Barnstormer Flight Completed
An ecstatic James R. Lloyd landed his fragile “Vin Fizz II” airplane at Long Beach Airport today to the cheers of about 500 spectators, ending an eight-week recreation of the first transcontinental flight, a 1911 odyssey by barnstormer Calbraith Perry Rodgers.
Lloyd, 38, of Fishkill, N.Y., started the flight Sept. 17 in Hoboken, N.J., 75 years after Rodgers took off from Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. Rodgers completed his trip after 49 days, 76 stops and 20 crashes. Rodgers died April 3, 1912, in a crash before a crowd at Long Beach.
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