Failed attempts - Francesco de Pinedo

From Time magazine 1933: Observers who watched a middle-aged Italian in blue bedroom slippers, grey sweater, blue serge suit and grey derby hat get into a big Bellanca monoplane at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, early last Saturday morning, felt that they were witnessing something unusual to the point of eccentricity. General Francesco de Pinedo was taking off alone for Bagdad, 6300 mi. away. The cockpit of his ship, the Santa Lucia, was a museum of gadgets and curious supplies—eight watches, two colored kites, fishing tackle, a stomach pump to draw liquids from six vacuum bottles, a fresh air mask, a siren and water-squirter to wake up the pilot if he dozed. He was going to sit over the oil tank, so that the uncomfortable heat would keep him awake. As he yelled good-by a fanatical gleam was in his eye. Major J. Nelson Kelly, manager of the field, who with his wife and Pilot George Haldeman followed the plane in an automobile after its start up the runway, said later that he felt sure de Pinedo would stop after his overladen ship, reeling drunkenly under 1030 gal. of gasoline, veered almost off the concrete as it got up to 80 mph But the man in the cabin was obsessed. He straightened the Santa Lucia and roared ahead. He lifted the tail. . . . When a heavy plane's tail is lifted, torque from the propeller or giving it the gun too quickly may slew the ship sideways for an instant, heavily taxing the pilot's skill to keep his course. That apparently happened to de Pinedo ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gpB9KLd9Bc&hl=en