On June 28–29, 1927, the Bird of Paradise, crewed by 1st Lt. Lester J. Maitland and 1st Lt. Albert F. Hegenberger, completed the first flight over the Pacific Ocean from the mainland, California, to Hawaii.

[1] Although the recognition accorded Maitland and Hegenberger was less in comparison with the extensive adulation given to Charles Lindbergh for his transatlantic flight only five weeks earlier, their feat was arguably more significant from a navigational standpoint.

A program for a transpacific flight from California to Hawaii (over a distance officially considered by the Army to be 2,407 miles (3,874 km)) was developed in February 1920 by the Instrument Branch and simulated many times during testing.

There he submitted a request to the Chief of the Air Service to organize a transpacific flight between Hawaii and the mainland using the new two-engined Martin NBS-1 bomber, a prototype of which had been at McCook Field.

[11] At McCook Field in 1923, Hegenberger (who had also become a Robins protégé)[11] worked closely with engineer Bradley Jones, a leading authority on air navigation, to test and adapt for military purposes an earth inductor compass developed by the Pioneer Instrument Company in conjunction with the National Bureau of Standards.

On September 6, 1923, Hegenberger and Jones successfully tested the equipment by navigating from Dayton to Boston, Massachusetts in a DH-4, above unbroken clouds that completely prevented them from seeing any landmarks on the ground.

[19] At 10:50 on the morning of June 15, 1927, Maitland and Hegenberger took off from Fairfield Air Intermediate Depot (FAID)[n 8] in the Bird of Paradise and flew to Scott Field, Illinois, on the first leg of final flight tests of the airplane's performance.

[6][n 9] The next day the quintet continued to Kelly Field, Texas, stopping at Dallas en route, where they learned that the transpacific attempt had been announced by the War Department.

[1][6][n 11] On June 24, the results of the cross country tests were reported to Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis and he approved the flight to Hawaii, pending a final inspection of the aircraft by the Chief of the Air Corps, Gen. Mason Patrick.

[6] An air of competition greeted the Army flyers upon their arrival in San Francisco resembling that which surrounded Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight a month earlier.

[6] The Air Corps announced that the purpose of its flight was testing of the radio beacon navigational aids at Crissy Field and at Paia, Maui, Hawaii.

[15] The runway of Crissy Field, situated beside the bay on the grounds of the Presidio, was approximately 3,000 feet (900 m) in length but was too short for a fully loaded C-2 to acquire lift speed during its takeoff roll.

On June 27, Maitland and Hegenberger flew the Bird of Paradise across San Francisco Bay to the newly opened Oakland Municipal Airport, whose 7000 foot (2,100 meter) runway was acceptable for the anticipated gross weight of 13,500 pounds (6,100 kg) with full fuel load.

The aircraft was parked near Smith and Carter's Travel Air 5000, City of Oakland, (see photograph) and given a final service check by its support crew.

An in-flight meal of soup in thermos bottles, chicken sandwiches, and coffee was placed aboard the Bird of Paradise,[18] along with drinking water and chocolate bars.

[1] Maitland and Hegenberger shook hands with their support team and Gen. Patrick, who reportedly told them, quoted in Aero Digest: "God bless you, my boys, I know you'll make it.

Using its noon position, he plotted an intercept of the Matson passenger liner SS Sonoma, overflying the ship at 2:45 p.m. when it was 724 miles (1,165 km) from San Francisco.

Hegenberger recorded that the C-2 had picked up a strong tail wind around noon, pushing them for the remainder of the flight[6] at an average speed of 115 miles per hour (185 km/h),[22] and plotted a new course parallel to the original.

[22] At sunset, Maitland climbed the Bird of Paradise to an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 m) to place it above the clouds, where Hegenberger could frequently check their position by star sightings.

[23] At approximately 2:00 a.m. (19 hours into the flight)[22] the center engine on the Bird of Paradise ran rough and quit, causing the aircraft to slowly lose altitude.

The icing had occurred because the heaters for the air intakes had been removed during modifications, as a power conservation measure, when Hegenberger's flight plan did not anticipate encountering temperatures cold enough to require their use.

With full power restored, Maitland climbed the Bird of Paradise to 7,000 feet (2,100 m), where scattered breaks in the clouds allowed star sightings to be made.

Miller, the Hawaiian Department commanding general Edward M. Lewis, then-Territorial Governor Wallace R. Farrington (Hawaii would become a state in 1959), the stunt man Dick Grace, and their mutual friend 1st Lt. John Griffith, who found the misplaced food when he inspected the aircraft—beneath Hegenberger's plotting board under a tarpaulin.

On July 6, they boarded the liner Maui to return to San Francisco after Gen. Patrick refused their request to fly the Bird of Paradise back to the mainland.

Also in 1928 the navigation and communications configuration of the Bird of Paradise was recreated with upgrades in a second C-2 assigned to the Materiel Division (26-203) and used for three years as a "flying radio laboratory".

[26] Hegenberger and Bradley Jones instituted a four-month course in air navigation for six rated pilots at Bolling Field in January 1929 using a similarly equipped C-2A variant.

[28] Maitland was eventually promoted to colonel during World War II, commanded a B-26 Marauder bomb group in combat in 1943, then retired from the Air Corps.

[31][n 13] On November 15, 1929, it assisted the territorial Board of Agricultural and Forestry on Kauai by sowing seeds of the karaka tree from the air to slow the erosion process in three forest reserves near Waimea Canyon.

Staging from Hanapepe airport, a crew of five and a forestry expert dispersed 1,689 pounds (766 kg) of seed in three flights, resulting in forest growth by 1935.

The flight...tested not only the reliability of the machine, but the navigational skill and the stamina of the two officers as well, for had they strayed even three-and-a-half degrees off course, they would have missed Kauai and vanished over the ocean.