The fabric also served another purpose, the crew using it to fashion sails, the airplane’s ailerons and rudder assisting with steering. In this the men fortuitously received water from Mother Nature, catching several quarts in fabric torn from the wings. Over the course of the men’s time adrift, the dwindling water supply became the biggest threat to their welfare. When the PN-9 landed, rations on board included 12 sandwiches, 10 quarts of water, 2 quarts of coffee, 3 pounds of hard tack, and 6 pounds of canned corned beef. An excellent landing was made, the plane never leaving the water after first striking it.” Little did they know that the floating aircraft would be their home for the next nine days. He “landed the plane under the most difficult conditions- no power, high seas, and very little wind. Rodgers had no choice but to order the pilot, Lieutenant Byron J. However, despite receiving radio bearings from the ship, the PN-9 was beset by poor visibility as it passed through rain squalls. Rodgers and his crew passed in close proximity of the first series of station ships, at which time they noted their fuel supply was dwindling quicker than expected, prompting a decision to land near the seaplane tender Aroostook (CM 3) to refuel. While there were station vessels positioned along the route, a report of potential forced landing situations made before the flight noted that the number of ships was smaller than that employed in the flight of the NC-4 and highlighted how difficult it had been to locate two airplanes forced down during that flight. The flight between California and Hawaii to which Commander John Rodgers was assigned command would demonstrate the capabilities of naval aircraft.Īs the afternoon and evening of August 31st gave way to midnight and the dawning of September 1, 1925, Rodgers’ PN-9 maintained its course westward. Moffett, fiercely guarded the Navy’s control over its own aviation assets. The Navy’s Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, Rear Admiral William A. military, particularly with respect to whether the nation needed an independent air force, a leading proponent of which was Army Air Service Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell. It was also an era of transition in the U.S. Yet, the aircraft carrier was in its infancy, and seaplanes remained the backbone of naval aviation. By that time, the flying force was much different than the one he had departed, having fought a world war and also commissioned a revolutionary fighting ship. He remained out of the cockpit for a decade, serving in battleships, submarines, and other surface craft, not returning to aviation until 1922. Yet, by 1912 he was out of aviation, the Navy’s requirement for sea duty for promotion prompting Rodgers’ return to the fleet. Trained by the Wright brothers in 1911, he served at the first aviation encampments at North Island, California, and Greenbury Point, Maryland. The second officer designated a naval aviator, he was the scion of one of the most distinguished naval families in America, his ancestors having fought in the War of 1812 and the Civil War. If not for the rigidity of the Navy’s bureaucracy, Rodgers may have well been on one of the NC flying boats in 1919. Read had done in the NC-4 over the Atlantic, Commander John Rodgers hoped to be the only plane to reach the goal of bridging ocean waters and reaching his destination. Then, 300 miles off the coast of California, another one of the flying boats, the PN-9 Number 3, made a forced landing, the destroyer William Jones (DD 308) rendering assistance. As was the case with the Navy’s transatlantic flight in May 1919, three planes had been earmarked to make the journey, and mirroring the events of six years earlier, problems arose, with one plane unable to even begin the flight due to mechanical difficulties.
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