Aeroplane – June 2018

32 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE JULY 2018

HANOVER STREET B-25s

whereabouts of McQuinn’s aircraft

were then unknown. Hawke elected

to take them down and hope the

cloudbase was not on the deck. It

wasn’t, and they duly met up again

with Laden Maiden.

Hawke and Lorentzen had been

fl ying B-25s back and forth over the

ocean since the mid-1960s. They had

“frightened themselves to death” on

a number of occasions and, as with

this trip to St John’s, providence had

smiled favourably upon them. They

duly arrived at the staging post long

employed by pilots ferrying aircraft

across the Atlantic. To everyone’s

relief, they were soon joined by

the Tallichet aircraft. As they all

gathered to catch up on one another’s

adventures, Hawke commented,

“Now we’re all together. It’s the fi rst

time we’ve had fi ve aeroplanes and 10

pilots together. Remarkable. I’m very

happy to see you all.”

When the crews discussed the

matter of traversing the Atlantic,

differences of opinion as to the route

were aired with candour. This was

not a surprise, as it had been evident

that Hawke, Lorentzen and Ohmert

favoured the southern route and

those fl ying the Tallichet aircraft the

northern. The latter offered shorter

sea crossings as it routed Greenland,

Iceland and Ireland or Scotland.

Hawke was convinced that the poorer

weather forecast — especially the

cold temperatures — would give the

B-25s more problems than would the

warmer, southerly route. McQuinn,

Addie and Tallichet took the view

that the initial fl ight from St John’s to

the Azores, involving as it did a sea

crossing of more than 1,000 miles, was

of bigger concern bearing in mind the

condition of the aircraft.

Although McQuinn was lead pilot,

it was Hawke who was directing the

whole operation. After letting his

colleagues say their piece, he eschewed

the northern route and said, “Quite

honestly, it’s that simple. We came up

here to get across the ocean, not to sit

here hoping to fi ddle-faddle.”

The following morning dawned

only to reveal swirling fog and cold

temperatures. Take-off was out of

the question. It was over a week now

since Hawke’s two aircraft had left

Philadelphia. Momentum was, once

again, being lost. Hawke was bitter. “It

sure frustrates the hell out of me.”

Later, on the Sunday morning,

the fog lifted and the forecast for

the weather over the Atlantic was

just acceptable. Hawke wanted to

take advantage of the window being

offered to them. As there was a

possibility that this would mean a

night landing at Flores in the Azores,

some of the pilots expressed grave

concern. When it turned out that

the three Tallichet machines still

had to do their compass swing, so

delaying the take-off further, Hawke

compromised in favour of a departure

the following morning, 8 May.

All Hawke’s misgivings were

realised the next day when St John’s

was completely fogged in. To add to

his problems, Don McQuinn had

cleared out in the night. He left a

Always Dangerous crossed the runway and backtracked

at high speed, then crossed once more and continued to

backtrack, preventing the fourth B-25 from starting its run

Laden Maiden being refuelled at

Worcester, Massachusetts with airline

pilots looking on and Etienne Vigoureux

and John Hawke in the foreground.

Vigoureux and fellow co-pilot José

Dolhem were French racing drivers and

pilots, Dolhem being the half-brother of

Formula 1 driver Didier Pironi.

Don McQuinn (with

Bernhard Haddican

behind) in the cockpit

of Laden Maiden,

conversing with

Hawke.

28-35_AM_Hanover_July18_cc C.indd 32 04/06/2018 12:25