Colonel George R. Hutchinson (February 11, 1902 - August 21, 1989 [1] ) was an American aviator and media personality of the 1930s.
Colonel George R. Hutchinson (February 11, 1902 - August 21, 1989 [1] ) was an American aviator and media personality of the 1930s.
George Hutchinson was working as a bank teller in Baltimore, Maryland when he married Blanche Delcher (1902 - October 24, 1995 [2] ) in 1922. In 1928 he co-financed William Penn Airport (later Boulevard Airport, closed in 1951) [3] near Philadelphia, where he gave flying lessons and joyflights.
In 1930, Hutchinson bought a Lockheed Sirius monoplane he named Richmond, Virginia after his home town, trading in his smaller Stinson Junior as part of the purchase. He intended to use the Sirius, a sleek single-seat aircraft, to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a faster time than Charles Lindbergh had in 1927. However, before he could begin his attempt, he crashed the aircraft in Los Angeles. The Richmond, Virginia was sold to recover debts and was eventually to be rebuilt as the Altair Lady Southern Cross . [4]
In 1931, George, Blanche and daughters Kathryn and Janet Hutchinson (1925 [5] - ) became nationwide celebrities as the Flying Hutchinsons, when they visited the capitals of all 48 United States by air. [6] Further fame came when 'the Flying Family' attempted an around-the-world flight the next year; their Sikorsky S-38 aircraft crash-landed off Greenland, and the family were stranded for several days before being picked up by a fishing trawler and transported to the United Kingdom. [2] George and Blanche wrote two books about their adventures - The Flying Family in Greenland (1935) and Flying the States (1937) - and the family were pictured on cereal boxes and made appearances on stage and radio. [2]
In 1939, the family attempted another around-the-world flight in a Lockheed Electra. The stated aim of this flight was to carry a scroll with a message of peace to the '68 nations of the world' (sic), but this flight only made it as far as Mexico before it was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. [7] Despite the early cancellation of the flight, an NBC radio dramatisation was subsequently produced, starring the family themselves. [8]
During World War II, at the age of 18, Janet Hutchinson became a WASP and flight instructor. [5]
After the war, the family settled into relative obscurity in Ruxton, Maryland. After George's death in 1989, Blanche and her daughters retired to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. [9]
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The Lockheed Model 9 Orion is a single-engined passenger aircraft built in 1931 for commercial airlines. It was the first airliner to have retractable landing gear and was faster than any military aircraft of that time. Designed by Richard A. von Hake, it was the last wooden monoplane design produced by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation.
Wiley Hardeman Post was a famed American aviator during the interwar period and the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high-altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits and discovered the jet stream. On August 15, 1935, Post and American humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post's aircraft crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow in the Territory of Alaska.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1929:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1949:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1954:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1976:
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Pacific Western Airlines Ltd (PWA) was an airline that operated scheduled flights throughout western Canada and charter services around the world from the 1950s through the 1980s.
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United Airlines Flight 297 was a scheduled flight from Newark International Airport to Atlanta that crashed 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Baltimore on November 23, 1962, killing all 17 people on board. An investigation concluded that the aircraft, a Vickers Viscount 745D turboprop airliner, had struck at least two whistling swans, which caused severe damage to the plane, resulting in a loss of control.
The Lockheed Altair was a single-engined sport aircraft of the 1930s. It was a development of the Lockheed Sirius with a retractable undercarriage, and was the first Lockheed aircraft and one of the first aircraft designs with a fully retractable undercarriage.
A government contract flight is a type of charter airline operation contracted with a government agency.
Tingmissartoq was the name given to a Lockheed Model 8 Sirius flown by Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh in the 1930s. Tingmissartoq means "one who flies like a big bird"; the plane was thus christened by an Inuit boy in Godthaab (Nuuk), Greenland, who painted the word on its side.
The Lady Southern Cross was a Lockheed Altair monoplane owned by Australian pioneer aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
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Maryland's first aeronautical event was the flight of 13-year-old Edward Warren from Baltimore in Peter Carne's tethered hot air balloon in 1784.
Camden Central Airport is a defunct airport in Pennsauken Township, Camden County, New Jersey. It had its peak of activity in the 1930s, serving as the main airport for the neighboring city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
