filmagic

The golden age of aviation coincided with the Great Depression. Although the depression had tremendously negative effect on global economy, two fearless American aviators emerged to take back the long distance record from France. The pilot Russell Boardman was once a cowboy, motorcyclist and a stunt pilot for Hollywood movies. The co-pilot John Polando was an aircraft mechanic with more than 10 years of aeronautical experience; together they found a way to fulfill a lifelong dream.Their Bellanca monoplane” Cape Cod” was literally a flying bomb with the take-off weight consumed two-thirds fuel it trundled down Floyd Bennett airfield in the early morning of July 28, 1931. Boardman and Polando loaded 16 copies of the New York Times on board. These were to be parachuted over various cities as a mean of communicating with the world. They had never flown outside the United States before. Their objective was to fly from New York to Istanbul. It was to be the longest distance ever flown in history. They were unreported from land or sea for two nights and a day. What they lacked in equipment such as radio, parachutes or navigation light was compensated with plenty of determination, resolve and steely courage.