The first seaplane flight across the Atlantic

The first seaplane non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean and incidentally the first transoceanic flight ever made successfully in which a woman was a passenger, started from Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland on the morning of June 17th 1928. In  the face of unfavorable weather warnings and after several abortive attempts. The plane, a tri-motored Fokker monoplane of conventional design, equipped with extra size duralumin pontoons made by the Junkers corporation at the Dessau, Germany plane, had been thoroughly tested,  first by test pilots of t he Atlantic Aircraft Corporation at Teterboro Airdrome, Hasbroak Heights, N.J. and again by Wilmer Stultz who flew the plane on the long hop, from the waters of  Boston Harbour off Squantum Mass.

Built originally for Commander Byrd to use on his South Pole Expedition, the plane was turned over to a company formed for the purpose of making a Transatlantic flight with a pontoon equipped plane backed by the Honorable Mrs. Frederick Guest, wife of Captain Guest, former British Secretary of State for Air. Mrs. Guest had planned to make the flight herself, but circumstances arose which made this impossible and through the American publisher, George Palmer Putman, Mrs. Guest arranged to have Miss Amelia Earhart, Boston social service worker, and armature flier with more than 500 hours solo to her credit, to take her place in the  plane. Miss Earhart planned to take the stick herself during the flight, but conditions over the Atlantic were far from suitable for an amateur flier inexperienced with big planes. Stultz was at the controls during the greater part of the crossing, leaving them to Louis (Slim) Gordon, mechanic and emergency pilot, while he worked the radio. Miss Earhart spent her time in the after  cabin  behind the big gasoline tank except for brief periods when because of the cold she crawled forward to the dual control cockpit for warmth.

From the scattered and meager data available at this time, three things stand out  in this particular flight. First perhaps, in order of importance is the repeated vindication of the suitability of multimotored planes for such an expedition coming as soon as it has upon the heels of the trimotored Fokker flight to  Australia. Second the clear substantiation of the theory of meteorologists that east winds and low pressure at the surface does not necessarily mean prevailing east winds higher up. As soon as  the lessening weight of the big ship permitted Stultz pushed it first to  5000 and  then as high as 11000 feet. The Friendship made the 2000 miles from Trepassy Bay to the coast of Wales in 20 hours and 40 minutes. A slight southward  deviation in the course as Stultz followed it probably added two or three hundred extra miles to the distance as measured on the great circle course. The cruising speed of the  Fokker trimotor equipped with 200 horsepower Wright Whirlwind engines and hampered to a certain extent by the big pontoons is between eighty  and ninety miles an hour.

To recapitulate: The Friendship took off from the waters of Boston Harbour on the morning of June 3rd bound  for Newfoundland. The ship with a total load including Lou Gower, another emergency pilot who was to go as  far as Trepassey, weighed about 12,000 pounds and try as he might Stultz couldn't get her off the water. Gower stepped into an attending motor boat and the  plane got away. Stultz encountered fog on the Nova Scotion Coast and  put into Halifax for the night. The next day they flew on to Newfoundland.

Ten days passed before suitable weather was in prospect and then it was not good  enough to be  classed without qualification as "favorable". During the tedious wait Stultz carried out more load tests. Cross winds prevented a take-off on one occasion and the lack of wind at all held the pontoons fast in the  water on another attempt. On the morning of June 17th at 09:51 Eastern Standard Time after three more failures to rise because of little help from the wind and throwing over more fuel the Friendship got away. Her total load was then between10,000 and 11,000 pounds.

Although clear weather prevailed at Trepassey within an hour the plane nosed into fog, then snow and hail. This continued for a  hundred miles or more and then for a short period the Friendship had clear weather, but only for a little while. From this point on, all the way across it was fog and rain with now and then snow for variety. Like Commander Byrd and his crew after the start Miss Earhart and her shipmates saw no ocean until close to t he British Isles.

Nor were they seen from the water until they came close over the S.S. America, seventy five miles east of Cork (Queenstown) after they had missed Ireland entirely, to get bearings. Stultz turned northward after sighting and circling the steamer and an hour and forty minutes later, after circling the town of Burry Port and narrowly escaping disaster against the tall stack of a zinc refinery, he landed in  the estuary, tied out to a buoy and demanded "gas" of the skipper of a tinny patrol boat that put out to the plane from shore.

They wanted to go on to Southampton at  once when  informed that they had already crossed or had flown around Ireland, but hospitable Welsh people prevailed upon them to come ashore and spend the night. The next day they flew on to Southampton where a typical Transatlantic reception committee headed by the dignitaries of the town and representatives of the nation met them.  While Stultz and Gordon had purposely remained in the background contenting themselves with  wandering around London and side trips to Croydon, Miss Earhart had been entertained and feted by official Britain as well as  distinguished citizens of the Empire and the Aeronautical world.