Pilot Lt. Lester Maitland (right) stands with navigator Lt. Hegenberger (left) in front of the Fokker C-2 Bird of Paradise before their historic flight to Hawaii in 1927. In many ways, this flight was a far greater test of aeronautical capability than Lindbergh's flight to Paris was a month earlier.
Caption:
Lt. Lester Maitland and Lt. Hegenberger with the Fokker C-2 Bird of Paradise.
Type: Photograph
Image Date: June 9, 1927
Image Taken: Oakland, California, United States
Credit: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Origin: Engineering Division, Wright Field, U.S. Army Air Corps, U.S. Army