Colonel George R. Hutchinson (February 11, 1902 - August 21, 1989) was an American

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

and media personality of the 1930s. __TOC__

Early career

George Hutchinson was working as a bank teller in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

when he married Blanche Delcher (1902 - October 24, 1995Blanche Hutchinson Obituary, Baltimore Sun
/ref>) in 1922. In 1928 he co-financed William Penn Airport (later Boulevard Airport, closed in 1951) near

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, where he gave flying lessons and joyflights. In 1930, Hutchinson bought a

Lockheed Sirius The Lockheed Model 8 Sirius was a single-engined, propeller-driven monoplane designed and built by Jack Northrop and Gerard Vultee while they were engineers at Lockheed in 1929, at the request of Charles Lindbergh. Two versions of the same basic ...

monoplane he named ''Richmond, Virginia'' after his home town, trading in his smaller

Stinson Junior The Stinson Junior was a high-winged American monoplane of the late 1920s, built for private owners, and was one of the first such designs to feature a fully enclosed cabin. Design and development Stinson Aircraft had introduced their large high-w ...

as part of the purchase. He intended to use the Sirius, a sleek single-seat aircraft, to cross the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

in a faster time than

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

had in 1927. However, before he could begin his attempt, he crashed the aircraft in Los Angeles. The ''Richmond, Virginia'' was sold to recover debts and was eventually to be rebuilt as the

Altair Altair is the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila and the twelfth-brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Aquilae, which is Latinised from α Aquilae and abbreviated Alpha Aql or ...

Lady Southern Cross The ''Lady Southern Cross'' was a Lockheed Altair monoplane owned by Australian pioneer aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. In this aircraft, Kingsford Smith made the first eastward trans-Pacific flight from Australia to the United States, i ...

''.VH-USB Lady Southern Cross (Part 1)
/ref>

The Flying Hutchinsons

In 1931, George, Blanche and daughters Kathryn and Janet Hutchinson (1925
/ref> - ) became nationwide celebrities as the Flying Hutchinsons, when they visited the capitals of all 48 United States by air.British Pathe footage of the "Flying Family"
/ref> Further fame came when 'the Flying Family' attempted an around-the-world flight the next year; their Sikorsky S-38 aircraft crash-landed off

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

, and the family were stranded for several days before being picked up by a fishing trawler and transported to the United Kingdom. George and Blanche wrote two books about their adventures - ''The Flying Family in Greenland'' (1935) and ''Flying the States'' (1937) - and the family were pictured on cereal boxes and made appearances on stage and radio. In 1939, the family attempted another around-the-world flight in a

Lockheed Electra Lockheed Electra refers to two distinct aircraft designs: * Lockheed Model 10 Electra, a ten-passenger piston engine aircraft of the 1930s, which had two immediate variants: ** Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior, a six-passenger scaled-down version o ...

. The stated aim of this flight was to carry a scroll with a message of peace to the '68 nations of the world' (sic), but this flight only made it as far as Mexico before it was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. Despite the early cancellation of the flight, an NBC radio dramatisation was subsequently produced, starring the family themselves.Wings Across America - radio show from 1939
/ref>

Later life

During World War II, at the age of 18, Janet Hutchinson became a

WASP A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

and flight instructor. After the war, the family settled into relative obscurity in Ruxton, Maryland. After George's death in 1989, Blanche and her daughters retired to

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida Ponte Vedra Beach is a wealthy unincorporated seaside community and suburb of Jacksonville, Florida in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located southeast of downtown Jacksonville and north of St. Augustine, it is part of the Jackso ...

."Neighbors: Janet Lee Simpson reflects on adventuresome life on land, sea and air" St Augustine Record, March 24, 2003
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, George American aviators Aviation pioneers 1902 births 1989 deaths People from Baltimore People from Richmond, Virginia People from Ruxton-Riderwood, Maryland