Bremen (aircraft)
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[edit] Atlantic Flight
Bremen is a Junkers W33 aircraft that made the first successful Trans-Atlantic plane flight from East to West.
It left Baldonel Aerodrome, Ireland on April 12 and flew to Greenly Island, Canada, (about 1,200 miles from New York) arriving on April 14, 1928, after a flight fraught with difficult conditions and compass problems. The crew consisted of pilot Captain Hermann Koehl (or Köhl); the Navigator, Major James Fitzmaurice, and the owner of the aircraft, Baron von Hunefeld.
[edit] Landing
When the Bremen made a forced landing on Greenley Island in 1928, the first Canadian aircraft to reach the scene was piloted by Duke Schiller and the second machine was flown by the Canadian Transcontinental Airways Company's Chief Pilot - Romeo Vachon who arrived two days later with a group of media representatives. Both Schiller and Vachon were flying Fairchild FC-2W machines; G-CAIPQ (Schiller) and G-CAIP (Vachon). Gretta May Ferris, a nurse from Saint John, New Brunswick who was posted at nearby Forteau's Grennfell Medical Station, ; travelled by dogsled some fifteen miles to attend to the crew's medical needs; she was the first to write the story that was picked up by the international media saying that the Bremen had landed and that the crew were safe.
[edit] Current Location
The Bremen belongs to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan but is currently on display in a hangar at the Bremen Airport Museum where it has been completely restored. (REF.: Wir Holen die Bremen nach Bremen e.V.; Geschaftsstelle: Sogestrasse 70 - 28195 Bremen - Telefon 0421 - 309050).
[edit] Further reading
The most recent book on this subject is titled The Bremen by Fred W. Hotson; published by CANAV Books, 51 Balsam Ave., Toronto ON M4E 3B6; 1988.
Source for Crew and Date changes: Chronicle of Aviation, 1992, Published by JL International Publishing, Missouri.
