WRIGHT
BROTHERS Aeroplane Company
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Cal convalesced in Pasadena, Charlie Taylor and other members of the Vin
Fiz crew rebuilt the airplane. On December 10, with both ankles
encased in plaster casts, Cal Rodgers hobbled out to the gleaming white Vin
Fiz in a field near Compton. He checked that the bottle of Vin Fiz was
secure, lashed his crutches to the struts, and climbed aboard. The crew
swung the propellers, the motor roared to life, and Cal Rodgers flew 12
miles to Long Beach where 50,000 people had assembled to cheer him as he
dipped the wheels of his airplane in the Pacific Ocean.
He had flown 4, 231 miles in 84 days, spending 82 hours in the air and traveling at an average ground speed of 52 miles per hour. He had consumed 1,230 gallons of gasoline, and had replaced every part on his airplane at least once with the exception of the rudder and a single strut. The adventure had cost the Armour Meat-Packing Company $180,000. The $50,000 Hearst prize went unclaimed; William Randolph Hearst never even sent the aviator a note of congratulations. And none of that seemed to matter. Cal Rodgers had done something important. More to the point, he had given something important to the thousands of people who watched him fly and the millions who had followed his flight in the newspapers. Even a century later, it's hard to explain just what he gave of himself, but it was undeniably precious when you consider the fervor with which it was received. Perhaps it's best explained with one last anecdote from the historic account of the Vin Fiz. While Cal was laid over in the little whistle stop of Kyle, Texas as his crew waited for parts to repair the Vin Fiz engine, he had them assemble a Wright Model B they had brought with them. It was the same airplane he had bought to make his first solo flight when he couldn't wait to get into the air. Cal offered to take any of the assembled spectators aloft for $5. There were no takers. "One dollar?" asked Cal, incredulous. "Fifty cents? Two bits?" An eleven-year-old boy stepped out of the crowd and handed Cal a quarter. Cal hoisted Newt Millhollon into the passenger seat of the Model B and gave him back his quarter. "This one is a gift," he told the boy. "A gift of flight � the sky and the wind. You will see your whole town, the fields around it. You will know a different world. Now that is a gift to remember." |
Click on a
photo to enlarge it. After his crash in Compton, Cal recuperated in Pasadena, nursed back to health by the attentions of his wife Mabel (right) and his mother Maria Sweitzer (left).
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