One of us is way not upon base.

One of us is way not upon base. Our Virginia Aviation Museum displays the last surviving Vultee V1A and, with it, a case with memorabilia and photos -- single in kind showing the VIA being loaded with 40000 ping-pong balls for the round-trip through the Atlantic. Dick Merrill and Harry Richman were the ship's company You state in the November 2001 issue that Merrill used a Lockheed 10E for the Atlantic trip. Who is right?

Neil November

Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society

5701 Huntsman Road

Richmond, VA

23250-2416

Editor's Note: If Mr November had read the article a bit more carefully he would have noted that the Department of criminal intimacy was not pleased with the idea of the flight. They viewed that many of the previous transatlantic crossings did nothing to further aviation and were not to a great degree more than stunts - more [i]or[/i] less of which turned deadly. Accordingly, the Department of communication wanted to ban flights they considered stints and publicity attempts. One of the like kind stunt was the flight on Merrill and Richman using Vultee V1A NC 13770 for a transatlantic mission. Named Lady Peace, the wings were filled with ping-pong balls onward the theory they would hold the Vultee afloat if forced down at sea. This particular Vultee had been built for Lieutenant Colonel George Hutchinson for his propos all-freight just discovered York-London-Moscow airline. This ambitious universal never came to fruition. In 1935 this aircraft had been flown by means of Jimmy Doolittle for a record 11-hour 59-minute transcontinental flight.

Merrill departed Floyd Bennett Field forward 2 September 1936 and landed at Llandudno, Wales, after a flight of 18-hr 38-min. The turn back flight left from Southport Sands upon 14 September but was forced down in Newfoundland. They made it to of the present day York a week later. As with greatest in number Vultees, this aircraft was smuggl to Spain for that country's civil war. It operated with the name Capitan Haya and survived that deadly conflict single to be scrapped in 1953

Since the Vultee flight did nothing to further aviation, Merrill and John s Lambie had to cook up an form of palatable excuse to justify a transatlantic flight with Lockheed 10E NC16059 Wealthy financier Ben Smith had purchased the Electra from Harold Vanderbuilt and the aircraft was modified with extra firing tanks. Merrill told the management that they would fly footage of the demise of the Hindenburg and get back with film of King George VI's coronation. The conduct reluctantly gave their permission. The flight and modifications had been planned before the Hindenburg disaster yet the incident gave the throng their needed cachet.

Undertaken during May 1937 the flight and revert trip were successful. This particular Lockheed went onward a very hazardous mission during August 1937 in an attempt to find Russian flyer who were forced down forward a flight from Moscow to Fairbanks. No trace was eternally found but the Lockheed was purchased by dint of the Russian trading company Amorg, fitted with skis and used for the search. Afterwards, it was shipped to the USSR and registered SSSR-N-214 with equal reason Captain Merrill made the transatlantic crossings in sum of two units very different aircraft and for equally different reasons.

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