LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - AUGUST 27, 2023 by Lynne Belluscio I was going through some of the yearbooks that have been donated to the Historian’s office and a map fell out of one. It was a map of Antarctica and at the time I didn’t think too much of it and wondered what I was going to do with it. Luckily, I didn’t throw it away. I happened to remember a story about Donald Woodward and the Friendship airplane that he owned. Donald was the youngest son of Orator Woodward, the Jell-O millionaire. In 1928, Don built a mansion, now known as Mercygrove on East Main Road. That year he also built a house across the street where he lived with his third wife, Adelaide. During the same year, he built a private airport on Asbury Road which was the home of his fleet of airplanes. (The history of the airport and the Friendship is chronicled in Brian Duddy’s book “Wings Over Le Roy”). Don had become interested in flying many years earlier. On August 14, 1919, he hired a bush pilot, Philip Bjoklund to fly him from Rochester to LeRoy. There were no runways and there was no way of knowing where to land the plane, so his friends hung out sheets on George McColl’s farm (now Presidential Acres) to guide the plane for a safe landing. A few years later, in early 1928, Don was in Florida and met Russ and Dorothy Holderman. They were both accomplished pilots. Dorothy sold Don a Fairchild monoplane for $12,500. The story is that Dorothy put the check in her pocket and didn’t look at it until later that day and then discovered the check was for the entire amount. Thinking that it was a joke, she took the check to the bank, only to discover that indeed, Don had paid for the plane in full. Don hired Russ Holderman to come to Le Roy and to design his new airport. Work on the airport and the hangar began in June 1928. During this time, Don had become interested in Commander Richard Byrd’s expedition to Antarctica. Byrd planned to ship a plane south and fly over the South Pole. One of his financial backers in addition to Don Woodward, was Henry Ford. The next part of the story is complicated. Byrd planned to use a tri-motor Fokker, built in the Netherlands and was conducting trials on Long Island. The plane was taken to Detroit where additional tests were done but Byrd changed his mind and decided to use a Ford tri-motor plane for his expedition. The primary reason that he changed his mind was that the huge wooden wing on the Fokker could not be taken apart for shipment. The Ford metal wing could be taken apart and reassembled. So, Byrd sold the Fokker to the Mechanical Science Company for $62,000 on April 9, 1928. It is believed that Don Woodward owned the Mechanical Science Company. The sale was noted in the NewYork Times on June 4. Amazingly, two weeks later, on June 17, a young female pilot by the name of Amelia Earhart was a passenger on the Fokker, (now known as the Friendship), on her way to Europe. Amelia made aviation history onboard the Friendship and Don owned the airplane. He sailed to England and brought the airship back to New York, and when the DWWoodward Airport opened on October 12, the Friendship flew into Le Roy. It wasn’t until January 24, 1929, that Amelia Earhart was reunited with the Friendship. She was on a publicity trip and was in Rochester. Don sent a car into the city to bring her out to Le Roy for photographs. (Contrary to stories, Amelia never flew the Friendship. She was a passenger on the trip across the Atlantic, and she came toLeRoy in January 1929 by automobile.) Don did not keep the Friendship for very long. On March 4, 1929, the engines were overhauled and the registration was reissued. A month later, Don sold the Friendship to a consortium from Argentina who planned to fly the plane in a race from Buenos Aries to Spain. But, instead, the Friendship was flown from Buenos Aires to Chile and became part of a coup and was seized by the Chiliean government. The plane at this time is known as El Avion Rojo – the “Red Airplane” because the plane had been painted red initially so it could be seen on it’s trip across the Atlantic Ocean. Supposedly, the Friendship was flown by the Chilean air force until July 1931. Brian Duddy believes it probably fell apart since it was built of wood and canvas. So why did I save the map of Antarctica? Commander Byrd made his successful flight over the South Pole on November 28, 1929, in the Ford trimotor. He named the plane the Floyd Bennett after the deceased pilot of his previous expeditions. (The plane is on exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.) Byrd named a mountain range after Henry Ford’s son Edsel and in the Edsel Ford Range is a mountain, “Donald Woodward Mountain.” And sure enough, there it is on the map. Glad I saved it! AMap of Antarctica
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