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Clarence Duncan Chamberlin

"Do you know that I received one letter marked 'To Clarence Chamberlin.  TransAtlantic Flyer. Somewhere in Connecticut.  Everybody Knows His Address.'  That's what I call first-class mail service."
  The extraordinary flight that prompted such faith was the world's long distance, nonstop record from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, to Eisleben, Germany, a distance of 3,911 miles.  The June, 1927, flight of 43 hours, 31 minutes, required 450 gallons of fuel.  It was also historic because pilot Chamberlin carried passenger Charles A. Levine.  Their monoplane, [[italic]]Columbia[[/italic]], was also a celebrity: on April 12, Bert Acosta, and Chamberlin had set a world's nonstop endurance record with her, staying aloft just over 51 hours.  During the next seven years, [[italic]]Columbia[[/italic]] gained more reknown in dozens of first-flights, and record flights, but her end couldn't have been more ignoble: she was destroyed in a factory fire.
  The contributions, and the happy stunts of Chamberlin are important developments on the aviation scene--"Even if I did take off from the deck of the [[italic]]Leviathan[[/italic]] with that ol' sack of mail."  He set the world's Diesel engine altitude record of 19,861 feet in 1930, was engineer in charge of designing Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, and consulting engineer to the building of Albany's Municipal Airport, served on the Baker Board for the reorganization of the Army Air Corps, and has engaged in a variety of business activity akin to aeronautica.

[[image - propeller]]

  Clarence D. Chamberlin: born Denison, Iowa, November 11, 1893.


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[[photo - Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlin]]

[[photo - Chamberlin in front of his "Miss Stratosphere" plane]]
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[[caption]]
Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlin aboard the SS Leviathan (35), homeward bound from Europe, following his New York - Germany flight in "Columbia" (37), June, 1927.  Plane had been marked New York-Paris before Lindbergh's surprise voyage, as this was Chamberlin's announced destination.  With his "Miss Stratosphere" (36).
[[/caption]]

[[photo - Chamberlin in cockpit of "Columbia" plane]]
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