Why the Honolulu Airport is Named the John Rodgers Airport

December 2012
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Posted on December 30, 2012 by Damon

Here is the reason why the Honolulu Airport is named the John Rodgers Airport.

…On August 31, 1925 at 2:55 p.m., Commander John Rodgers and his crew left San Pablo Bay, San Francisco in Navy PN-9 No. 1 to attempt the first flight across the Pacific Ocean from the Mainland U.S. to Hawaii. The plane was forced to land in the ocean at 4:15 p.m. September 1 after running out of fuel about 365 miles from Oahu.

After three days of waiting to be picked up, the heroic crew crafted sails from the wings of the plane and sailed toward Hawaii. Their food supply was exhausted after the third day and their water ran out on the sixth day at sea. On the tenth day, they spotted Kauai. Ten miles off shore they encountered a submarine which towed them safely into Ahukini Harbor and a heroes welcome. The 1,841.12 statute miles flown from August 31 to their forced landing on September 1 was accepted by the F.A. I. as a new world airline distance record for Class C seaplanes that remained unbeaten for almost five years.

John Rodgers Airport was dedicated March 21, 1927. The principal speaker at the dedication was the Honorable E. P. Warner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The field was named in honor of the late Commander John Rodgers, who had been Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor from 1923 to 1925, when he left to command the Navy’s historical flight between the West Coast and Hawaii…

Two years before Lindbergh flies non-stop across the Atlantic, man and machine attempt this same daring feat across the Pacific resulting in a dramatically different outcome.