"Now it's time, old friend. Now we're both about to become somebody."
Mildred Doran, a crew member of the "Miss Doran", to Augy Pedler, its pilot, just before the start of the 1927 Dole Air Race, as reported by Lesley Forden.

On Tuesday, August 16, 1927, eight of the fifteen aircraft that were competing for the $25,000 first prize and the $10,000 second prize, offered by James Drummond Dole, of the Dole Hawaiian Pineapple Company, left Oakland, California, for Honolulu, Hawaii, which was 2,437 miles away and across the Pacific Ocean. On June 29, about six weeks before the air race, Lieutenant A. J. Hegenberger, age 29, and Lieutenant Lester F. Maitland, age 32, had become the first aviators to fly from Oakland to Hawaii, in their American military Fokker C-2 trimotor airplane, the Bird of Paradise, when they had landed at Wheeler Field on Oahu Island, after a flight of 25 hours and 50 minutes, and on July 15th pilot Ernest Smith and navigator Emory Bronte had become the first civilian aviators to fly to Hawaii, in their Travel Air 5000 monoplane, the City of Oakland, when they ran out of gas and crash landed, on top of a tree, at Kaunakakai, on Molokai Island, after a flight of 26 hours and 36 minutes.(1)

The Dole Air Race to Hawaii, which was promoted as the first transoceanic air race ever, was to be won by Lieutenant Arthur C. Goebel, of the Army Air Reserves, who was age 31 and a Hollywood stunt pilot, and his navigator, Lieutenant William Davis Jr., of the United States Navy, in their Travel Air 5000, the Woolaroc, after a flight of 26 hours, 19 minutes, and 33 seconds. The second place, in the air race, went to Martin Jensen and his navigator, Captain Paul Schluter, in their Breese 5, the Aloha, which finished the race in 28 hours and 16 minutes. None of the other Dole flyers reached Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, and three of the eight aircraft were lost over the Pacific Ocean and could not be found, despite a massive ten-day search conducted by the United States Navy, with over forty ships. In all, fifteen brave men and one brave woman flew in the Dole Air Race and it, sadly, claimed the lives of ten people.

Before the air race, which was under the control of the National Aeronautic Association, each aircraft was tested to determine its cruising speed and fuel consumption, which would determine how much fuel it would be required to have for the air race and a demonstration flight with half-full fuel tanks was also required. The day before the air race, each flyer was given a copy of the Holy Bible by the Gideon Society, and on the day of the air race, each flyer was given flowers and a chart showing the expected positions of the ships stationed along the route. When the air race started at 12:02 p.m., with the flight of the first aircraft, it was estimated that over 50,000 people were in attendance at Oakland Airport. The flight positions for the airplanes were picked at random on Monday, August 8th, but they were later changed to take into account the order that the airplanes completed their qualifying tests for the air race, delaying the start of the air race, from Friday, August 12th, which was the day that Hawaii became a territory of the United States of America, in 1898.

A memorial service was held, at sea, for the missing Dole flyers, on the S.S. Maui, on September 16, 1927, exactly one month after the air race. Poems were written about the air race, as a tribute to the brave Dole flyers, and the memorial program for the missing Dole flyers proclaimed that "Their Names Liveth Forevermore". To this day, the three missing Dole airplanes have never been found.

(1) Page 68, Lesley Forden, Glory Gamblers: The Story of the Dole Race, The Nottingham Press, Alameda, 1986.

A SHORT LESSON IN HAWAIIAN!

Listed in their actual flight order for the air race.

OKLAHOMA
EL ENCANTO
PABCO PACIFIC FLYER
GOLDEN EAGLE
MISS DORAN
THE MISS DORAN IN FLINT, MICHIGAN
ALOHA
WOOLAROC
DALLAS SPIRIT

AEROPLANES!
ANCIENT AVIATORS
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