1924: A Speed Record for Seaplanes is Set in Virginia

November 7, 1924

The world airspeed record for seaplanes was decisively broken in the skies above southeastern Virginia. The pilot for this flight was Lieutenant Victor E. Bertrandias of the U.S. Army Air Service (USAAS). He was accompanied by USAAS Lieutenant George C. McDonald.

Their flight began at 10:45 a.m. and it entailed traveling a total of 40 laps over a route coursing southward from the Army installation of Fort Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula to Naval Station Norfolk, then northward to the city of Newport News (likewise on the Virginia Peninsula) while en route back to Fort Monroe to start another round trip.

The seaplane used for this multi-lap flight was a Loening S-1 Flying Yacht (also known as a Loening Model 23). This monoplane flying boat was designed by aircraft manufacturer Grover Cleveland Loening. The accompanying photo of an S-1 Flying Yacht owned and operated by USAAS was taken sometime during the early 1920s.

Bertrandias and McDonald covered the required distance of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) at an average speed of 163.6 kilometers (101.7 miles) per hour. In doing so, these pilots broke the record that had been established the previous month by Danish aviator Karl Lesch. He covered the same number of miles at an average speed of only 152.3 kilometers (94.7 miles) per hour.

In reporting on Bertrandias and McDonald’s aviation achievement, the Newport News-based Daily Press noted that “the two officers covered the course around the peninsula without interruption and aside from the speed of the yacht attained the flight passed off without any special features.”

C.F. Schory of Washington, D.C., was at Fort Monroe that day on behalf of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which continues to serve as the world’s governing body for flight-based records ranging from balloons to spacecraft, to monitor the airborne efforts of Bertrandias and McDonald.

The Daily Press recounted, “Mr. Schory was intensely pleased with the showing made by Lieutenants Bertrandias and McDonald, as it is said the flight was one of the most successful ever held under the auspices of the International Association, which embraces all the countries in the world.” FAI subsequently ratified this new record, which remained intact until December 23, 1926. That is when Royal Italian Army aviator Alessandro Passaleva covered the same number of miles at an average speed of 166.4 kilometers (103.4 miles) per hour.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on the record-setting seaplane flight of Victor E. Bertrandias and George C. McDonald, please check out  https://www.fai.org/record/11722