Herndon v. Liberty

In July, 1931 Hugh Herndon Jr., youthful Manhattan socialite, and Clyde Edward Pangborn, hard-bitten barnstormer, took off from New York City for a speed flight around the world. They finished it in October, following a series of misadventures in Japan where they were arrested for traversing forbidden military territory. They distinguished themselves as the first flyers to cross the Pacific nonstop, a feat which has not been duplicated. Soon after their return Pilot Pangborn broke into print with a grievance against his partner, alleging that Herndon had forced him into a disadvantageous contract shortly before the takeoff, when Pangborn had to accept or back out, running the risk of being called "yellow." Herndon made no public reply, but a school of Pangborn-sympathizers nursed the belief that Pangborn had been treated shabbily. The whole business was soon forgotten by the public, until last month when Liberty published an article by Aviatrix Elinor Smith entitled "I'm Fed Up With Stunt Flying." This revived the old gossip, with embellishments. Excerpts:

"For all [Pangborn's] experience and skill he found himself, upon his return to America, merely the co-pilot of an inexperienced youngster named Herndon. . . . It was clearly understood [at the start] that Pangborn was to be the pilot and that Herndon was to be a sort of glorified passenger and relief pilot if the occasion warranted. ... As a professional flyer I have no more sympathy with a Herndon who will deliberately convert a scientific undertaking into a personal publicity stunt, than I have with a Hutchinson [George R. Hutchinson, father of the 'Flying Family' which cracked up off Greenland] who undertakes a personal stunt under the guise of science. I think that the activities of both of these types of stunt flyers should be exposed and stopped."

That was more than Hugh Herndon, now a hardworking oil salesman for Henry Latham Doherty, cared to stomach. Last week he sued Liberty for $250,000 libel, prepared to prove that he had organized the flight purely as a sporting proposition, that he was a qualified flyer, that he was at the controls about 40% of the time on the world flight and charted all courses, that he claimed no undue credit, that the last contract with Pilot Pangborn was signed six weeks before the take-off on terms agreed to long before.

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