The Explorers' Club, № MCLXXXII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars—The Orteig Prize, Part I
23 September 1926: The Sikorsky S-35 of pilot René Fonck, copilot Lawrence Curtin, radio operator Charles Clavier, & mechanic Jacob Islamoff crashed while attempting to take off from Roosevelt Field; the S-35 was severely overloaded, carrying both a sofa & a refrigerator, & plunged down a slope at the end of the runway; Fonck & Curtin escaped uninjured, while both Clavier & Islamoff were killed.

Commentary: The Orteig Prize was offered in 1919 by Franco-American hotelier Raymond Orteig: $25,000 to the first Entente pilot(s) to fly non-stop from New York to Paris or from Paris to New York. John Alcock & Arthur Brown had collected the earlier Daily Mail prize of £10,000 for the first non-stop transatlantic flight, from Newfoundland to Ireland ("The Explorers' Club," № DCXCIII).

Semper exploro.