Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05
DECADE Wells FEAT
OF FIRST SEA HOP
Atlantic Flight of NC-4 Hail
ed as Outstanding Air
Triumph.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The tenth anniversary of the first
transatlantic flight, achieved by the
NC-4 in May, 1919, will pass into avia-
ton history without any spectacular
demonstration from an air-minded
world to mark it.
Aviation historians however, recog-
nize it as one of the outstanding trl-
llmphs of aeronautics, surprising in i'm
portance many other flights which re-
ceived more general public recognition
No official observance of the history
making venture is planned by the Navy
or by the aviators, now scattered, who
made the fight.
The hull of the first successful trans
atlantic plane rests in a remote corner
of the Smithsonian Institution. The
wings of the great ship are stored away
in an obscure section of the naval air
craft factory at Philadelphia.
Movement Is Failure.
Attempts to obtain a suitable museum
building in which the famous but now
almost forgotten plane might spread her
wings in full glory failed years ago.
The ship which carried six men in
safety from New York to Plymouth,
England, by way of the Azores, on one
of the best plarned flights in history,
awaits better day in which to claim
her just reward.
Her gallant crew and the men who
designed and built her continue to work
out the problems of naval aviation, eX-
cept for one or two who have dropped
from the ranks.
Comdr. Albert C. Read, commanding
officer of the NC-4-the only one OF the
three planes which completed the trans
atlantic fiight-has been named eXecu-
tive officer of the aircraft carrier Sara
toga. the giant floating nest" for the
Nays planes at sea.
Comdr. John H. Towers, who COM
manded the flight and was navigator
of the NC-3. which was forced out OF
the race at the Azores, becomes assist
ant chief of the Bureau OF Aeronautlcs
through a recent appointment.
Enters Civil Aviation.
Capt. H. c. Richardson, credited with
the design of the NC planes hulls and
pilot of the NC-3, leaves the Navy this
month to enter civil aviation ais an eX-
pert designer. His ideas dominated the
design of a long line of Navy hylng
boats which recognize no superior.
Lieut.. Walter K. Hinton, who, win
Lieut.. Elmer F. Stone, piloted the sue
cessful NC-4, is head of an aviation
correspondence school here. Lieut.
Stone is stationed at the Wilmington,
N. c., Coast Guard station.
Ensign Herbert c. Rodd, the radio
operator who kept in communication
with other planes in the trio and with
ships at sea during the fight, is in the
Nays Bureau of Engineering in WASH
ington. Lieut.. j. G. Breese, the pilot
engineer, left the Navy to become head
of a Chicago engineering corporation:
while his assistant, E. S. Rhoans, chiet
machinist's mate, is stationed at the
Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.
The three NC planes, built not for
conscious attempt to be first to span the
Atlantic, but as an answer to the World
War submarine menace, are bigger than
any planes now flying in the United
States.
They had a wing span of 126 feet,
demonstrated their ability to carry 81
men on a single fight-still record
and carried six men on their historic
fight to Europe. No plane since the
NC-4 has carried six men on a trans
atlantic fight.