The communities of Wenatchee Wa,
Misawa Japan, Pangborn and
Herndon descendants gather to watch
the first flight in May 2003.
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The crowd cheers as the new
Miss Veedol roars into the air for the
first time. A sound last heard in the
Wenatchee Valley 72 years earlier
when the original landed in 1931.
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Plans are underway to re-enact the first
non stop flight across the Pacific!
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The Spirit of Wenatchee is a non profit organization of EAA
Chapter 424 pilots. We have taken on the ambitious project of
recreating the historic flight of Clyde Pangborn and Hugh
Herndon Jr. This flight just as done in 1931 will be non-stop
5,000 plus mile Pacific crossing. The Spirit of Wenatchee has
built a replica of the 1931 Bellanca J-300 Special the Miss
Veedol. Bringing recognition back to Pangborn and Herndon
whom history nearly forgot has fueled the project.
On the 1931 flight from Misawa, Japan to Wenatchee,
Washington, in order to increase range, Pangborn and
Herndon dropped their landing gear over the Pacific Ocean
belly landing in Wenatchee.
In accomplishing our goal, we hope to involve the Wenatchee
community, the community of Misawa, Japan, the world aviation
community, and anyone who finds this project interesting.
Join us we are going to make history!
TRIBUTE TO AVIATION HISTORY
A time in aviations rich history when records were set, fame was sought and men
pushed fear aside to attempt the imposable. Pilots with nerves of steel like
Pangborn, Herndon, Post, Gatty, Turner, Lindbergh, Earhart. Doolittle, Hughes, and
many others put there lives on the line to push aviation to the limit and push the
world into a new exciting frontier.
The Spirit of Wenatchee is about bringing this history back to life so people today
and future generations can see, feel, hear, and smell roaring 30s aviation first hand.
TRIBUTE TO PANGBORN, HERNDON
Spirit of Wenatchee
One of the driving forces behind this project is the fact that Pangborn and Herndons
transpacific flight has been nearly lost in history. The Pacific crossing of 41 hours 15
minutes was nearly twice the distance flown by Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic
just 4 years earlier. An accomplishment not repeated for 3 decades until jet airliners
came in to service.
Spirit of Wenatchee Non-Stop Pacific crossing
October 5th, 1931
Moments after landing the
41 hour 15 minute
transpacific flight in
Wenatchee. Note: Clyde
left his boots in Japan,
just un-needed weight.
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Test pilots Dave Stadler (near) and Arnie
Clarke prepare to taxi for the first flight
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A LEGEND IS RE-BORN THE MISS
VEEDOL 1931 BELLANCA J-300 SPECIAL
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LINKS
Miss Veedol Home Base
Thanks for continued support by the
Special thanks to Ross Smyth and the Canadian Aviation Historical Society for
coordinating, fund raising, and allot of work that went in to allowing the Miss Veedol to
celebrate the 75th anniversary of Canadian Erroll Boyd's trans-Atlantic crossing in
Bellanca WB-2 Columbia (also named the Maple Leaf) in 1930. She visited the
Toronto Aerospace Museum, the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, Montreal's St.
Hubert Airport, and Charlottetown, PEI.
She flew all the way to St. John's, Newfoundland a near 3,000 mile journey, and on to
Harbour Grace, the famous air strip that was the takeoff point for many trans-Atlantic
flights in the 1920s and 1930s.
Spirit of Wenatchee members praise our Canadian friends up North!
The Miss Veedol flies over a water tank
dedicated to her near home base in
Wenatchee Washington, June 2006.
