Sixty years ago, these American airmen aroused aviation interest in an entire hemisphere. Faker's Pan-American Mission BY JAMES PARTON

IXTY years ago, the United career to be a four-star general and roads the Germans were making S States was worried about Latin one of the Air Force's greatest lead- in South America with Junkers America. The problem then was far ers. In 1926, aged thirty, he was a planes, some on floats. Somebody simpler than those confronting the serving in Washington as as- said: The only way we can stop this nation in 1986 and was solved by a sistant executive officer on the staff and keep the Germans from sending dramatic exploit that has gone down of Maj. Gen. Mason Patrick, then their airplanes into South America in history as one of the great early chief of the Army Air Corps. is for us to send a flight down there feats of military aviation. One im- "We got some very disturbing re- and interest these people in our pro- portant participant was Ira C. ports," he explained in an oral histo- grams.' . . . Eaker, son of a Texas farmer, who ry interview many years later. "By "We felt, even at that early time, had enlisted as a private in 1917 and we I mean Washington, the political that there ought to be some commu- who rose after a long and illustrious and military community, about in- nity of weapons between all the peo-

Three of the five Loenings that participated in the historic Pan-American mission, shown here beached at Paita, Peru, for an overnight stop. Eaker and Fairchild flew in the San Francisco (center); and Detroit are not pictured.

AIR FORCE Magazine / September 1986 179 pies of this hemisphere. It would be particular glory, since their plane, tensive test to the amphibian air- ridiculous to get into a war, defend- San Francisco, was the only one plane. President Calvin Coolidge ing the Western Hemisphere, and that completed the entire 23,000- sent a goodwill letter to the presi- have the Brazilians armed with ri- mile journey, making every sched- dent of each of the twenty-three Pan fles that our ammunition wouldn't uled stop. The property now of the American countries, to be delivered fit. . . . They would have had Euro- Smithsonian, it is on loan to the Air by the flight." pean equipment, and they would Force Museum at Wright-Patterson The plane was the 0A-1A am- have been cut off in a war situation AFB, Dayton, . phibian, newly designed by Grover from the source of it. That's no Loening for observation work. Its good." Front-Page Coverage canoe-shaped hull was duralumin When approval for the Pan-Amer- The Pan-Am Flight was widely over wood, with fuselage on top and

Capt. Ira C. Eaker and Lt. Muir S. "Santy" Fairchild had to complement each other's skills and be congenial in temperament to ensure a successful mission. According to Eaker, they "shared a determination, almost an obsession, to get the San Francisco home safely." The other crews were similarly well matched.

ican Goodwill Flight came from the publicized at the time, with front- two wings spreading forty-five feet. State Department and the White page coverage almost every day in The engine was a water-cooled Lib- House, Maj. H. A. Dargue was ap- all US newspapers and many erty of 400 horsepower mounted up- pointed commander. His team con- foreign ones. The National Geo- side-down so that the three-bladed sisted of three captains, of whom graphic devoted fifty-one pages to it aluminum propeller could clear the Eaker was one, and six first lieuten- in October 1927, and Eaker added hull's upturned beak. Fully loaded, ants. colorful details in an article he the Loening amphibian weighed One of the latter, Muir Fairchild, wrote for AIR FORCE Magazine in nearly three tons and could cruise at became Eaker's copilot. A sober, 1975. He recalled that "the idea for eighty-five to ninety mph. scholarly young man who had flown the flight came from General Patrick Mounting the engine upside- bombers in in , . . . who had earlier planned the down created special maintenance Fairchild was destined, like Eaker, round-the-world flight by four problems. Unless the piston rings for greater distinction: He would Douglas World Cruisers—a 26,000- were perfectly fitted, oil leaked become a lieutenant general and, mile journey that took 175 days in past, fouling the spark plugs. It was after World War II, first comman- 1924. . . . normal at each stop to remove the dant of the Air University. He was "Our relations with Central and twenty-four plugs and clean and re- known as "Santy" because he had South America needed attention (a place them before starting the next once gotten out of a cockpit in condition that seems to recur peri- leg of the journey. winter with his head, mustache, and odically). The purpose of the flight Another time-consuming, la- uniform solidly frosted with snow. was to further friendly relations borious task was refueling. Gas- The Pan-American Flight, begun with Latin American countries, to oline had been stored in steel drums in America's sesquicentennial year, encourage commercial aviation, to along the route. It had to be hand- captured world attention. Captain provide valuable training for Air pumped through a chamois-covered Eaker and Lieutenant Fairchild won Corps personnel, and to give an ex- funnel into the tanks, at a normal

