Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The First Trans-Pacific Flight

Maitland_hegenberger

Brother Charles Lindbergh's first flight across the Atlantic in 1927 made him world famous. Lesser known, however is the flight of Brothers Lester J. Maitland and Albert F. Hegenberger just a few weeks later. Together, they completed the first trans-Pacific flight from California to Hawaii in what is seen as a greater navigational feat. Although Lindbergh garnered all the notoriety (and, along with it, tragedy) Maitland, a member of Kenwood Lodge 303 in Milwaukee, went on to a successful military and aeronautics career and eventually became an Episcopal minister. Hegenberger, a Mason, Knight Templar and Shriner, was an attorney who went on to a political career serving as Mayor of Oklahoma City from 1939-1947.

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