by Stephen Restelli

Republished from the public Favorite Barre, VT Memories Facebook page

Major advancements were being made with transatlantic flight by 1930, but no pilot had completed the span across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Norway. A Norwegian newspaper posted a $10,000 cash prize to be awarded to the first airplane to complete the cross-ocean flight non-stop. Clyde Lee was up to the challenge.

Lee set his sights on becoming the first pilot to make the dangerous flight across the North Atlantic. With the aid of Earl T. Iverson, a local mechanic, Lee got to work on readying his 1928 model red Stinson airplane. Lutz supplied the gas, oil and money they needed, and a hangar at the Oshkosh Airport to complete the work. The community helped as well by developing a flight fund, and the monoplane was appropriately named “Oshkosh B’Gosh.”

The original flight plan was to start out from Oshkosh, but the crew fell short of getting adequate funding. Lee managed to obtain financial backing from the residents of Barre and Montpelier in Vermont, and plans changed for the flight to originate in Barre. John Bochkon of Brooklyn, New York, also offered to help with expenses, if he could be co-pilot. Another stipulation was that the name of the plane be changed to “The Green Mountain Boy” in honor of Vermont backing the flight.

On August 23, 1932, Lee and Bochkon were bound for Norway. The first leg of the flight was to Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. Bad weather forced the pair to spend the night on a beach in Newfoundland and they arrived in Harbor Grace the next morning. After waiting for the weather to clear, the two pilots finally headed out to sea on August 25 for their nonstop flight to Oslo, Norway.

The planned flight was to cover the 3,150 miles across the North Atlantic in 30 hours, estimating their arrival in Oslo at 6 p.m. on August 26. Lee was a very experienced pilot, having logged more certified hours of flying than Lindbergh had when he made his transatlantic flight five years earlier. Lee studied weather peculiarities and air currents over the Atlantic for about a year before the big test, and he was confident of their success.

The men were never seen again, nor the airplane. It is conjectured that a severe storm passed their flight route forcing them off course, and like Amelia Earhart on her attempt to circle the world a mere five years later, their fate remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in aviation history.