In the early days of aviation, those who took to the skies fascinated the public. Those who broke records or were the first to achieve a milestone often became celebrities. Dick Merrill was certainly one of those.
Henry Tyndall (Dick) Merrill was born in Iuka, Mississippi, in 1894. He was a descendant of the legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone. Merrill acquired the nickname Dick, as in a fictional hero of the time Dick Meriwell, based on his ability to pitch a baseball with either hand. He played in semi-professional leagues, but his legacy would be in the air, not the baseball diamond.
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When WWI began, Merrill enlisted in Navy aviation and trained at the Pensacola Air Force Base. He learned to fly in France and flew patrols in the English Channel.
After the war, Merrill returned to the U.S. and worked with the railroad. He bought his first plane in 1920. Initially, he flew in air shows but soon began flying air mail. His fame grew as he logged more miles than any other air mail pilot, and Dick developed a reputation for being an expert in flying in adverse weather conditions.
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Transatlantic flights first occurred in 1919 and, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh made a solo flight from New York to Paris. No aviator had ever completed a round trip. Merrill had been contemplating a round-trip transatlantic first for some time but was unable to put together the finances. In 1936, he met wealthy entertainer Harry Richman. Richman was a pilot and aviation enthusiast. He was intrigued by Merrill’s plan and the pair committed to the adventure.
They acquired a Vultee V-1A and began modifying it for long flights. Extra fuel tanks and a more powerful engine were among the changes they made for their voyage. In a move noted worldwide, Richman ordered all vacant spaces inside the plane’s fuselage to be filled with Ping-Pong balls. The final count was over 41,000 balls. He felt they would add to the plane’s ability to float if forced to land in the ocean.
The pair took off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, on September 2, 1936. In the early days of aviation, pilots became celebrities. Famed aviator Amelia Earhart and Eastern Airlines owner and WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker were among those seeing the pair off.
The intended destination was London. The pilots described the flight as reasonably smooth, mostly in and out of cloud cover. The two alternated two-hour shifts at the controls. A lightning strike as they neared Europe caused the loss of their radio, which left the pair flying blindly. An unknown force caused the plane to nosedive over the Atlantic, but the pilots regained control.
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An encounter with a nasty weather system over Ireland and a low fuel level caused by a malfunctioning fuel analyzer forced the craft to land in a pasture in Wales. The 3,300-mile trip had taken just over eighteen hours. They had fuel flown to them and completed the journey to London the following day. There they had christened the aircraft “Lady Peace.”
Merrill and Richman departed for their return to the U.S. on September 14. They were forced to stop in Newfoundland for fuel and minor repairs after Richman erred in dumping 500 gallons of fuel. They landed in New York a week later.
The following year, Hearst newspapers contracted Merrill to duplicate his feat. The paper wanted the first photos of the coronation of King George VI, which Merrill would carry back to the U.S. on his return flight. He would bring photos of the Hindenburg crash for Hearst’s European papers on his outgoing New York to London route. His co-pilot for this journey was Jack Lambie.
Merrill’s exploits earned him celebrity status. In 1938, he married a showgirl/actress, Toby Wing. The couple moved to Miami, and Dick continued flying for Eastern Airlines. They remained married until Dick died in 1982.
When WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker owned Eastern Airlines, he always insisted on Merrill for his personal pilot. In a famed exchange, the two said, ‘But Captain, you’ve got a hundred pilots on the line better than me.’ ‘I know, Merrill, but you’re the luckiest son of a bitch I’ve got, and I’d rather fly behind a lucky pilot than a good one any day!’ Rickenbacker called Merrill “The best Commercial pilot in the United States.”
