Broken Wings by Stephen L. Renner

Author:Stephen L. Renner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2017-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 5.2. One of three fifteen-passenger Fokker F.VIIIs produced by WM for MALERT. Courtesy of the Péter Zámbori Collection.

The failure of MALERT’s domestic scheduled flights was not caused by a general apathy toward flying. Sport aviation had an avid following in Hungary during these years and figured prominently in public life. The prewar Hungarian Aero Club (Magyar Aero Szövetség, MASz) had come back to life immediately after the departure of the Allied Aeronautical Commission in 1922. Air shows at regional airfields organized by private groups had tremendous appeal. In September 1924 the War Widows and Orphans Association hosted an air show at Kecskemét. One of MALERT’s newly acquired Fokker six-seaters opened the day by scattering advertising leaflets over the city, and in the afternoon treated spectators to a parachutists’ display. A similar event in Kecskemét in 1929 “met with huge success.” In 1932 the Central Hungarian Automobile and Motor Club organized a larger event there. Seven sport airplanes participated, along with two MALERT Fokkers, in which 133 visitors were able to take a ride (more than a hundred others were in the queue when flying ended for the day). Distinguished guests included István Horthy, the regent’s son and an experienced pilot himself, and the director of the LÜH, Dr. György Rákosi. Rákosi arrived in a Fiat BR.3 named Justice for Hungary, a gift from Mussolini meant as a replacement for Hungary’s most famous airplane that had been lost in a crash earlier in the year.53

The original Justice for Hungary was flown by György Endresz and Sándor Magyar across the Atlantic in July 1931. The record-setting ocean crossing was the most celebrated feat of Hungarian airmanship in the decades between the wars, and perhaps of all time. The stunt operated as part of Lord Rothermere’s campaign to assist Hungary in its quest for rehabilitation and revision. Measured in terms of sympathetic press coverage, particularly in the United States, the flight was a huge success. Christening the aircraft Justice for Hungary was a stroke of publicity genius, because it all but ensured that every news item about the flight would print those words in a positive light, and public fascination with aerial exploits meant there was an eager audience. The late 1920s and early 1930s were the golden age of aviation—this was only the fifteenth nonstop transatlantic flight—and it is unlikely that a “Justice for Hungary” polar expedition or round-the-world sail would have garnered the same interest. For the aviators themselves, Lord Rothermere’s $10,000 prize offered a tangible monetary benefit in addition to the promise of fame and the admiration of their countrymen.

Magyars living within Hungary contributed very little to the trip ($45, according to one account); it was funded almost entirely by the sizable Hungarian diaspora.54 The idea originated in the offices of the Detroit Magyar Hírlap, and soon gained the support of the American Hungarian Federation. Endresz and Magyar traveled to America to raise funds for their flight. Nearly 8,000 Americans contributed, but the individual gifts were small.55 After weeks of work, the two had collected just $5,000, and had spent almost $3,000 in the process.

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