Anthony Fokker tried to offer some hope that they might yet be found alive. In a newspaper article he explained that the Fokker's main tank was equipped with a valve that allowed the crew to jettison the aircraft's fuel in 45 seconds. He pointed out that the time between SOS signals had been more than sufficient to dump the fuel, which might have given the plane enough buoyancy to keep it afloat until the crew could launch a life raft.

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Hearst refused to give up on locating the plane and crew. He chartered SS Kyle to continue the search. Five days later, on September 12, 1927, Kyle's crew discovered the wreckage of the aircraft 100 miles northeast of the position that Captain Bone had calculated.

The wreckage included 34 feet of the 40-foot wing, fuel tanks, the undercarriage, parts of the super-structure and the damaged left wheel. But there was no sign of the crew or the large central fuel tank that might have served as a float. Investigators concluded that the plane must have dived into the water and broken apart, allowing no time for the crew to escape.

Stories about the ill-fated flight of Old Glory faded from public view as time went on. Hill, Bertaud and Payne had joined the ranks of other brave or foolhardy souls who had dared to cross the Atlantic — including Noel Davis and Stanton Wooster, whose American Legion crashed on takeoff the previous April, and Charles Nungesser and FranÇois Coli, who disappeared in L'Oiseau Blanc the following month.

In 1929 Charles Carroll changed the name of his airport, Longview Field in Westmoreland County, Pa., to J.D. Hill Field. The name change, marked with an elaborate airshow, was intended to be a permanent memorial, but it lasted only until the city of Latrobe purchased the airport in 1938.

Today the only memorial to Hill's part in the last flight of Old Glory is a small stone monument erected in his hometown of Scottdale, Pa. James Hill, Lloyd Bertaud, Philip Payne and the gaudy silver-and-gold plane in which they attempted to set a record and win a prize have faded into the pages of history.

This article was written by M.A. Mogus and originally published in the March 2004 issue of Aviation History Magazine.

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