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Novosibirsk for Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Fairbanks, Edmonton and home.
Homecoming, When Wiley Post started his round-the-world flight two
years ago he was followed across the Atlantic by two men (Hillig
& Hoiriis) in a Bellanca. They wanted to get home to Germany and
Denmark in a blaze of glory. Last week Pilot Post was trailed by another
Bellanca with two glory-seeking Lithuanians, Stephen Darius &
Stanley Girenas. Adventurous barnstormers, they met in the U. S. two
years ago, resolved to fly home to Kovno. To finance the flight they
got scores of Lithuanians to pay $25 or more to have their names
painted on the sides of the plane Lithuanica. Hundreds of others paid
$1 for listing in a "Book of Honor" which was to be taken in
the plane to the Kovno Museum. All was ready last week except one
essential: they had not obtained permission to fly over foreign
countries en route. By Department of Commerce rule they could not take
off. They loaded their ship to the roof with fuel, told the manager
of Floyd Bennett Field they were going up for a "load
test"—which he was powerless to prevent, despite the fact that
they also took food supplies aboard. Groaning under its heavy load, the
plane took all but a few feet of the mile-long runway before staggering
into the air. Two days later at Soldin, 65 mi. from Berlin, were found
the wreck of the Lithuanica, the dead bodies of its pilots. Hopelessly
lost, they had searched through the night for a landing place, until
their fuel ran out.
