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A first)ixie Clipper completes first transatlantic passenger flight New York to LisbonPortugal, June 29,1939. (Boeing B-314}By Gordon DysartintroductionThe author is a private pilot who has also traveled onthe international airlines formany years in his business. He became interested in the adventures of early day flying, and did considerable research to obtain the information in this story. The excitement of those pioneers and their accomplishments to reach various countries in the early days reflects the indomitable spirit that made America into a great nation.The StoryA lonely Island, only 2 1/2 square miles in area with a mean elevation 12 feet above sea level, a sandspitbent into the shape of a hairpin, in some places only 100 yards across. The island sits alone amid a million or more square miles of empty ocean. There is no drinking water, no safe anchorage, nothing to eat. and typhoons about every 15 years which literally strip every bush from the sand dunes.A lot of military junk protrudes from the sand, most of it jagged and all of it rusty. A large lagoon dominates the island, because it alone is beautiful. A few old boarded up buildings face the lagoon.There was once a 48 roomhotel here, and a pier that stretched into the lagoon foi a hundred yards where tht great flying boats were moored.Passengers would wall up the pier and be welcomec with cool drinks after 10 oi more hours in the air. Thlt; old concrete ramp is stil there, and is called the Pai Am ramp by the fev residents still there.This is Wake Island ii the middle of the empt; Pacific - discovered in effec by Juan Trippe, th organizer of Pan America] World Airways, in the Ne\ See Pioneers, Page 7
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Wimberley Wednesday View
Wimberley, Texas, US
Wed, Feb 23, 1994
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USA 28 May 2019
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