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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio hi um Eve's Welcome to This Day in

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Speaker 1: History Class, a show that reveals a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about history day by day. Today is augusteen. The day

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Speaker 1: was August six, nineteen, a flying competition organized by James D. Dole,

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Speaker 1: founder of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, began. Pilots entered the

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Speaker 1: competition in the hopes of winning the prize money and

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Speaker 1: a little fame, but the Doll Air Race, as it

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Speaker 1: was known, began and ended in tragedy. The nineteen twenties

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Speaker 1: were still the early days of airplane aviation. Navigation was

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Speaker 1: a rudimentary and safety standards were nowhere near where they

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Speaker 1: are today. People had already completed non stop cross ocean flights.

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Speaker 1: In May of ninete, just three months before the Dole

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Speaker 1: Air Race, Charles Lindbergh took the first solo NonStop transatlantic

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Speaker 1: flight from New York to Paris. Driven by Limburgh's accomplishment,

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Speaker 1: James D. Dole set up an air race for pilots

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Speaker 1: to fly from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii. He offered

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Speaker 1: twenty five thousand dollars to the pilot who made it

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Speaker 1: Their first and ten thousand dollars to the person who

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Speaker 1: came in second place. Not long after Dole offered the

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Speaker 1: prizes for the trip, two Army pilots successfully foot from

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Speaker 1: Oakland to Oahu, but Dole's prize for making the trip

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Speaker 1: from Oakland to Honolulu still stood. Thirty three people entered

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Speaker 1: the competition and fourteen entrants were chosen for starting positions

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Speaker 1: after inspections. The competition, though, was off to a bad

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Speaker 1: start even before the air race was scheduled to take place.

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Speaker 1: Lieutenants George Walter, Daniel Kobo, and Richard Stokely Wagner left

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Speaker 1: North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego on August

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Speaker 1: ten headed for Oakland Field. Less than fifteen minutes later,

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Speaker 1: they ran into heavy fog and crashed into cliffs. Both

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Speaker 1: of the officers died. British aviator Arthur Vickers was out

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Speaker 1: for a test fight when his plane crashed not long

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Speaker 1: after takeoff from Montebello, California. On August eleven, another airplane

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Speaker 1: called Miss Dorin had to make an emergency landing after

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Speaker 1: having engine trouble, and the Pride of Los Angeles, on

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Speaker 1: his way to Oakland, crashed into the San Francisco Bay.

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Speaker 1: The people and those two airplanes were not hurt. By

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Speaker 1: August six, eight planes and fifteen competitors were left in

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Speaker 1: the running. That morning, they all lined up ready for

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Speaker 1: takeoff in front of a crowd of around a hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand people. Their starting positions were selected by a random draw.

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Speaker 1: The Oklahoma was the first plane to take off, but

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Speaker 1: it soon had engine trouble and its flight had to

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Speaker 1: be aborted. L in Conto did not even make it

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Speaker 1: to take off. The PEPCOD Flyer crashed on takeoff after

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Speaker 1: lifting into the air briefly, only to crash again after

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Speaker 1: a second attempt. Nobody on board these planes were hurt.

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Speaker 1: The Golden Eagle took off without issue. The airplane Miss

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Speaker 1: Dorn took off, returned after engine trouble, and later took

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Speaker 1: off again successfully. Dallas Spirit, carrying pilot William Portwood Irwin

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Speaker 1: and navigator Alvin Hanford I Walt took off but returned

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Speaker 1: to Oakland soon after. The planes Aloha and wool Rock

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Speaker 1: took off without a hitch. Only two planes made it

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Speaker 1: to Hawaii, a low haw and will Rock. Wool Rock

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Speaker 1: arrived after a twenty six hour and seventeen minute flight,

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Speaker 1: and Aloha made it after twenty eight hours in sixteen minutes.

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Speaker 1: The other two that took off successfully, Golden Eagle and

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Speaker 1: MS Dorin, disappeared and their crew were never found. Irwin

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Speaker 1: and ike Walt repaired their plane, Dallas Spirit, and went

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Speaker 1: to assist in the search for the disappeared planes. They

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Speaker 1: also disappeared and were never heard from again. Four competitors

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Speaker 1: had completed the race, but ten people had died. The

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Speaker 1: first trans Pacific flight was completed in nineteen and Clyde

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Speaker 1: Pangborn and Hugh Herndon flew the first NonStop trans specific

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Speaker 1: flight in nineteen thirty one. I'm Eves Jeffcote and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. And if you'd like to follow us on

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Speaker 1: social media, you can find us at t D I

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Speaker 1: h C podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Tune in

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for Another Day in History. For more podcasts from

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