Smithsonian Annals Of Flight The First Nonstop Coast-To-Coast Flight and the Historic T-2 Airplane (Volume 1 Number 1)

Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution / National Air Museum. Very Good. 1973. Reprint. Paperback. B&W Illustrations; This is an oversized paperback book. The book is in Very Good condition and was issued without a dust jacket. The book covers have some toning / yellowing to the spine and the page edges. The text pages are clean and bright. "Under the auspices of the U. S. Army Air Service, the Fokker T-2 made the first nonstop U. S. Transcontinental flight in 1923. Two failed attempts at a west-to-east crossing were followed by a successful east-to-west flight when Air Service Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready took off from Long Island, New York, on May 2 and landed at Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, on May 3, slightly more than 26 hours and 50 minutes later. The airplane was the fourth in a series of transport designs by famed Dutch manufacturer Anthony Fokker and his chief designer, Rheinhold Platz. Manufactured as a Fokker F-IV, the aircraft was purchased by the U. S. Army Air Service in June 1922 and re-designated the Air Service Transport 2, or T-2. Required modifications for the transcontinental flight, such as increasing the fuel capacity, making structural reinforcements, and adding a second set of controls, were carried out at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio." (Smithsonian Air and Space Museum website) .