Page 29 - April 2015 Volume 9, Number 4

without incident as Bill looked down on Omaha, Des Moines, Iowa; Moline, Ill.; Chicago, Toledo, Ohio, and Cleveland. Then, at 12:06 p.m. on March 7, the Bonanza and its pilot landed safely at Teterboro. Total flight time had been 36 hours, two minutes, and Odom’s careful fuel management resulted in about 16 gallons of fuel remaining – an amount sufficient to fly another 370 miles. Total cost for fuel and oil: $75. The second flight of Bill Odom and the Waikiki Beech succeeded not only in establishing two world records, but came within a mere 191 miles of equaling a record for the longest single flight between refueling of 5,464 miles set by a U.S. Air Force B-50 bomber during a nonstop, around-the-world flight completed earlier in 1949.
During the long journey from Hawaii to New Jersey, both man and machine had performed flawlessly. After the flight, Beech chief engineer Theodore “Ted” Wells calculated that if a Model A35 was stripped of all unnecessary weight and stuffed with fuel and oil tanks, the airplane would be capable of flying more than 8,000 statute miles nonstop. When asked what the flight had achieved, Odom responded, “We set out to prove the efficiency and economy of Beechcrafts by breaking the nonstop distance record.” 2
so well developed in the airplane Odom flew that it is now in daily use by scores of large businesses, to speed and simplify the coming and goings of their respective staffs. The world record is abundant proof that the light plane and its power plant have reached full stature.” Although the record was impressive by standards of the day, the era of long-distance, record- setting flights and the ensuing public enthusiasm for them was drawing to a close. The advent of the jet engine and its application to advanced aircraft designs during the 1950s and 1960s gradually brought the world much closer together, overshadowing the role of the light airplane. In 2015, a nonstop flight from Hawaii to New Jersey by a pilot flying a Bonanza would be ignored by all except the aviation press that would at least acknowledge it.
As for Bill Odom and the Waikiki Beech, in the wake of their epic accomplishment, the pilot and his trusty Beechcraft toured the nation and received the honor and acclaim they so well deserved. Later, the airplane was placed on display in the Smithsonian Institution until 1951 when it was removed and prepared for use by Congressman Peter F. Mack, Jr. Renamed the “Friendship Flame,” the airplane was flown by Mack on an around-the-world, goodwill tour that covered 33,000 miles in 113 days and visiting
The prestigious New York Times reinforced Odom’s
comments: “Qualities of dependability have been 45 cities in 35 countries.3
APRIL 2015
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 27