Darius and Girėnas

No two names go together in Lithuania as easily as those of Darius and Girėnas. Swashbuckling pilot-heroes of the nation, their story is an amazing one set in a time of aviation superstars. Steponas Darius (b. 1896) and Stasys Girėnas (b.1893) had remarkably similar histories, having both been born in Lithuania and emigrating at early ages with their families to the United States. Taking to aviation at different times, the two met in the 1920s, by which time Girėnas was already dreaming of a transatlantic flight. They bought a second-hand Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker for US$3,200, named it Lituanica, and started raising money for a flight from New York to Kaunas. They took off on the morning of July 15, 1933 in their heavily modified, bright orange plane. Their limited budget didn’t allow them to buy a radio, and they really were very much alone. After dropping a message for the media over Newfoundland they headed out over the Atlantic which they crossed without incident. They were later reported flying over numerous sites in Europe, the last sighting being over a concentration camp in Germany. The following morning a group of old ladies out picking mushrooms in a field near Soldin in eastern Germany (now Myślibórz in western Poland) discovered the wreck of their plane in a field. The two pilots were dead, and despite having successfully crossed the Atlantic, their dreams of a record distance flight were never realised. Flying a total distance of 6,411km, the heroes did at least go down in history as being the first official carriers of airmail across the Atlantic as the letters they were carrying were retrieved from the wreckage and delivered to their destination addresses. Much speculation exists as to the real fate of the two, who by all accounts were extremely competent pilots, including the possibility that they were shot down whilst flying over the concentration camp, although no evidence exists to support this. Find their faces on the front of any 10Lt banknote, and their names immortalised as street names throughout the country. The wreck of their plane and the clothes they were wearing when it crashed can be found inside the Vytautas the Great Military Museum (see Museums), and their grave in the city’s Aukštieji Šančiai Cemetery (see Cemeteries). The airport in Kaunas, also named in their honour and where an estimated 25,000 people waited for the duo’s triumphant arrival now houses the recommended Lithuanian Aviation Museum (see Museums). Of the two pilots, Darius was the more active of the two, and is believed by some to have introduced basketball to the nation as well as to have been one of the main organisers of the 1923 Klaipėda Revolt that saw the city incorporated into Lithuania the same year.