I read an interesting story today that I had never heard of previously. It was a contest to fly from California to Hawaii sponsored by James B. Dole. The grand prize was $25,000. Several people died during the attempt. Two planes were lost, The Ms Doran and the Golden Eagle and later a third plane was lost in search of the other two.
Here are a few links:
Dole Air Race on WikipediaHawaii Department of transportation site about the
Dole Derby. They also have a bunch of photos of the day.
Very cool Youtube video about
The Race.
I found something interesting in that one of the participants was a female passenger from Flint Michigan, a Ms Mildred Doran, whom the plane was named after. This plane, the Ms Doran was lost at sea. The others on the flight were a Navy navigator, Lieutenant Vilas R. Knobe, 30, of San Diego, and the pilot John Augie Peddlar.
From a webpage about the story, "The brand-new Aeronautical Branch of the Department of Commerce tried hard to legitimize the race. Inspectors insisted on extra gas tanks, lifeboats, sails, emergency rations and such, as well as orienting the old-fashioned earth-inductor compasses by swinging the planes around on a circle drawn on the ground. No pilot was to fly alone or without a navigator certified by them.". There were also references that all of the navigators on the planes were equipped with sextants and compasses.
An interesting idea yet remote idea to consider is the possibility that the Ms Doran flew far enough South to catch the South Equatorial currents that could have floated survivors over to Gardner. Perhaps it was Ms Dorans bones that were found there and not Amelia Earhart? While admittedly a bit of stretch, it could explain how a female's bones and a sextant box could have ended up on Gardner. This might also explain by the bones would be quite weathered when discovered in 1940, 13 years after the Ms Doran went missing. While the dating of many of the artifacts might not match well, I thought the type of sextant associated with the box might be of the correct era.
In any case, it is a very interesting story about the early aviators and the risks that they took to earn what was at the time a great deal of money in the process.