In 1929, Lindbergh came close to skimming the sands of the Sea Island, Georgia, beach Redfern took off from and dropped carnations in his fellow flyer's honor.
If Redfern had reached his final destination, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his 4,600 miles (7,400 km) flight would have outdistanced Lindbergh.
He was planning to go to MIT, but after building several planes, he was asked by the U.S. government at age 16 to go to New Jersey to be a production inspector for the Army Air Corps at the Standard Aircraft Corporation.
[7][8] In September 1927, George Henry Hamilton Tate, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, went to look for Redfern.
[10] In 1935, William LaVarre who was searching for diamonds in the interior of Suriname heard a story in Drietabbetje about a crippled white man who had fallen from the sky, and was now living with the Amerindians in Paloemeu.
[12] In the same month, newspaper articles appeared that Redfern was living in a little Amerindian village not listed on any map in the Tumuk Humak Mountains of British Guiana.
[11][13] Redfern's father published a joyful reply in the papers, and credited Art Williams as the discoverer of his son.