![]() The cause of the crash could not be determined, although some presumed lightning struck the airplane while others believed Carranza was flying low, looking for a spot to land, when his plane hit the trees. He crashed in southern New Jersey’s Pine Barrens about 85 miles into the flight amid a thunderstorm. Tragically, Carranza didn’t have the luck of Lindy. He chose to ignore their advice and took off about 7 p.m., during a break in the bad weather and with darkness falling. Anxious to fly after a month in the U.S., Carranza suddenly decided to leave on July 12 after receiving a relatively favorable weather report while dining at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel: “Partly cloudy to cloudy sky New York to New Orleans with local thunderstorms.” Although it was not a terribly ominous forecast, experienced American pilots counseled him to wait for another day. (Boston Public Library/Leslie Jones Collection)Ĭarranza planned to complete the longest nonstop solo flight in the Americas on his return to Mexico City, but summer thunderstorms repeatedly postponed his departure. Returning to New York City, he endured more luncheons, dinners and dances.Ĭarranza arrives in Lowell, Mass., during his 1928 U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he reviewed the cadets, and then to Lowell, Mass., to open a new airfield. Newspaper reporters soon dubbed the 22-year-old pilot the “Mexican Lindbergh.”Ĭarranza flew up the Hudson River to the U.S. New York Mayor Jimmy Walker presented Carranza with a key to the city and hosted the aviator at several banquets, with celebrity guests including Charlie Chaplin and Jack Dempsey. The next day he lunched with President Calvin Coolidge.įlying on to New York City, Carranza landed at Long Island’s Roosevelt Field, where Lindbergh had departed for Paris the previous year. On June 12, 1928, he arrived at Washington’s Bolling Field, where he was greeted by the Mexican ambassador, American officials and a throng of spectators. (In 1957 three Broughams were modified to stand in for Spirit in the biographical film starring Jimmy Stewart.)Ĭarranza had planned a nonstop flight to Washington, but didn’t quite make it after being forced to land in North Carolina due to fog. Louis, it was very similar to Lindbergh’s airplane. Designed by Donald Hall, who was also responsible for Spirit of St. ![]() ![]() His airplane, named Excelsior after a Mexican newspaper that promoted the flight, was a Ryan B-1 Brougham. It was therefore not surprising that Carranza was selected to represent Mexico by making a goodwill flight to Washington, D.C., in response to Lindbergh’s tour of Latin America. Army Air Corps officials greet Carranza (right) at Washington’s Bolling Field. In 1928 Carranza made the third longest nonstop solo flight up to that time, covering 1,575 miles from San Diego to Mexico City. After reaching Juarez he met Lindbergh, who had landed just across the border in El Paso on the same day. In 1927 Carranza made the first flight between Mexico City and Juarez, a distance of about 1,000 miles. ![]() He graduated from the Mexican military academy in 1924 and participated in the last battles of the Yaqui Wars. As a boy, Carranza would visit the airport with his cousin and became enamored of aviation. His father was an attaché at the Mexican consulate in New York City, his great uncle was a former president of Mexico and his cousin was director of the Mexican School of Military Aviation. Carranza was born in 1905 into a notable political and aviation-minded family. ![]() South of the border, a young military pilot, Emilio Carranza, keenly followed Lindbergh’s exploits while setting a few aviation records of his own. ambassador and his daughters, one of whom, Anne Morrow, would become his wife in 1929. His first stop was Mexico City, where he met the U.S. Then he turned south to tour 16 Latin American countries between December 1927 and February 1928. Two months after completing his May 1927 New York to Paris solo flight, Charles Lindbergh took off on a goodwill tour of America, flying his Spirit of St. From Fame to Obscurity: Story of the "Mexican Lindbergh" Close ![]()
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