Wooster and Davis

(for the actor called Noel Davis, see Noel Davis)

Wooster and Davis-- Lieutenant Stanton Hall Wooster (April 1, 1895 Connecticut - April 26, 1927) and Lieutenant Commander Noel Davis(December 25, 1891 Salt Lake City, Utah - April 26, 1927) were two United States Navy airmen who made an attempt to fly the Atlantic Ocean from New York-to-Paris in the spring of 1927. The men were trying to win the $25,000 dollar Orteig Prize offered by New York hotelier Raymond Orteig for the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris. Competitors for the prize were French WW1 ace Rene Fonck and his crew of three, USN Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd, Clarence Chamberlain and a young airmail pilot named Charles Lindbergh. On the Paris side of the Atlantic their competitors were another WW1 French ace Charles Nungesser and his navigator Francois Coli.

Wooster and Davis flew a Keystone Pathfinder(N-X179) plane called American Legion. Newsreel footage taken of the men and their plane are extant and record the duo's goings on that Spring of 1927. While testing with a heavy load of gas on April 26, 1927 the Pathfinder lost altitude and crashed on its nose in Virginia killing both men. The eventual victor of the Orteig prize was Charles Lindbergh two weeks later.