Floyd Bennett
Floyd Bennett (born October 25, 1890 in Warrensburg , † April 25, 1928 ) was an American pilot. He had tried to reach the North Pole with Richard Evelyn Byrd .
During World War I, Bennett enlisted in the Navy . Initially working as a mechanic, he later completed a flight school . In 1925 he made a reconnaissance flight over Greenland with Byrd. The following year Bennett was at the wheel of the Fokker with which the two set off from Spitzbergen for the North Pole. Although they could not have reached the pole in the short flight time, they were celebrated as heroes at home and awarded the Medal of Honor. Bernt Balchen served as navigator on her promotional trip through the USA .
During an exercise for the first non-stop flight from the USA to France, your Fokker crashed during take-off; Bennett was seriously injured, Byrd and George Otto Noville slightly injured. Finally, the Orteig Prize was won by Charles Lindbergh .
The German plane Bremen managed the first Atlantic crossing in the opposite direction, from east to west; the aircraft was damaged on landing on Greenly Island (Canada) . Bennett and Balchen flew to their rescue; Bennett died during this flight after contracting pneumonia after his crash.
Byrd later christened the aircraft with which he flew over the South Pole for the first time during the Byrd Antarctic Expedition in November 1929 in the name of his late friend, Floyd Bennett . He dropped a US flag over the South Pole, which was weighed down with a stone from Bennett's grave.
Two airports in New York State bear his name: Floyd Bennett Field and Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport in Warren County, New York . A Fletcher-class destroyer was also named in his memory . He is also the namesake for the Bennett Platform , a high plateau in the Antarctic.
Individual evidence
- ^ Eugene Rodgers: Beyond the Barrier: The Story of Byrd's first Expedition to Antarctica . 1st edition. United States Naval Institute, Annapolis 1990, ISBN 0-87021-022-X , pp. 186 .
Web links
- Floyd Bennett in the database of Find a Grave (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bennett, Floyd |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 25, 1890 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Warrensburg (New York) |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 25, 1928 |