Wiley Post and Will Rogers.
Lockheed Orion 9E
NR-12283
August 15, 1935
Copyright 2006
By: Don R. Jordan
Here again I'm going to stray somewhat from my
normal aviation accident story telling mode, and tell you the story of
the famous Wiley Post and Will Rogers accident in 1935. The
accident which killed both men, like many accidents, would not have
happened if adequate precautions and a checklist would have been
used prior to flight. By 1935 the two men were perhaps two of the
most well known
celebrities in the nation Their loss was mourned all across
the country. Post was a well known one eyed pilot and explorer,
and Will
Rogers was a famous humorist and newspaper columnist. Post set around
the world flying records twice. Once with Harold Gatty as
navigator, and the second time solo. He also helped to develop
the now standard pressure suit for high altitude flying.
Rogers was famous for his newspaper columns, radio
shows, and his humor. Two of his more famous quotes are, "I never met a
man I didn't like", and "All I know is what I read in the
papers". I was not able to
determine just how the two men met, and just what their association
was, except to say that Rogers wrote columns for a large national
newspaper, and Post could use the publicity for his aerial
adventures. But I think that the two men were genuinely
friends as well. Since this story is about the accident that
killed both of them I won't go any further into their life stories, and
will
instead get right to the accident. itself.
On August 15, 1935 at about 6 p.m. at Malakpi,
Alaska, which is about fifteen miles south of Point Barrow,
Alaska, Post's Orion crashed while attempting to take off from a small
lagoon. The aircraft was a highly modified Lockheed Orion 9E, low
wing monoplane mounted on floats. It was a normal
production model Orion when it was delivered from the Lockheed
factory. However, Post's airplane was actually a
combination of two different airplanes put together at Post's
direction. The wings, and various other parts were salvaged from
a
damaged Lockheed Explorer. Post intended to use the hybrid
airplane to explore a possible airmail
and passenger route over the Alaskan territory. Post had the plane
radically
modified so
that it would be better suited for such long distance flight over
relatively unknown territory
The engine, propeller, wings and fuel tanks were
changed in their entirety. The standard 450 horsepower engine was
replaced with a 550 horsepower Wasp engine. The remodeling work
was inspected and approved
by the Department of Commerce, and the final model was issued a
restricted license number of NR-12283. The restricted license
category allowed the plane to be used only for long distance and
special test flights. Post himself was a certified
transport
pilot with plenty of experience in unconventional types of
aircraft. He had learned to fly very well with the use of only
his one eye.
Earlier in the trip, at Seattle, Washington, Post
had the landing gear removed from the Orion, and installed
pontoons in
their place. In the 1930s there were very few suitable runways in
the Alaska wilderness, but plenty of lakes and rivers. So
therefore if an emergency landing was necessary he felt that they would
have a better chance of survival with the ability to land on
water. The pontoons, or floats, used were not the ones that Post
had ordered. Those had not arrived in time to be installed.
So Post elected to have other floats that were available installed
instead. These news floats were much bigger than the ones
originally ordered for the plane. After the floats were installed
Post did not wait to
have the work inspected or certified. Because of that, he did not
know that the center of gravity had moved even farther forward,
making the
aircraft considerably nose heavy. Being the experienced pilot
that
he was, he would have noticed the different flight and handling
characteristics once the aircraft was in the air. But what he did
not realize was that the nose heavy condition would make the aircraft
nearly impossible to control should the engine fail in flight. To
maintain control under such circumstances the aircraft would have to be
put in a very steep dive to maintain the required flying speed.
The landing and stalling speeds were also greatly
increased.
As long as the engine was running and developing power, Post could
safety control the aircraft.
Will Rogers joined the flight while the
aircraft was still in Seattle being fitted with the floats. Once
that was completed the pair departed for the Alaskan Territory.
The flight from Seattle to
Fairbanks, Alaska was uneventful. At Fairbanks the aircraft was
partially fueled, and then flown to Lake Harding, about forty miles
away. There it was fueled to capacity for the long flight
to Point Barrow. Fairbanks to Point Barrow is approximately
five-hundred miles as the crow flies. Due to the marginal
weather along that route it was not likely that Post made a direct
flight. Point Barrow is also the northernmost point of
land in the Alaskan Territory.
The aircraft departed from Lake Harding sometime
between 1:30, and 2:30 p.m. Aeronautical charts of that part of
the world were either nonexistent, or woefully inaccurate at the
time. Post had to rely on Pilotage to navigate the Orion on the
long trip. Somewhere along the route, Post became lost in
the deteriorating
bad weather. He was not sure of his position, so he chose to make
a precautionary landing on the water in a small, shallow lagoon to get
directions from the native Alaskans he saw on the shoreline.
After landing and shutting the engine down, he discussed his situation
with the natives, and found that they were only fifteen miles south of
Point Barrow. The decision was made to continue on before the
weather forced them to unpack the plane, set up camp, and remain at the
cold
lagoon overnight.
No one really knows what happened next, but there is
much speculation as to why the powerful, and very reliable, Wasp engine
suddenly quit shortly after the Orion left the water on the take off
run. Some think that perhaps the engine cooled down too much
while Post and Rogers conversed with the natives on shore. Then,
at only fifty feet above the water, the carburetor simply iced up and
choked the life out of the engine. However, carburetor ice
generally does not form so suddenly. A gradual loss of power is
normally the symptoms of icing.
Some clues were found in the mangled wreckage of the
Orion itself. Not only did rescuers find the crumpled bodies of
the two men, along with the badly damaged typewriter belonging to Will
Rogers, but they also found that the rear fuel tank was still full of
fuel, and that the front tank was completely emptied of fuel.
Thus, it was further speculated that Post had made the long journey
from Fairbanks on the forward fuel tank, which was by that time nearly
empty. Then he simply forgot to switch to the fuller tank before
take off. As a result when the nose of the aircraft pitched up
during rotation, the fuel port was uncovered, interrupting the flow of
fuel to the engine. If this would have happened in flight, all
the pilot would have to do is switch tanks to restore power to the
engine. But at only fifty feet about the water, there simply
wasn't time for Post to make the switch, and still control the
aircraft. At most he would have had a mere six or seven seconds
to react. There simply was not enough time, or altitude!
History did not record which tank the fuel selector was set to when the
wreckage was finally removed from the water, but this scenario seems as
logical as the next.
Regardless of the reason, when the engine failed
the nose heavy Orion did not have enough airspeed or altitude to
recover. It
hit the water at a forty-five degree angle with the right wing first,
then cartwheeled to destruction. Both occupants were killed
instantly. Wiley Post was only 37 years old, and Will Rogers was
56 years old.
Click here to read the
complete biography of Will Rogers
Click here to go to the Will
Rogers Home Page.
Click here to read the
Wiley Post biography
Click here to
return to the Main Page
Page copyright 2006 by Don R. Jordan
Sources: The official 1935 Bureau of Air Commerce
accident report, and various books and web pages.