180 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 1986 rate of sixty gallons an hour. The Diplomatic Stops state of California and offering to do Loening had a fuel capacity of 200 The flight route called for a diplo- business chores for them through- gallons. matic stop at the capitals of all the out Latin America. He also wrote The plan called for five Loenings, countries of Latin America except the Times, offering to each crewed by two officers, a pilot Bolivia, whose 13,000-foot altitude send regular reports from each way and a copilot, one of whom should was too high for the Loening planes. station. Since Eaker had been des- be an experienced engineer since Included were Great Britain's ignated the official historian of the there was no room for mechanics. Guiana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and flight, he wound up doing this for Major Dargue set up five flight France's Guiana and Guadeloupe. most of the other crews as well as teams. Following the example of the The schedule included fifty-six fly- his own. 1924 World Flight, each plane was ing days and seventy-seven days "It soon developed," he wrote, named for a prominent US city. ashore for diplomatic ceremonies "that, after pilot and engineering "Subsequent events," Eaker's and maintenance—a total of 133 ability, the principal crew require- memoir continued, "proved that days. As actually executed, the ment was physical stamina. Usually this team pairing had special signifi- journey took fifty-nine flying days we were awakened at 4:00 a.m. in cance for the success of the mission. and seventy-four delay days and order to begin the day's flight by The two pilots had to be congenial in thus was completed exactly on 6:00, since early morning hours pro- temperament, and they must com- schedule. vided the best flying weather. After plement each other's qualifications. Before the actual takeoff from a normal flight of four to six hours, `Santy' Fairchild and I developed a San Antonio on December 21, 1926, we landed at primitive fields or in plan for joint labor during the train- Major Dargue and his nine compan- rivers or bays, then taxied onto ing period. We also soon learned ions worked hard for several beaches to facilitate maintenance that we shared a determination, al- weeks—and not just in training for and refueling, which normally re- most an obsession, to get the San the flight itself. To maximize the quired three to four hours. We thus Francisco home safely. diplomatic value of the expedition arrived at our lodgings, arranged by "We agreed that we were a two- and promote the cause of aviation the advance officers, late in the af- man partnership in which each generally, each plane's chief pilot ternoon, discarded mechanic's would invest his total assets—his was expected to set up a cozy rela- overalls, and prepared for social reputation, his ambition, even his tionship with the city for which his functions. life. This shared realization ensured plane was named. "There was a banquet every night maximum effort of our team. I have In Eaker's case, he wrote to the given by the American colony or by no doubt the other plane crews de- San Francisco Chamber of Com- the officials of the country. These vised similar plans. For example, all merce on December 1, 1926, outlin- usually lasted, with the dancing that the pilots alternated daily in flying ing the purposes of the flight and habitually followed, until midnight. their planes." how it could benefit the city and the So, to bed by midnight for four

The ill-fated Detroit, which later collided with the New York over Buenos Aires and crashed, killing both crewmen, is depicted here in the Magdalena River at Girardot, Colombia. American concern over inroads made by the Junkers hydroplane (seen here in the background) into Latin America helped prompt the Pan-American flight.

AIR FORCE Magazine September 1986 183 hours of sleep before the 4:00 a.m. after crossing the equator in Ec- "The next plane to have serious call for a new day of flying, mechan- uador, passing into the south tem- difficulties was the San Antonio in ical maintenance, and social or pro- perate zone in southern Chile, Colombia . . . necessitating an en- tocol events. The latter could not be crossing the high Andes, and re- gine change. . . . It was nineteen avoided or slighted since, after all, versing the process as we flew days before the spare engine arrived the first priority of our mission was northward from southern Argen- and a month before the San Antonio diplomatic. Captain McDaniel re- tina. Communications were recog- joined the flight in Brazil. marked near the end of our flight nized as a problem, but there was "Next came the turn of the San that we had danced more miles than little we could do since radios were Francisco. From Valdivia, Chile, we had flown." not installed in aircraft until years we were to turn east, flying across

