Flying - and sailing - to Hawaii

[NutmegCT]

Navy guys probably already know this story, but I just discovered it.

In 1925, USN Cdr John Rodgers and crew of four, flew their trusty (experimental) PN-9 from California to Hawaii. Two other planes in the adventure weren't able to finish.

Near Hawaii, Rodgers' PN-9 ran out of fuel, landed on the water, and became a boat.

The crew ripped off fabric from the wings to make sails to catch the wind; a crewman rigged up a rudder, and they sailed toward the nearest island, Kauai.

Lost for over a week (their radio transmitter operated only when flying), they were found by a US submarine, which towed them to the nearest harbor.

By coincidence, Rodgers had been commander of the US sub base in Canal Zone, and in New London Connecticut, before becoming a USN pilot. (He was taught to fly by Orville Wright, who signed Rodgers' pilot license).

The a/c just after rescue:

Rodgers and crew, back on terra firma:

I'm doing research for an author writing a book on Rodgers, and discovered many long-forgotten parts of his life.

More on the story:

Bio from U.S. Navy

Commander John Rodgers – Third Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics Provided by the U.S. Navy History Center, Biographies Branch Commander Rodgers was born in Washington, D.C. on 15 January 1881, son of Rear Admiral and Mrs. John A. (Perry) Rodgers. He was descended from a long line of...

aviation.hawaii.gov

Tom M.

 

[LarryK]

It is amazing how things could be improvised until the 80s and without having a media piece to figure it out. We were survivors and it seems nobody can inherit or learn. Like the Marines, improvise do or die!

 

[waltesefalcon]

Flying from the mainland to Hawaii was extremely hazardous in the early days of flight. The USN used flying boats to help mitigate that danger, because, as you've learned running out of fuel in a flying boat is not always the end of the world, whereas it is in a standard aircraft. the other thing the Navy did was to send chase ships out along the course to be flown to remain in radio contact with the aircraft and attempt to track the aircraft.

In 1919 a USN Curtis NC-4 crossed the Atlantic commanded by Albert Read. He and his crew were the first to do so by air, but it took them something like three weeks to cross due to the number of stops they made along the way.

Interestingly one USN officer aboard one of the chase ships for Read's flight was Phillip Van Horn Weems, who was a navigator and became very interested in avigation after witnessing Read's flight. He began looking for better techniques for avigation and founded his school in the mid twenties. He taught Charles Lindbergh (Lindbergh didn't learn until a year after his transatlantic crossing), Wiley Post, Harold Gatty (who would become a frequent collaborator with Weems), Howard Hughes, Richard Byrd, Fred Noonan, and countless Naval aviators avigation. He invented the second setting watch, and star altitude curve charts. He also improved bubble sextant, navigational plotters (as in Weems and Plath plotters) designing the Mk II plotter himself, and other navigational tools.

If Rodgers and his crew had been trained by Weems then perhaps they would have successfully made it to Hawaii. Unfortunately the USN brass were slow to adapt and adopt Weems techniques, and for much of the thirties he operated his avigation school as a civilian, not returning to service until WWII. During the war he helped develop celestial navigation simulator for the military. He would go on to adapt his methods of navigation for NASA in the 1960s which would be used during the Apollo program, and he founded the Institute of Navigation.

 

[NutmegCT]

The Rodgers flights were calculated to use the eastern winds which usually push ships westward toward Hawaii. Unfortunately, those winds didn't happen, and the extra 200 gallons Rodgers carried wasn't enough to get them to Hawaii.

By the way, Rodgers actually taught navigation early on, and was known as "Navigatin' John" for his skills and knowledge.

Fortunately, USN had stationed navy ships every 200 miles from California to Hawaii; they carried avgas "just in case". Unfortunately, Rodgers ran out of fuel *after* passing the last ship. Without radio ability to transmit, they couldn't reach anyone. They were reported as "lost" for over a week after they didnt' show up in Hawaii.

 

[waltesefalcon]

The Rodgers flights were calculated to use the eastern winds which usually push ships westward toward Hawaii. Unfortunately, those winds didn't happen, and the extra 200 gallons Rodgers carried wasn't enough to get them to Hawaii.

