Clyde Pangborn - Arlington, VA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Clyde Pangborn first learned to fly when he joined the Army Air Service during World War I. The army liked to use their best pilots as trainers, so Pangborn was assigned to Ellington Field in Houston, Texas as a flight instructor where he remained for the duration of the war. He would often show off by flying his Curtiss “Jenny” upside-down thus earning his life-long nickname.

After the war, Clyde Pangborn continued his ‘hot dogging’ as a barnstorming pilot in several traveling flying circus shows. The Great Depression put these barnstorming shows mostly out of business, so Pangborn set his sights on beating Wiley Post’s around the world flight record. In pursuit of this effort, he teamed up with rich playboy Hugh Herndon Jr., a Standard Oil heir, whom he had met while barnstorming.

The attempt to beat Wiley Post failed when Pangborn and Herndon’s Bellanca ‘Skyrocket’ (nicknamed 'Miss Veedol') became bogged down in Siberia. Hoping to salvage something from their flight, Pangborn decided to try to fly non-stop from Japan to the United States. A Japanese newspaper had promised a monetary award to anyone who could successfully complete the flight and several teams had already tried and failed.

The historic flight occurred on October 2, 1931. Pangborn had modified his plane so that the landing gear could be jettisoned after take-off to save weight and reduce drag. An auxiliary tank was installed in the cabin from which extra fuel could be hand-pumped into the wing tanks. They didn’t even bring a radio or any survival equipment. The account of the flight is fascinating but too long to even summarize here. At one point, the engine stalled because Herndon had neglected to pump additional fuel from the auxiliary tank. Pangborn put the plane into a dive, making the propeller ‘windmill’ to restart the engine. The plane eventually landed at Wenatchee, Washington, Pangborn's home town. The propeller which was damaged upon landing, is on display at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and is all that's left of the historic plane. Descriptions of the flight exist online and in books - I would recommend them to anyone who is interested.

In the years following the Trans-Pacific flight, Pangborn made several other note-worthy flights and served as a test pilot for Bellanca. During World War II, he served in both the RAF and the U.S. Air Force. After his death in 1958, he was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
(Sources: wikipedia.com, historynet.com.)

Description: See Long Description above. Date of birth: 10/28/1894 Date of death: 03/29/1958 Area of notoriety: Other Marker Type: Headstone Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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