1732) Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, (Aircraft Pilots), Lithuania: Crossing the Atlantic in their Aeroplane the "Lituanica" (1933), ending in a tragic fatal crash: The heroes featured on a 10 Litu Banknote issued in 1993 (twice), 1997 and 2001 with slight variations:
The Aircraft:
Lituanica was a Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker airplane flown from the United States across the Atlantic Ocean by Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas in 1933.
After successfully flying 6,411 km (4,043 miles), it crashed, due to undetermined circumstances, 650 km (404 miles) from its destination, Kaunas, Lithuania.
The History:
On 18.06.1932, the pilots purchased the Pacemaker airplane, serial no. 137, registered as NC-688E, from the Pal-Waukee Company for $3,200.
First produced and flown in 1929, forty units of the CH-300 Pacemaker were eventually built.
It was a single-engine, six-seat, high-wing monoplane. Funds for the plane was raised from numerous Lithuanian clubs and organizations, including air shows.
On 20.01.1933, the aircraft was moved to E. M. Laird workshops at 5321 W. 65th St. in the Clearing Industrial District, Chicago, where she was rebuilt and made suitable for the transatlantic flight with elongated wings, and two additional gasoline tanks installed in the fuselage, and below the pilot's seats 25 US gallon oil tank was outfitted with 12 cooling tubes. On both sides of the fuselage scrolls with the names of the sponsors were painted.
The aircraft was dubbed "Lituanica," (Latin for Lithuania).
The Pilots:
Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas were Lithuanian pilots, emigrants to the United States, who made a significant flight in the history of world aviation.
On 15.07.1933, they flew across the Atlantic Ocean, covering a distance of 3,984 miles (6,411 kilometers) without landing, in 37 hours and 11 minutes (107.1 mph).
Although Darius and Girenas did not have navigational equipment and flew under unfavorable weather conditions, the flight was one of the most precise in aviation history.
It equalled, and in some aspects surpassed, Charles Lindbergh's classic flight. Lituanica also carried the first Transtlantic air mail consignment in history.
An ordinary unmodified plane of this size cannot cover a comparable distance (the Cessna 152, for instance, has a range of 1200 km), even today. The flight was also important from a scientific and technological perspective, as it explored air flows and the capabilities of this type of aircraft. In their last letter, the pilots wrote that either a successful flight or a possible catastrophe would be valuable and significant enough and hence it was worthwhile to fly in either case.
The Flight:
After taking off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York on July 15.07.1933, 6:24 am EDT, Darius and Girėnas successfully crossed the Atlantic, only to perish on July 17.07.1933, 0:36 am (CET) by the village of Kuhdamm, near Soldin, Germany (now Pszczelnik, near Myślibórz, Poland.
The planned route was: New York – Newfoundland – Atlantic Ocean – Ireland – London – Amsterdam – Swinemünde – Königsberg – Kaunas Airport (a total of 7,186 km).
Due to weather conditions over Ireland, they veered to the north and reached Germany via Scotland and the North Sea. In 37 hours and 11 minutes, until the moment of the crash, they had flown 6411 km (over 7000 km in actual flight path), only 636 km short of their goal—Kaunas.
Possible Reasons for the Crash:
A Lithuanian board of investigation was appointed to determine the cause. It concluded that the pilots were properly qualified, and the aircraft was properly outfitted. They added that the most difficult part of the flight was executed with great precision. The commission concluded that during the crash the aircraft engine was running (the propeller was rotating), and there was enough fuel on board.
Some sources mention pilot error, but both pilots were highly experienced. During his career as pilot, Darius had never been involved in any previous accidents.
In 1931, Girėnas had won first prize in a flight festival in Chicago for gliding his plane and landing with a dead engine.
According to the board, the catastrophe occurred due to difficult weather conditions combined with engine defects. The crash most probably was a result of failed emergency landing. There were rumors and suspicions in some quarters, that the plane was shot down, having been mistaken for a spy plane, because it flew near a concentration camp. Autopsies of pilots revealed no signs of bullets.
However, not all parts of the plane were returned to the Lithuanian government.
On 19.07.1933, a German Deruluft airplane carried the bodies of the pilots back to Lithuania. The people of Kaunas met the heroes in great sorrow. The funeral was a solemn occasion and was the cause of official national mourning.
