Rodgers, Calbraith P.
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 Calbraith P. Rodgers in 1911 |
Calbraith (usually reported as Galbraith) Perry Rodgers lived for several years in Dayton, Ohio. On September 27, 1911, Rodgers boarded his airplane, the Vin Fiz, and attempted to make the first transcontinental flight across North America. He departed from Sheepshead Bay, New York. The flight took Rodgers forty-nine days, with him eventually arriving at Pasadena, California, on November 5, 1911. Rodgers only spent eighty-two hours, two minutes in the air. He averaged just fifty-two miles per hour on the 4,321-mile flight. Most of the time, Rodgers remained on the ground repairing his aircraft. Rodgers and the Vin Fiz crashed sixteen times, but the pilot and the plane were the first ones to fly across North America.
Rodgers