File:Wesley Leland Smith (1894-1963) obituary in the Asbury Park Press of Asbury Park, New Jersey on 9 February 1963.jpg

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Wesley Smith, Air Pioneer. Lodi, New Jersey (Associated Press) Wesley L. Smith, who set a transcontinental record in 1924 when he became the first army pilot to fly a 500-pound mail load from New York to California, died yesterday. He was 69. Smith's exploits included flying with Jacqueline Cochran in the 1934 London-Australia air derby, and crash-landing successfully in a Chicago lot and saving 15 passengers and crew. Smith died in the veterans hospital at East Orange after a long illness. A native of Los Banos, California, he lived in Mountain Lakes before moving to Lodi. Smith planned a singing career but became interested in flying and joined the army air corps during World War I. He served in San Diego as a flying instructor during the war and later became one of the first army pilots to fly the mail. In 1928, he became Cleveland superintendent of National Air Transport, which later became a subsidiary of United Air Lines. He was chief pilot for Transcontinental and Western Air Lines when he crash landed at Chicago in 1936. He leaves his widow, Mrs. Zelma Larimore Smith; a son, William L., serving with the Army at Ft. Dix; two daughters, Mrs. Frederick Tonrellet of Boonton Manor; and Mrs. James Mack of Tujunga, California, and three grand-children.

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This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1963, and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart and the copyright renewal logs. Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (70 years p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 years p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 years p.m.a.), Mexico (100 years p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 years p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties. العربية ∙ Deutsch ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenščina ∙ українська ∙ 简体中文 ∙ 繁體中文 ∙ +/−