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Flying Tales of Flamingos and Waterfalls

Looking back at a forgotten monoplane and a quest for a 'river of gold.'

One of the airplanes flown by pioneering aviator Jimmie Angel. [Courtesy of Jimmie Angel Historical Project Archive]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The "Flamingo" was a unique, all-metal monoplane built in Ohio in the late 1920s and early 1930s, with only 21 units produced before the company succumbed to the Great Depression.
  • Adventurous pilot Jimmie Angel acquired one Flamingo, using it in his quest for a "river of gold" in Venezuela, which led to his famous 1937 crash-landing on a tepui.
  • Though Angel never found the gold, his expedition popularized the world's highest waterfall, now known as Angel Falls, where his ashes were eventually scattered.
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Searching for information about Flamingos, I uncovered details about the beautiful pink bird and a hotel in Las Vegas, bearing the same name—the latter allegedly haunted by the ghost of mobster Bugsy Siegel. I should have been more specific in my query.

I was actually searching for details about the extinct and largely forgotten metal airplane built at Ohio’s Lunken Airport (KLUK) in the late 1920s and early ’30s, and, specifically, about the guy who flew it in the ’30s, searching for a “river of gold” in Central and South America. The airplane was similar to other high-wing, strut-braced cabin monoplanes of the era but all metal and larger.

Martha Lunken

Martha Lunken is a lifelong pilot, former FAA inspector and defrocked pilot examiner. She flies a Cessna 180 and anything with a tailwheel, from Cubs to DC-3s.

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