I'd like to report that in 1933, when I was 2.5 yrs old, my family of four flew from the East coast to West cost on a UA Boeing 247. My brother, Walter, was only about 3 weeks old which made him the youngest baby to have made the trip up until that time.

Of course I don't rember the trip, but was told when older that I was sitting in my father's (Dwight Johnson, Sr.) lap holding a bouquet of panseys. He was seatbelted down, I was not. We hit a "air pocket" which left me in a seated position some distance above my father!

Since they didn't fly at night yet, we landed one or more times to sleep.

When my mother was quite aged, I commented to her that they were really "gutsy" and adventurous to make such a flight on such a early airplane. Her reply was," You only know the half of it. The same kind of plane had crashed and all were killed a week earlier. However, your Father and I decided to go anyway since the whole family would be together. If we were killed we'd all go to be with the Lord at the same time."

I am sure that part of the decision was my father's strong interest in aviation and the experience it would provide. As a child he saw Beachy crash during the SF 1915 World's Fair, and he built a plane out of yardsticks from a local hardware store in his San Francisco attic.

Later in life he was convinced that planes should be shaped like the pointed paper gliders. We know now he was right.

A week before his death, he was thrilled to come onboard one of the first UA 747's upon my family's return to CA from NY.

A few years ago I enjoyed the very good display of this plane in the Seattle Boeing Muesum.

Thank you for this website. It's been enjoyable recalling my past aviation history. Use these comments as you wish. If you do, and its convient, please let me know how you used them.

Yours,
Dwight Johnson, Jr


Logged in as: dnvjohnson@aol.com



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Logged in as: dnvjohnson@aol.com



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The first act of terrorism involving aviation occurred on 10 October 1933, when a Boeing 247 flying from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois exploded over Indiana by a bomb planted in the baggage compartment of the plane. All three crew members and all four passengers died in the crash. Incidentally, this was the first recoreded crash involving a United Air Lines airplane, which incidentally, has one of the safest records in air travel. Incidentally, in that connection, it was also the first crash of a Boeing B-247, which was one ot the best designed planes of its time and considered to be one of the safest to fly at the time.