This flight fizzled

FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2021-180 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (September 16, 2021) – In Issue 2021-180 of Steve Kovacs Fun with Maps, crash landings are the order of the day. Word of advice: Don’t fly with that guy.

FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL FLIGHT BEGINS

One hundred ten years ago today (1911), pilot Cal Rodgers left New York City on the flight of a lifetime.

Rodgers was the first private citizen to buy a Wright airplane and had logged only 60 hours of flight time before heading west.  Hoping to win a $50,000 prize posted by newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst by completing the flight in under 30 days, inexperience led the young daredevil to underestimate the task ahead of him. 

With no controls or instruments and his trip sponsored by naming his plane after a new grape soda drink, Rodgers flew 100 miles the first leg.  It took 3 weeks to reach Chicago but he was determined to finish the task.

After 70 stops along the way, including 15 crash landings, many repairs and hospital visits, the Vin Fiz landed in Pasadena on November 5th.  19 days late – your flight delay doesn’t look so bad now!

Here is the first aerial photomap of Pasadena from 1922; only the second such map ever made of a US city.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Antique Maps & Fun Facts here on Loveland Beacon.