and crashed. The Pabco Flyer took off and then crashed 7,000 feet away. The remaining five planes took off without incident, but Dallas Spirit and Miss Doran were forced to make a quick return—Dallas had tail gear issues, and Doran‘s engine was “sputtering like a Tin Lizzie.” Doran and Pabco made second attempts to take off, and Pabco crashed a second time. Just four planes—Miss Doran, Golden Eagle, Aloha, and Woolaroc—made it out over the Pacific.
Woolaroc made a fairly uneventful flight, and won the race in 26 hours, 17 minutes. Aloha landed two hours later. Neither Golden Eagle nor Miss Doran were ever seen again. (Eagle had a radio that could receive messages but not send; Doran had none.) Dallas Spirit‘s crew repaired the plan to join in the search-and-rescue effort; they went into a tailspin and were never found.
Best link to elsewhere on Wikipedia: Maybe the most famous name on the page is too obvious a link, but Charles Lindbergh led too fascinating a life to not delve into. Besides being the most famous pilot in history, who nearly singlehandedly popularized air travel, Lindbergh also had 13 children, one of whom was kidnapped and murdered in one of the most sensational crimes of the 20th century. He also co-invented the perfusion pump, which makes heart surgery and organ transplants possible (although his model was impractical and soon fell out of favor), was a Pulitzer-winning author, and environmentalist who worked to protect endangered species. However, he was also a notorious antisemite and suspected Nazi supporter, who resigned from the Air Corps after Franklin D. Roosevelt personally criticized his support for the isolationist group America First. (His father was a Congressman who opposed U.S. entry into WWI, although it’s widely believed Lindbergh’s opposition to WWII was motivated by antisemitism, not a love of neutrality. He flew combat missions in WWII, but only as a “civilian consultant.”)
Further down the Wormhole: The cow pasture that served as Pabco Flyer‘s emergency runway was roughly 75 miles short of Oakland, just outside Monterey, California. That town of just over 30,000 has an outsized importance to the Golden State, as it was the capital when California was a Mexican province, and continued that status after the Mexican-American War. The town also had an outsized impact on 1960s counterculture, as 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival is seen as the beginning of the Summer Of Love. That critical moment in the sexual revolution presaged “free love,” the beginning of Gay Pride, and the mainstreaming of pornography. We’ll look at a moment when all three came together, in the form of gay porn crossover hit Boys In The Sand, next month.
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