Disappearance continues to be a mystery
By Warner M.Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

Photos compliments of Ron Shelton and Tom Savage Paul Redfern's green and yellow Stinson Detroiter was named Port of Brunswick.

"It was exactly 80 years ago, at this very minute, that Paul Redfern took off from Brunswick, Georgia, for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Let's raise our glasses to the first person to fly non- stop across the Caribbean from North America to South America," toasted Tom Savage to those gathered to celebrate the heroics of Columbia's Paul Redfern.

This dramatic moment culminated a symposium at the S.C. State Museum last Saturday honoring the 80th Anniversary of Redfern's flight. Speakers at the event were Paul Redfern Jennings, the aviator's nephew; Ron Shelton, former curator for the S.C. State Museum; Tom Savage, aviation expert; Skeet Vaughn, retired NASA engineer; Dr. Miles Richards, historian and professor at Midlands Tech; and Hugh King, retired Royal Air Force pilot of Alberta, Canada. Special guests were Louise Riley of Leesville; Morris Kline, WWII Air Force pilot; Fritz Hamer, S.C. State Museum; and Donna Doyle, Celebrate Freedom Foundation.

Speakers and honored guests at the Paul Redfern Symposium are (l-r) Donna Doyle, Celebrate Freedom Foundation; Ron Shelton, Redfern expert; Hugh King of Alberta, Canada; Skeet Vaughn, retired NASA engineer; Tom Savage, aviation expert; Dr.Miles Richards, historian; and Paul Redfern Jennings, nephew of Paul Redfern.

Redfern's story has been the subject of the

movie Too Hot To Handle

with Clark Gable; a segment on the SCETV program,

Mary Long's

Yesterday; a chapter in Russell Maxcy's Airports of

Columbia; a chapter in

Miles Richard's Remembering

Columbia, Capital City

Chronicles; Shelton and Savage's Website www.capnbilly. com/redfern.htm; and many magazine and newspaper articles. Redfern's story is one of a young genius- at- work, adventure and exploration, intrigue and mystery. It began at Columbia High School and ended in the jungles of South America.

(Above) Paul Redfern's flight plan was hand drawn by Bill Heynes on August 25, 1927, and signed by Redfern. It was also signed by NASA astronaut Don L. Lind in 1969. (Below) This biplane built by Paul Redfern was displayed in USC's Longstreet Gymnasium from 1918 to the late 1920s.

Paul Redfern was born February 25, 1902, in Rochester, NY. His father, Dr. Frederick C. Redfern, was a Baptist preacher. They moved to Boise, Idaho, where Paul in 1911 got his first flying experience - leaping off a hill in a glider.

When Rev. Redfern came to Benedict College in 1914 as administrator and teacher, Paul entered Columbia High School. He built a biplane glider and flew it in the Columbia area. In 1918, in his 10th grade industrial arts class, Paul built a full- size biplane for a school project. The plane was hung in USC's Longstreet Gymnasium until the late 1920s.

When WWI broke out, an Army officer at Fort Jackson contacted Congressman James F. Byrnes who, in turn, helped Paul get a job in quality control at the Standard Aircraft Company in New Jersey. Standard manufactured biplanes similar to the Curtis JN- 4 Jenny.

After WWI, Paul returned home and continued his education at Columbia High School. He collected parts from leftover war planes and built a small biplane (World's Smallest Flying Machine) and flew it first from the fairgrounds then at an airfield he developed at the junction of Millwood Ave. and Devine Street, now the site of Dreher High School.

Paul formed the Redfern Aviation Company based at the "Dreher" field. Using a Jenny he purchased, Paul created a business by dropping advertising leaflets out of his plane and flying passengers between Columbia and Sumter. He also did his share of aerobatics and barnstorming, including a stunt flight under the Catawba River Bridge, dropping a dummy from 2,000 feet at a football game, and his first night flight on July 4, 1923.

Paul extended his operations to Toledo, Ohio, where for several years he spent winter in Columbia and summer in Toledo. He married his wife, Gertrude, in Ohio in 1925. In 1926, they moved to Savannah where Paul worked for the Customs Service spotting stills and rumrunners.

Charles Lindbergh, who was 21 days younger than Paul Redfern, made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic in May 1927 winning the $25,000 prize. Three months later, A.C. Goebel won the $25,000 Dole Race from Oakland to Honolulu. Not wanting to be left out of the fame and fortune that hit the aviation world, Paul persuaded the Brunswick (Ga.) Board of Trade a $25,000 record- setting flight from Brunswick to Rio would help them become a major port city.

On August 27, 1927, Paul Redfern took off from Brunswick in a special- built, 225 horsepower, green and

yellow Stinson Detroiter named Port

of Brunswick. He loaded enough supplies and fuel for the 4,000- mile, 50- hour trip. His wife handed him his box lunch, and Paul said, "Do not worry about me if you do not hear from me for two or three years…I may walk out of the South American jungle some day with a swell story…"

Skeet Vaughn, a NASA engineer, said, "Redfern made two mistakes. It was the wrong time of year, hurricane season. And there was no full moon."

Redfern circled a Norwegian steamship off Trinidad and asked for directions to South America. A surveyor reported seeing a green and yellow place trailing smoke heading for the Venezuelan jungle. Jimmie Angel reported he saw a glint of light off a green and yellow plane in 1935 near what is now Angel Falls. An Indian tribe in British Guiana told Hugh King's stepfather in 1935 they had pulled a white man from a crashed plane and he was living with them.

After 80 years, no trace of Redfern or his plane have been found. A Dutch expedition is currently searching the jungles of Guyana for the first man to fly nonstop across the Caribbean Sea, Columbia's Paul Redfern.