June 1st
June 1st
Daily Flight Information:
Departed: Kasumigaura, Japan
Arrived: Kushimoto, Japan
Miles Flown: 305
Flight Time: 4 hrs. 35 mins.
(5:50 a.m. to 10:25 p.m.)
Total Miles Flown: 5,915
Total Flight Time: 80 hrs. 48 min.
One of the Cruisers flies over the Port of Kushimoto, Japan. The large ship is the American four-funnel destroyer USS Pope (DD-225). The Pope was on a goodwill tour to Japan in 1924 to back up the coincident arrival of the Douglas World Cruisers flight. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)
World Flight Arrives in Kushimoto, Japan
The Douglas World Cruisers will have only routine servicing and maintenance performed at Kushimoto. The World Flight will continue as soon as the weather permits -- possibly as soon as tomorrow
Daily Report
by Lt. L. P. Arnold "Chicago" Mechanic
Up at 3 a.m., an early breakfast, and at 6:00 took the air. The Chief of the Japanese Air Service and a large number of other officers were on hand to see us take off.
For the first hour the trip was delightful and the weather perfect. Midway in Yokohama Bay, we passed O Shima which was putting out great clouds of steam & soon afterwards through a rift in the clouds we could see Japan's famous Fujiyama with the sun shining on its snow capped dome some 12,400 feet above sea level -- a truly beautiful sight.
Soon afterwards we ran into a combination of rain and fog and as we were flying a compass course from O Shima to Kushimoto, we didn't see land from 8:00 until 10:15 & again [Lt] Smith [Chicago pilot and World Flight Commanding Officer] deserves great credit for his navigating ability.
At Kushimoto, the typhoon was raging, the wind was blowing & the water exceedingly rough. We flew around for quite a while looking things over & finally landed, only to drag the mooring & we nearly went ashore before getting loose. We taxied to the other side of the bay, the US Destroyer Pope put down other moorings, and after getting soaked to the skin by seas washing completely over the pontoons, we were secure and went aboard the Pope where we were cordially greeted. Big crowd on the beach.
Daily Report
by Lt. L. H. Smith. Commanding
At 5:50 a.m. this morning, the Flight took off for Kushimoto, flying by way of Inuboye Point, Katsura, Noyta Point to Iro Point and from there, a direct compass course was flown to Kushimoto. Soon after leaving IRO Point, the flight ran into a rain storm which turned into a mild typhoon that became rather severe after landing at Kushimoto at 10:25 a.m. The moorings provided for us here proved absolutely unsatisfactory; the planes nearly drifting ashore among the breakers soon after making fast. All three planes taxied to the opposite side of the bay and waited until the Destroyer Pope came over and furnished new anchors.