Nearly 100 Uruguayans rush to help the downed San Francisco. Ropes were attached to the landing gear and the plane was successfully hauled onto the beach out of rough seas off Montevideo. The San Francisco suffered little damage and continued on to and then home without further incident. The ten young men, average age later. We did work out a set of hand the Andes . . . which at that point thirty-two, had, of course, been ex- or plane signals." had peaks rising to 9,000 feet. Our haustively briefed in advance. State planes, loaded with fuel for the six- Department counselors instructed Yankee Ingenuity hour flight, had a maximum ceiling them not to attempt foreign lan- "As I relive the memories of this of 12,000 feet. Since the Andes were guages: "Realize what we think of flight, the principal operational ex- expected to be cloud-covered, we people who speak English ungram- periences involve a succession of had agreed not to attempt formation matically. . . ." This, Eaker ob- aircraft accidents and mechanical flying but to negotiate this difficult served, "was a great relief." Flight problems. The first occurred when leg singly. surgeons admonished them to drink the New York crash-landed in "It was my turn to pilot. . . . only boiled water and "to avoid Guatemala. . . shearing off its land- There was solid cloud cover, as we native foods. An airplane on a long ing gear and damaging the pontoon. anticipated. After about an hour, flight is a poor place to have diar- Through the engineering skill of when we should have been halfway rhea." Captain Woolsey and the combined across the Andes, our engine began They also received lectures on effort of all of us, the hull was re- to lose power, and we started to set- meteorology, "important since we paired and the plane shipped by rail tle into the clouds. I asked Fairchild were leaving the north temperate to a nearby lake, from which it was if he wanted to take to his para- zone in winter, proceeding to the flown to France Field, Panama, for chute. He shared my view that land- northern hemisphere tropics and, complete repair. . . . ing on an ice-covered Andean peak,

184 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 1986 President Calvin Coolidge, flanked by Major Dargue (left) and Captain Eaker (right), awards the first DFCs ever to the crews of the Pen-American Goodwill Flight at Boning Field, D. C. The mission achieved its goal of promoting interest in American aviation technology among the nations of Central and South America. probably with a broken leg, was ing planes, the New York and the am a representative of a group head- scarcely to be preferred over stick- Detroit, collided while breaking out ed by a Mr. Juan Trippe that pro- ing with our plane. I held the plane of a diamond formation. Major poses to survey a civil aviation route at seventy miles per hour, just above Dargue and Lieutenant Whitehead over much of your Goodwill Flight. stalling speed at that altitude, and escaped by parachute from the New Could I borrow your maps?' A few settled into the clouds, expecting to York, but Captain Woolsey and weeks later Pan American Airways crash momentarily. Lieutenant Benton went down with began that survey." It became the "At 7,000 feet we were out in the Detroit and were killed instantly. basis of Pan Am's Latin routes. clear over a lake. Fairchild became The two remaining planes, St. Upon arrival at Bolling Field, very excited. He stood up in the rear Louis and San Francisco, flew on to Washington, the eight weary flyers cockpit and showed me a crude ter- AsunciOn, then back down the Riv- lined up in their rumpled coveralls rain sketch that contained a lake er Plate to Montevideo, where San to be greeted by President Calvin similar to the one we were over. He Antonio rejoined them. The three- Coolidge, who was wearing a gray shouted, 'This looks like the lake on plane flotilla completed the remain- Homburg perched squarely on his this sketch the British engineer gave ing 10,000 miles up around the bulge brow while other dignitaries wore me at the banquet last night. He was of Brazil and the Carib islands with- toppers. Coolidge gave the eight a member of a survey team explor- out further accident beyond a forced flyers the first Distinguished Flying ing a prospective rail route across landing for San Francisco. Captain Crosses, a medal authorized by the Andes. He told me the Andes Eaker described what happened Congress a few months before. could be crossed east of Valdivia at next this way: "Waves threw us up Eaker summed up as follows: 6,000 [feet] by following the pass on the beach, and about 100 natives "There can be little question that containing this lake.' rushed out of the bush. They got on the Pan-American Goodwill Flight "In the meantime, I was flying a rope and, like a long team of accomplished its mission. At an es- around the perimeter of the lake try- horses, helped us pull the plane up timated cost of about $100,000, it ing to bring our coughing engine on the shore." had aroused the aviation interest of back to normal power. When the ice At Havana, the last foreign stop Latin American nationals and heads in the carburetor melted, we turned before Miami and on home, "a US of state. Many of them had never east and soon came out over the citizen came up to me and said, 'I seen an airplane before." • plains of Patagonia. Four hours later we joined our companions, who had begun to worry." James Parton is a historian who lives in Hanover, N. H. During World War II, he served as Gen. Ira Faker's aide. He founded the American Heritage Publishing Co. in 1954. In 1980, he was the editor and publisher of the eight-volume set Accident in Argentina Impact, The Army Air Forces Confidential Picture History of World War II. This The only tragic accident hap- article is adapted with permission from the new book 'AIR FORCE SPOKEN pened a few days later over Buenos HERE," General Ira Eaker and the Command of the Air, by James Parton, Aires when two of the four remain- published this August by Adler & Adler.

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