Floyd Bennett

Floyd Bennett ( born October 25, 1890 in Warrensburg, † April 25, 1928 ) was an American pilot. He had tried to Richard Evelyn Byrd, to reach the North Pole.

During the First World War, Bennett reported to the Navy. Initially working as a mechanic, he later graduated from flight school. In 1925 he made ​​a reconnaissance flight with Byrd over Greenland. The following year, Bennett was at the wheel of the Fokker, with the two set off from Spitsbergen to the North Pole. Although they could not have reached the Pole in the short flight time, they were hailed as heroes in the home and awarded the Medal of Honor. In her PhD journey through the United States Bernt Balchen served as navigator.

In an exercise for the first non-stop flight from the U.S. to France their Fokker crashed at startup; Bennett was seriously, Byrd and George Otto Noville slightly injured. The Orteig price eventually won Charles Lindbergh.

The German aircraft Bremen succeeded the first Atlantic crossing in the opposite direction, from east to west; when landing on Greenly Iceland (Canada), the machine was damaged. Bennett and Balchen flew to her rescue; during this flight died Bennett, who had contracted pneumonia after his crash.

Byrd later christened the aircraft with which he flew over the South Pole during the Byrd Antarctic Expedition in November 1929 for the first time, in the name of his late friend, Floyd Bennett. Above the South Pole, he threw off an American flag, which was weighted down with a stone from Bennett grave.

Two airports in the State of New York bear his name: the Floyd Bennett Field Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport and the Warren County ( New York). Also in his memory a destroyer of the Fletcher- class was named.