George Otto Noville (April 24, 1890 – January 1, 1963), also known as "Noville" and "Rex," was a pioneer in polar and trans-Atlantic aviation in the 1920s, and winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross. He served with Commander

Richard E. Byrd Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer and explorer. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for valor given by the United States, and was a pioneering American aviator, p ...

on the historic (but controversial) 1926 flight to the North Pole, as third in command. He was flight engineer on the ''America'' (the third plane to fly non stop over the Atlantic Ocean), and was executive officer of Byrd's Second Antarctic Exploration 1933-35. Mount Noville and

Noville Peninsula Noville Peninsula () is a high ice-covered peninsula about 30 nautical miles (60 km) long, between Peale and Murphy Inlets on the north side of Thurston Island in Antarctica. It was delineated from aerial photographs made by U.S. Navy Op ...

in Antarctica are named after him.

Biography

George Noville was born on April 24, 1890, in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the son of Otto J. Noville (1870–1936), a rich and well-known hat manufacturer. He was an officer in the

United States Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

and was promoted to the rank of

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

on December 17, 1927.

Transatlantic flight

In 1927, in a

trimotor A trimotor is an aircraft powered by three engines and represents a compromise between complexity and safety and was often a result of the limited power of the engines available to the designer. Many trimotors were designed and built in the 1920s ...

Fokker C-2 Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

, named '' America'' he flew with

, Bernt Balchen, and

Bert Acosta Bertrand Blanchard Acosta (January 1, 1895 – September 1, 1954) was a record-setting aviator and test pilot. He and Clarence D. Chamberlin set an endurance record of 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds in the air. He later flew in the Span ...

on their record-setting

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing air ...

. In 1927, Byrd decided to partner with

Floyd Bennett Floyd Bennett (October 25, 1890 – April 25, 1928) was a United States Naval Aviator, along with then USN Commander Richard E. Byrd, to have made the first flight to the North Pole in May 1926. However, their claim to have reached the pole is d ...

(his co-pilot on the North Pole flight), and attempt to win the

Orteig Prize The Orteig Prize was a reward offered to the first Allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice versa.Bak. Pages 28 and 29. Several famous aviators made unsuccessful attempts at the New York–Paris flight before the rel ...

which offered a $25,000 reward for the first non-stop flight from New York City to Paris. The plane chosen for this flight was a Fokker C-2 monoplane named ''America''. George O. Noville was selected as the flight and fuel engineer. On April 20, 1927, during a test flight in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, the plane somersaulted when landing, breaking Byrd's arm and knocking him unconscious. The crash also injured Bennett and Noville required surgery for internal injuries. A fourth person on ''America'', aircraft designer Anthony Fokker, was not injured. Fokker later told Bennett that he should have refused to conduct the test flight with Byrd, Bennett, and Noville on board because there was no load in the rear of the plane. As a result, the plane was nose-heavy. While Byrd and his crew regrouped from the accident,

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 ...

won the

when he landed in Paris on May 21, 1927. According to ''The Big Aviation Book for Boys'' by Richard E. Byrd, Noville was one of the group who gathered to wish Lindbergh godspeed right before his historic flight. After several delays, Byrd's ''America'' took off for Paris on June 29, 1927 with Noville and two relief pilots, Bert Acosta and Bernt Balchen. The weather was terrible during the flight. Rain and strong winds made navigating near impossible. When ''America'' reached Paris after 40 hours, a heavy fog prevented it from landing. Byrd and his crew flew around Paris for about six hours waiting for the fog to lift. When it failed to do so, they flew west and landed in the ocean off of Ver-sur-Mar (later known as Omaha Beach in Normandy) without fatalities on July 1, 1927. Byrd, Acosta, Balchen and Noville ended up entering France in a rubber life raft as ''America'' sank after landing on the water. Popular Science magazine, August 1928, featured an extensive article with photos about this flight, ''"Dick Byrd— Adventurer. The Absorbing Story of the America's Flight across the Atlantic – a Valiant Escape from Death in Blinding Fog"'' Upon return to the U.S., Byrd and Noville were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Secretary of the Navy Wilbur on July 19. On November 14, Noville and other "Air Heroes of 1927" were honored at the White House by President Calvin Coolidge. Noville once again joined an adventure with Byrd, serving as executive officer of Byrd's Second

Antarctic Exploration The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term ''Antarctic'', referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Ma ...

1933-35.

Personal life and death

Noville was married four times. He married Violet E. Wade in 1914, and Lilian Grace MacMurchey in 1918. His third wife was identified as "Sigrid" in 1930. He married his fourth and final wife, Lucy Vacheron, in 1953. Noville committed suicide by gunshot on January 1, 1963.

Legacy

The

(71°56′S 98°35′W), a high ice-covered peninsula about 30 nautical miles (60 km) long, between Peale and Murphy Inlets on the north side of

Thurston Island Thurston Island is an ice-covered, glacially dissected island, long, wide and in area, lying a short way off the northwest end of Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. It is the third-largest island of Antarctica, after Alexander Island and Berkner Isl ...

, and Mount Noville (86°26′S 146°10′W), in the

Queen Maud Mountains The Queen Maud Mountains are a major group of mountains, ranges and subordinate features of the Transantarctic Mountains, lying between the Beardmore and Reedy Glaciers and including the area from the head of the Ross Ice Shelf to the Antarcti ...

, were named for Noville.

References

Flight: A pictorial history of aviation by the editors of Year; the complete story of man's conquest of the air from his earliest dreams to the present jet age, dramatically portrayed in over 1,000 pictures. Foreword by Donald W. Douglas. Los Angeles, 1953 {{DEFAULTSORT:Noville, George Otto 1890 births 1963 deaths Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) 1963 suicides Suicides by firearm in Mexico