Clyde Pangborn, the Gates Flying Circus, and the First Nonstop Crossing of the Pacific
How barnstormer Clyde Pangborn went from inverted flight at county fairs to completing the first nonstop transpacific flight in 1931.
TaildraggerPacific crossing
The Gates Flying Circus, Clyde Pangborn, and the Barnstormer Who Flew Nonstop Across the Pacific in Nineteen Thirty-One
Clyde Pangborn completed the first nonstop Pacific crossing in 1931, flying 4,558 miles in 41 hours after deliberately dropping his landing gear over open ocean.
TaildraggerThe Dole Air Derby, James Dole's Twenty-Five Thousand Dollar Bet, and the Eight Planes That Raced into the Pacific
In August 1927, eight planes raced 2,400 miles across the Pacific for a $25,000 prize - only two returned, and the disaster reshaped how aviation approached oceanic flight.
TaildraggerThe Dole Air Race, the Two Thousand Four Hundred Miles of Open Pacific, and the August of Nineteen Twenty-Seven That Nobody in Oakland Could Forget
The 1927 Dole Air Race sent eight planes from Oakland to Hawaii across 2,400 miles of open Pacific - only two finished, and seven people never came home.
TaildraggerCatalina Island Airport - the Twenty-Two-Mile Pacific Crossing Every Southern California Pilot Owes Themselves
Catalina Island Airport (KAVX) sits on a 1,600-foot mesa 22 miles off the Southern California coast - one of general aviation's most rewarding day trips.
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