HistoryLink: Clyde Pangborn belly-lands in Wenatchee (1931)

No doubt about it, some early aviators led interesting lives. To make the first non-stop flight from Japan to the United States, Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon Jr. dropped the landing gear into the ocean shortly after take-off to reduce weight. They planned to belly-land the thing - which they did, successfully, Oct. 5, 1931, at Wenatchee, Washington.

Before they made the flight, however, they were in custody for a while in Japan. It seems that they took pictures while flying around over Japan, and accidentally took photos of military installations...

More