Navigation by cigar

Fad to Fundamental: Airmail in America

When pioneer aviator James DeWitt Hill was flying an airmail run in bad weather, his clock stopped. To figure out when to come down through the clouds to find his destination, he calculated how long his first cigar of the trip had lasted and factored that time into how many miles he had left. Then he smoked the proper number of cigars and descended, right on target, so they say.

He had less luck later, when he was one of the pilots for "Old Glory", a William Randolph Hearst-backed plane that was trying to make the first nonstop flight from New York to Rome in 1927. Rescuers found part of the plane's wreakage, but that was it. Also killed in the crash were pilot Lloyd Bertaud and Philip Payne, editor of the New York Daily Mirror.

The airport at Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was renamed for James DeWitt Hill.

Today's Latrobe, Pennsyvania, airport is called the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.