Clarence Duncan Chamberlin (November 11, 1893 – October 31, 1976) was an American pioneer of aviation, being the second man to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to the European mainland, while carrying the first transatlantic passenger.

Additionally, he found great delight in using his mechanical skills to repair the clocks and watches that would be brought into his father's jewelry shop on an almost daily basis.

In 1915, Chamberlin was offered a job by Charles W. Tabor, one of Denison's more prominent citizens, to serve as a chauffeur on a six-month trip through the southwest and to San Francisco for the World's Fair.

In addition to meeting Wilda Bogert of Independence, Iowa, who would later become his wife; it was in San Francisco that Chamberlin would rediscover his passion for flying.

However, this plane would not be completely constructed or delivered for another 14 months, so, upon the urging of his father, Chamberlin returned to Denison to help run the family jewelry store.

However, Chamberlin soon grew tired of the jewelry business and expanded the store's inventory to include "talking machines" which he eventually found himself traveling around the county selling.

[1] When the Bellanca Model CE airplane finally arrived, Chamberlin discovered that while it had a smaller engine than he had expected, it could fly faster, land slower, and even carry a passenger beside the pilot.

Even a rather spectacular incident in the 1925 New York International Air Races, where he had crashed his plane after striking some telephone wires, served only to enhance his credibility with the American public.

While the flight was marred with difficulties, including accidentally triggered gasoline cut-off valves and a lack of water for the pilots, it ultimately proved successful.

While the Wright-Bellanca, as it was referred to in its early days, appeared to be "just another straightforward high-wing monoplane with clean if rather angular lines" it, unlike others of its class, was able to lift a huge payload.

This was due mainly to two features: "a profiled fuselage and wide aerofoil-section wing struts, both [of which] contribut[ed] considerably to [the plane's] total lift.

Prior to Chamberlin's successful endurance flight, the Wright-Bellanca was purchased by Charles A. Levine, the wealthy, millionaire salvage dealer and the president of the Columbia Aircraft Corporation.

However, the joy ride almost ended in tragedy when part of the undercarriage tore loose on take-off, but Chamberlin was able to safely and skillfully land the plane.

Three years after its record breaking flight with Chamberlin, the newly renamed "Maple Leaf", flown by Canadian Captain J. Errol Boyd and U.S.

Naval Air Service Lieutenant Harry P. Connor, flew from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Pentle Bay, Tresco, in the Isles of Scilly.

[4] After many years of superior service, the "Miss Columbia", one of the most significant aircraft in aviation history, was retired to Bellanca Field in New Castle, Delaware, in 1934.

However, on January 25, 1934, the day before the transfer was to take place, a fire leveled the storage barn where the "Miss Columbia", along with six other aircraft, was being stored.

[6] Chamberlin and Acosta's successful endurance flight convinced Levine that an attempt at a crossing of the Atlantic was feasible and that the Orteig Prize was within reach.

However, near constant arguments over the choice of crew, the route to be followed, and whether wireless equipment should be installed plagued preparations for the Trans-Atlantic flight.

"[5] Indeed, the court injunction against Levine and the "Miss Columbia" allowed Charles Lindbergh and his "Spirit of St. Louis" to take off for his Trans-Atlantic flight before Chamberlin.

[7] When the court injunction was finally dropped, thanks to personal appeals from the plane's creator Giuseppe Bellanca, it was too late for the "Miss Columbia" and Chamberlin to be the first to make the historic Trans-Atlantic flight.

Soon after this, Bellanca severed ties with Levine and announced that his "sole concern [had been] to prove that [his] plane, built in America and manned by Americans, could successfully make the New York-to-Paris flight… adding another stage to the experimental development of aviation in this country.

Fog and strong winds soon caused the "Miss Columbia" to fly southward off course, even though they were able to roughly maintain a flight plan similar to that of Lindbergh's.

"[1] Following their successful landing and reception in Berlin, "they set off on a short tour of European capitals visiting Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, and Zurich.

On August 1, the ship headed out to sea accompanied by three Coast Guard destroyers, to be situated in various positions from the ocean liner in case they were needed for rescue."

Chamberlin had expected to use the entire runway, but at about three-fourths of the way the plane was flung into the air by up-thrusting winds turned skyward by the sides of the big ocean liner."

Later that year, Chamberlin "brought [one of his Curtiss Condors] to Maine to display it at an air show where he held a contest to find a young lady to use for promotional purposes and to be a stewardess."

In 1970, the town of Denison hosted a Flight Fair at the new Denison Municipal Airport to honor native aviators Clarence Chamberlin and Charles Fink and to celebrate the airfield's new designation as Chamberlin-Fink Field (Fink was a resident of the Denison-Deloit area that served as an airplane commander on one of the three B-52s to make the first jet-powered non-stop round the globe flight in 1957).

[2] The book covered a diversity of topics other than the Trans-Atlantic flight including his hopes, accomplishments, failures, and even some speculation as to what had happened to pilots who had disappeared over the ocean.

[17] In the 1940s, he published a revised version of the book that included information about his adventures after the trans-Atlantic flight and his efforts during World War II.