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The radial Wright J-5 Whirlwind engine was specifically developed for long-range flight and was instrumental in advancing aviation during the late 1920s and well into the 1930s. Following Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 transatlantic flight with a J-5 installed in his Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, numerous other aviators used the J-5 on record-breaking distance and duration flights. Shortly after, Whirlwinds were used on the 2,400-mile, record-setting nonstop flight from Oakland, California, to Hawai’i by U.S. Army Air Corps pilots Lester J. Maitland (1899–1990) and Albert Hegenberger (1895–1983) in the Fokker C-2 tri-motor Bird of Paradise. In 1928, the J-5-equipped Fokker F.VIIb/3m Southern Cross was piloted by Charles Kingsford Smith (1897–1935) and Charles Ulm (1898–1984) on a 7,200-mile, three-stage, transpacific route from Oakland, California, to Brisbane, Australia, one of the longest flights using a J-5 engine. “Going the Distance: Endurance Aircraft Engines and Propellers of the 1910s and 20s” is on display, pre-security in the Aviation Museum and Library and online at: https://bit.ly/EnduranceEngines This image was posted on August 01, 2023.