The Flight
Waitkus arrived at Floyd Bennett Field in New York in May 1935. Up until then, no pilots were able to fly over the Atlantic due to poor weather conditions, and so he had to wait until the chief meteorologist gave him a favorable weather report. It was not until four months later, on the evening of September 20, he was informed that the weather along his route had improved where conditions were average with no major changes expected in the next 24 hours. Encouraged with this news, Waitkus decided to fly.
The next day, September 21, at 6:45 in the morning, Lituanica II was headed for Europe. Unfortunately, Waitkus had to fight the worst possible weather conditions, flying through rain, fog, and icing conditions, so that most of his navigation had to be by his new radio compass. More than once he noticed ice forming on the wings and had to descend to a lower altitude until it all thawed off. Waitkus was helped considerably by hourly broadcasts from an Irish radio station. He learned that Dublin was fogged in, as well as all areas heading east as far as the Baltic Sea. He knew that he could not make it to Kaunas due to his low fuel supply, and being exhausted after a 23-hour struggle fighting the elements, he felt it was best to come down somewhere in Ireland.
He spotted an open field in Cloongowla at Ballinrobe, County Mayo and came down, with the aircraft suffering extensive damage. He was lucky to be alive without suffering any injuries. Lituanica II was crated for shipment to Lithuania, where it would be restored. By ship and by train he made his way to Kaunas where he was given a hero’s welcome.
The only one to fly across the North Atlantic in 1935 was Felix Waitkus, and even though he came down in Ireland and not in Kaunas, he was entered in aviation’s history books for being the sixth pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic.
He was recalled to active duty in the Army Air Corps in 1940, serving as the chief test pilot at the Boeing Aircraft Co. in Seattle, testing hundreds of B-17 and B-29 bombers. He was recalled again to serve in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War.
He died of a heart attack while stationed at Wiesbaden, Germany on July 25, 1956 at the age of 49. His body was shipped home and interred in his wife’s family plot in the Kohler Cemetery at Sheboygan, Wisconsin. At the time of his passing he held the rank of lieutenant Colonel.
Read more about this topic: Feliksas Vaitkus
Famous quotes containing the word flight:
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)