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Dallas Spirit and the Breese monoplane Aloha. Of the remaining entrants, the Pabco Pacific Flyer crashed on takeoff, as did the El Encanto.
Less than one hour after taking off, the Oklahoma returned to the airport and landed. Beech wanted to know exactly what the problem was, and Griffin complained that the Whirlwind’s cylinder head temperatures were too high. Having lost confidence in the engine, Griffin withdrew from the contest, leaving the Woolaroc to soldier on westward. So far, Beech’s gamble that two Travel Airs would reach Hawaii was off to a bad start.
High above the Pacific Ocean, however, the Woolaroc and her two companions were winging their way across the waves without incident. Goebel landed the Type 5000 on Wheeler Field, Territory of Hawaii, on August 17 after flying for 26 hours, 17 minutes, 33 seconds. His careful management of the precious fuel supply paid off – the monoplane still had sufficient fuel for another five hours of flight. Two hours later the Aloha landed with very little fuel remaining in its tanks. Pilot Martin Jensen and navigator Paul Schulter were immensely relieved to be on terra firma once again.
Walter Beech’s great gamble had paid off. Travel Air would bask in the success of the Woolaroc’s victory for weeks after the race, and orders for the company’s airplanes kept piling up on the desk of office manager and chief secretary, Olive Ann Mellor. Art Goebel would
go on to more fame and fortune in the years ahead and after World War II became a successful Beechcraft dealer. In 1928, William Davis became a member of the Navy’s Three Sea Hawks aerobatic team and in the “Jet Age” flew the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket at speeds above Mach 1. He retired as a vice admiral and eventually became Executive Director of the battleship Alabama (BB-60) permanently moored at Battleship Park in Mobile, Alabama. As for the legacy of the Dole race itself, 10 people died, five airplanes were wrecked and three were lost at sea. Of the 15 airplanes originally entered in the contest, only the Woolaroc survives. KA
NOTES:
1. Forden, Lesley: “Glory Gamblers—The Story of the Dole
Race.” Nottingham Press, Alameda, California, 1986.
2. The C-2 is on display as part of the National Air and Space
Museum collection in Washington, D.C.
3. The fully restored Woolaroc and its achievement lives on in
the Frank Phillips Museum. The monoplane hangs suspended from the ceiling in a special gallery dedicated to the Travel Air and her crew. The airplane’s nose is aligned on a heading for Honolulu.
Ed Phillips, now retired and living in the South, has researched and written eight books on the unique and rich aviation history that belongs to Wichita, Kan. His writings have focused on the evolution of the airplanes, companies and people that have made Wichita the “Air Capital of the World” for more than 80 years.
NOVEMBER 2017 KING AIR MAGAZINE • 27