Complex sentence: In 1927, Lieutenant Hegenberger and Lieutenant Lester J. Maitland were the first to fly 2,400 miles from California to Hawaii, the longest open sea flight to date, in the "Bird of Paradise", a standard Fokker-Atlantic C-2 transport aircraft.
Split into simpler sentences: In 1927, Lieutenant Hegenberger and Lieutenant Lester J. Maitland were the first to fly 2,400 miles from California to Hawaii, the longest open sea flight to date. They flew in the "Bird of Paradise", a standard Fokker-Atlantic C-2 transport aircraft.