The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960 Page: 19
684 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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"The Dallas Spirit"
to assure success. We are not going off half-cocked and are not going
to attempt the impossible.
Governor Dan Moody was present at the ceremonies, and before
the band struck up "The Star Spangled Banner" and the white
drapery was slowly drawn from the plane's fuselage, he rose to say:
I regard this as not only a great day for Dallas but a great day for
Texas. This flight will be an advertisement of Texas and the Texas
spirit that goes to make up a great deal of what Texas is. The men
who have financed this enterprise and made it possible have not only
done a service to Dallas but to the state. If Captain Erwin's flight is
a success, and all of Texas joins with me in hoping that it is, it will
add much to the progress of commercial aviation. The telegraph, the
telephone and the radio already have eliminated time and distance.
This thing you are doing in Dallas, sending an airship around the
world, in my mind, is a forerunner of what is to come in aviation.
It has not been so long since a young man trained in a Texas airport
spent the shortest night since time began for he was flying to the East
and landed in France at the exact spot he had picked to land. He
didn't realize the importance of his achievement beforehand and car-
ried letters of introduction, one to a hotel clerk to get a cheap room
and bath. Little did he realize he was placing his name alongside
Christopher Columbus. Columbus was the first man to sail a ship
from Europe to America and Colonel Lindbergh was the first man to
fly an airplane from America to Europe. They thought Columbus was
a fool and some persons referred to Lindbergh as a "flying fool," but
when they succeeded they were no longer referred to thus. Captain
Erwin is not only a man who was born in Texas8 but he spent his life
in Texas. He is a fit man to fly the "Dallas Spirit" and bring it safely
around the world.
On August 9, three days after the ceremonies at Love Field,
Captain Erwin took off from Dallas for the first lap of the initial
flight to California. His time of departure was 7:18 P.M.; at 8:35
P.M. he passed over Cisco, Baird at 8:49 P.M., and Abilene at 9:o2
P.M. Before reaching Colorado City in Mitchell County, 252 miles
from Dallas, the pilot encountered difficulty with the gasoline feed
system and decided to return to Love Field for repairs.?
Colonel Easterwood declared that the forced return would in no
way disqualify the plane for the Dallas to Hong Kong prize, and
aGovernor Moody inadvertently overlooked that Captain Erwin had been born
in Oklahoma.
oDallas News, August 11, s927.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960, periodical, 1960; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101186/m1/39/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.