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Nicholas Bernard Mamer (1897 – January 10, 1938) was a noted American
Mamer is perhaps best remembered for undertaking a pioneering long-distance endurance flight in 1929 that began on August 15. The flight utilized a
Aerofiles: The flight of the Spokane Sun-GodHistory Link.org
– essay 8899 *
Spokesman-Review
' – Then and Now: Pilot Nick Mamer * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mamer, Nick American aviators 1897 births 1938 deaths American aviation record holders Aviation pioneers Aviators from Washington (state) Accidental deaths in Montana Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States 20th-century American people Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1938
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
pioneer and pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
in the Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
during the 1920s and 1930s.
Early career
Mamer learned to fly inSan Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
and served with the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
The Aviation Section, Signal Corps, was the aerial warfare service of the United States from 1914 to 1918, and a direct statutory ancestor of the United States Air Force. It absorbed and replaced the Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps, and con ...
of the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He later settled in Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...
, establishing the Mamer Flying Service and Mamer Air Transport firms at Parkwater airstrip, renamed Felts Field
Felts Field is a public airport in the northwest United States, located northeast of downtown Spokane, in Spokane County, Washington. It is owned by Spokane City-County.
The airport has two parallel runways. Now used for general aviation, Felt ...
in 1927. Mamer was a flight instructor and charter pilot, and was involved in early forest fire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...
patrol flights for the U.S. Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...
. Among his flight pupils was Bob Johnson, a well-known aviation pioneer in Missoula, Montana
Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...
.
''Spokane Sun-God''
Mamer is perhaps best remembered for undertaking a pioneering long-distance endurance flight in 1929 that began on August 15. The flight utilized a Buhl Airsedan
The Buhl AirSedan was a family of American civil cabin sesquiplane aircraft developed and manufactured by the Buhl Aircraft Company in the late 1920s. One example completed the first transcontinental non-stop roundtrip flight, made in 1929 by ...
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
named the ''Spokane Sun-God''; Mamer was at the controls, and was accompanied by Art Walker acting as mechanic and refueling hoseman.
Beginning in Spokane, Mamer and Walker flew south to San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, east to New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and back to Spokane five days later, without intermediate stops. Aerial refueling
Aerial refueling, also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to another (the receiver) while both aircraft a ...
was accomplished at a number of points along the flight path (one was over Missoula on the return trip). Mamer and Walker did not sleep during those five days (120 hours) aloft. They set a number of records, one of which was a world's record non-stop flight of .
Death
By the late 1930s, Mamer had flown over a million miles (1.6 million km) and had relocated toSeattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
; he was employed by Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...
, working as a pilot on the Seattle-Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
route. In early 1938, he was at the controls of Flight 2, a Lockheed Super Electra
The Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra was an American civil passenger and cargo aircraft built by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation during the late 1930s. An outgrowth of the earlier Model 10 Electra, the Model 14 was also developed into larger, ...
, when the plane crashed in Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
on the afternoon of January 10.
Parts of the tail section were torn from the aircraft as it flew over the Bridger Range, in Gallatin County northeast of Bozeman
Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city of th ...
, and the plane went into a dive and crashed. Mamer, co-pilot Fred West, and eight passengers died instantly, and a fire ensued.
Later, an investigation revealed that the tail structure had failed on the new design from what is known as "natural resonance
Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillatin ...
, or period of vibration". It was the first fatal accident for the Super Electra and Northwest Airlines.
See also
*Northwest Airlines Flight 2
Northwest Airlines Flight 2 was a Lockheed Super Electra aircraft, registration NC17388, which crashed into the Bridger Mountains in Gallatin County, Montana, about northeast of Bozeman, on January 10, 1938. All ten on board were killed in th ...
References
External links
Aerofiles: The flight of the Spokane Sun-God
– essay 8899 *
Spokesman-Review
' – Then and Now: Pilot Nick Mamer * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mamer, Nick American aviators 1897 births 1938 deaths American aviation record holders Aviation pioneers Aviators from Washington (state) Accidental deaths in Montana Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States 20th-century American people Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1938