Vin Fiz

Vin Fiz

The Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum is an aeronautics dream. Last time I came here, I was into the Kamikaze planes from WWII, Amelia Earheart’s story, and the Wright Brothers first ascent. This time what caught my eye was the Vin Fiz. I don’t have a reason why, only that the plane was cool looking and the story of the transcontinental flight seemed interesting.

If you don’t know, the Vin Fiz was a plane and the pilot behind the wheel was Calbraith Perry Rodgers. The background of Calbraith Perry Rodgers and I really don’t know or want to get into it, but he was interested in aviation and got some flying lessons from Orville Wright. His story is linked to William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane), I’ll let you figure that one out. His goal was to fly coast to coast, from New York to California. After dozens of stops and many crashes, he accomplished his goal and became a celebrity. However, he died a few months later in a crash in California.

The Vin Fiz is hanging from the rafters in the museum. It doesn’t look like a well-built plane which makes one wonder, how could these guys go up in the air with that type of plane? It must have took a lot of guts to do that.