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Published by NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
May 2000
ALL OF SUMATRA appeared to be on fire. From one end of the Indonesian island to the other. farmers were burning the jungle and rice fields for planting. So much smoke filled the air we could hardly see the ground 2,000 feet below as we desperately searched for a place to land. Our twin-engine biplane, a replica of the open cockpit, World War I-era Vickers Vimy bomber, was going down.
"Mayday, Mayday. Mayday. Vimy 1, Vimy 1, Vimy 1. We've had an engine failure." Lang Kidby, my Australian copilot, called into the radio. "We're making an emergency landing."
The 11-foot propeller on our starboard engine windmilled to a stop. Without power from both engines, there wasn't much I could do to slow the descent of the big, awkward aircraft, which was coming down like a huge kite without a string.
"See any place to land?" I yelled.
"There's a small airfield 25 miles away," Lang said, scanning a map.
"We'll never make it."
"What about that road on the left?" he said, pointing to a dirt lane cutting through a paddy.
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In the antique light of a desert dawn, the author's Vickers Yimy biplane circles the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.In 1919 another Vimy buzzed above the sands here, attempting the longest, riskiest flight in history.
By Peter McMillan
Photography by James L. Stanfield
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