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 captain 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); San Antonio 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, Ohio. 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 major 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 France in World War I, . 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 New York 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.