By the way, Rodgers actually taught navigation early on, and was known as "Navigatin' John" for his skills and knowledge.

Fortunately, USN had stationed navy ships every 200 miles from California to Hawaii; they carried avgas "just in case". Unfortunately, Rodgers ran out of fuel *after* passing the last ship. Without radio ability to transmit, they couldn't reach anyone. They were reported as "lost" for over a week after they didnt' show up in Hawaii.

Yes, running out of fuel after the last tender ship was bad luck. For Rodgers. Navigation in the 20s was not nearly as accurate as it would quickly become. Using the methods available in 1925 could find a plot that was as many as ten to fifteen miles off.

Rodgers relied on the use of radio compasses and dead reckoning. His plane, PN-9 no.1 was not only not getting the assistance from the wind that they had thought to get, it was also consuming more fuel than originally planned as one engine was not running as well as it had on the shakedown flight.

At some point as Rodgers knew he would have to refuel he reckoned his course as only slightly north of the plotted flight line. The tender Aroostook's radio compass reading placed him miles to the south. While looking for the Aroostook Rodgers ran out of fuel and had to make a landing.

The radio became useless on the water due to its antenna being one designed trail behind the plane in flight.

So Rodgers could not radio for help, by this time he was miles and miles off course having diverted to look for the Aroostook. So, he and his men had to set about turning their air plane into a sail plane, and begin sailing for Hawaii.

 

[NutmegCT]

Walt - what source(s) do you have for all the details? Sounds like you've done some study on that flight history.

 

[waltesefalcon]

Walt - what source(s) do you have for all the details? Sounds like you've done some study on that flight history.

Tom, you have stumbled into a hobby of mine. Aviation history and particularly Naval aviation are a couple of my favorites. I have over the years accumulated a small library of journal articles, magazine articles, and websites pertaining to this subject. Currently I am expanding my library with some Weems related stuff, a first edition of his Air Navigation which I purchased from ebay last week. I am also look to find a decent Longines Weems Second Setting wrist watch.

In regards to John Rodgers, here are my internet sources:
"1925 Flight to Hawaii." Hawaii Aviation. > 1925 Flight to Hawaii < (This is probably the best internet source).
"The First Navy Pacific Flight." Hawaii Aviation.

John Rodgers

The First Navy Pacific Flight By Commander John Rodgers As told to the National Aeronautics Association, October 9, 1925 in New York (Commander John Rodgers, USN, on August 31 in the PN-9 Seaplane (2 Packard 500 hp engines) flew 1,992 statute miles from San Pablo, California to a point near...

aviation.hawaii.gov

The Smithsonian has some good collections of photos in their online collections and has some brief write ups.

These are print sources I have:
Ryan, Jason. "Ten Days Lost at Sea: The First Flight (and Voyage) to Hawaii." Naval History Magazine Vol. 33, No. 1 (February 2019).
Geoghegan, John. "Nonstop to Hawaii by Air and Sea." Aviation History (March 2014).

 

[waltesefalcon]

I completely left out:

A History of U.S. Naval Aviation by Capt. W. H. Sitz, USMC.

It was first published in 1930 but has a lot of good information on aviation in the time period, and devotes an entire chapter about the USN Transatlantic flight. There is also an entire chapter dedicated to Curtiss and the development of the first seaplanes.

It doesn't have anything on John Rodgers.

I can go dig up a few more if you'd like.

 

[NutmegCT]

Thanks Walt. You have the same sources I have - great minds ... etc.

Two others on that PN-9 flight:

Horvat's "Above the Pacific".
Messimer's "No Margin for Error".

Say, do you have access to the Naval Academy's Shipmate archive? Our museum joined, but we still can't access the digitized issues. I need the April 1939 article on the Rodgers flight.

Thanks.
Tom M.

 

[waltesefalcon]

Tom, do you know the name of the Shipmates article?

 

[NutmegCT]

The 1939 article is "The Rodgers Flight to Honolulu".