Lituanica II:
A few months after the Lituanica tragedy, some prominent members of the Chicago Lithuanian community discussed the possibility of financing another transatlantic flight. This idea was greeted with much enthusiasm, and enough funds were raised during the Great Depression.
A faster and more modern Lockheed Vega was purchased from the Lockheed Aircraft Corp., the same model used by Wiley Post in his round-the-world flight, and by Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
The aircraft was christened Lituanica II on Sunday, April 22, 1934. When the pilot originally chosen for the flight unexpectedly resigned in the spring, the Lithuanian organizers turned to Felix Waitkus, who accepted the challenge. Although he landed in Ireland and not in Kaunas, he entered aviation history for being the sixth pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic.
In 1936 the Lithuanian government decided to build a mausoleum for Darius and Girėnas in Kaunas' old cemetery, that was destroyed after Soviet re-occupation.
From then until the present day, the wreckage of Lituanica has been on display in the Vytautas the Great War Museum in Kaunas.
The pilots' bodies rest in the Military Cemetery of Šančiai, Kaunas.
Memorials:
i) Chicago's Lithuanian community erected an Art Deco Monument commemorating Girėnas and Darius in Chicago's Marquette Park in 1935 where it still stands to this day. Feliksas Vaitkus was inspired by the flight and commemorated it with the flight of the Lituanica II in 1935.
ii) The flight is commemorated in a movie Skrydis per Atlantą (Flight over the Atlantic) (1983).
iii) Kaunas's sports stadium, S.Darius and S.Girėnas Stadium, where the Lithuanian national soccer team plays its home matches, is also named in their honor. There is a tall stone monument near the stadium, the Lithuanian Academy of Sport and the Ąžuolynas Park dedicated to the pilots.
iv) Sculptor Bronius Pundzius made a relief of the pilots' faces on the Puntukas, then the largest known boulder in the territory of Lithuania, in 1943.
v) In New York City, in 1957, the fliers were memorialized with a granite flagstaff showing the pair in bas-relief. The monument is located in Lithuania Square, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
vi) In Kaunas, a model of the Lituanica was put in 2013 to commemorate 80 years of the event.
vii) Lituanica Ave, Bridgeport neighborhood in Chicago, IL is named after this flight. The avenue runs between Halsted and Morgan streets from 31st and 35th streets, and after a jog east proceeds south to 38th place between Sangamon and Halsted streets.
viii) The small town of Beverly Shores, Indiana (just west of Michigan City, Indiana), has another memorial to the Lituanica flight. There, in 1968, the American Lithuanian Club established a park and named it Lituanica Park after the Bellanca CH-300 used in the flight. In 1971, to honor the pilots, a large modern sculpture by J. Barkis was placed in the park's pond.
Before the flight Girėnas and Darius left a testament to the Lithuanian nation:
"Young Lithuania! Inspired by Your spirit, we embark on a mission we have chosen. May our success strengthen Your spirit and confidence in Your own powers and talents! But should Neptune and the mighty ruler of storms Perkūnas unleash their wrath upon us, should they stop our way to Young Lithuania and call Lituanica to their realm – then You, Young Lithuania, will have to resolve anew, make sacrifice and prepare for a new quest, so that gods of stormy oceans be pleased with Your effort, resolution, and do not summon You for the Great Judgement.
May Lituanica's victory strengthen the spirit of young sons of Lithuania, inspire them for new quests. May Lituanica's defeat and sinking into the depths of the Atlantic nurture perseverance and resoluteness in young Lithuanians, so that a Winged Lithuanian conquers the treacherous Atlantic for the glory of Mother Lithuania! We therefore dedicate and sacrifice our flight for You, Young Lithuania!"
The Commemorative Banknote:
The Front of the 10 Litų Banknote featured the Lithuanian heroes, Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas.
The inscriptions are - "LIETUVOS BANKAS" (mening "Bank of Lithuania"), "DESIMT LITU" (meaning "Ten Litas") & the denomination in numerals "10".
The Back of the 10 Litu Banknote depicts Lituanica flying over the Atlantic Ocean with visible shores of the North America and Europe.
The above Banknote is from the collection of my friend Jayant Biswas, who has scanned the two faces of the Banknote and sent it to me for compiling/writing this post.
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