(Mary) From the legend of Icarus, who flew too near the sun, to Orville and Wilbur Wright at Kitty Hawk, mankind has been fascinated with dreams of flying through the air with the birds.

Today we take such things for granted.

All of us do it.

In the early days th ere were pioneers in aviation who spent their lives to make today's flights possible... Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh.

When I was a child, I remember my father holding up the "Baltimore Sun" and reading headlines that said, "Lindbergh Flies Atlantic."

My father laughed and said, "The damned fool will never do it," but he did.

Those were the days when flight was a great, great adventure.

South Carolina has its own aviation pioneer, Paul Rinaldo Redfern.

Paul Redfern wanted to fly to Rio de Janeiro.

We can do this today-- after all, a 12-hour flight in air-conditioned comfort-- but when Paul Redfern wanted to do it, it was 1927, and no one ever had tried.

He never arrived in Rio.

That is why the story and the mystery of Paul Redfern's flight intrigues us even today.

♪ ♪ ♪ Paul Redfern disappeared in August of 1927 flying from a small island of Georgia to Brazil.

He was attempting to beat Lindbergh's flight by a thousand miles, traveling for 50 hours, 4600 miles, nonstop.

Somewhere in the ocean or on a jungle mountainside is the wreckage of his plane, the "Port of Brunswick," but we don't know where, and perhaps we never will.

Who was Paul Redfern, and why did he attempt such a daring flight?

♪ A native New Yorker, Redfern spent most of his life in Columbia where his father, Frederick, was dean of Benedict College.

He grew up in a time when the frontiers of aviation were being pushed forward by daredevil flyers all over the world.

Redfern became obsessed with flying.

Schoolmates remember him as an intense, shy, young man who read everything he could about aviation and flying.

Sometimes, at school, he even wore an aviator's helmet.

♪ Here, where Dreher High School now stands, is where Redfern flew his first plane.

At that time this was a cotton field, and it made a perfect airstrip.

Redfern's plane looked anything but airworthy.

A friend said that it seemed to be made of cardboard!

However, it was enough to get Redfern started on his ill-fated career as a pilot.

Columbia engineer, historian, and writer Russell Maxey has chronicled the life of Paul Redfern in a book titled "Airports of Columbia."

Maxey has become an authority on Paul Redfern because of his boyhood friendship with him at the old Columbia High School.

Maxey remembers early days of Redfern's aviation career.

(Mary) He was the first pilot in Columbia.

Well, he opened the first commercial airfield in Columbia, and he opened it at a location on Millwood Avenue which is now occupied by Dreher High School.

He was one of the first-- I'd say the first commercial pilot-- and didn't have too many customers at that time.

He also had the so-called honor of taking up a woman who was a Columbian.

She was the first woman to fly in Columbia with Paul.

He'd just opened up his field.

There's a wonderful story about the lady.

Yes.

It was Miss Maudlette Stubbart.

She operates, today, an animal clinic called Midway Kennels on Devine Street.

Her claim to fame was not only that she was the first woman in Columbia to fly, but when she went up for the first time, I think Paul charged her-- the going rate at that time was about-- for a flight over Columbia was about $2.50.

So they went up.

When she went up, she was dressed in a party dress, high heels.

When they came down, she climbed out of the cockpit, and her high heel punched a hole in the wing and put him out of business two days until he could get the thing fixed!

(Mary) Too young to be a pilot during World War I, Redfern flew the popular "Jennies" during the postwar years.

He barnstormed around the country, then set up a business here in Columbia, the Redfern Aviation Company.

On his letterhead he billed his services as commercial aviation, aerial photography, aerial advertising, aerial training, and passenger carrying.

(Mary's voiceover) Mrs. Ruth Sanders, now living in Sumter, is Redfern's sister.

She married and moved to Sumter before Redfern began his adventure into flying.

Mrs. Sanders recalls her brother's early days in business as a barnstormer.

When he first came here and barnstormed around here, there was kind of a dry place out just about two miles from here, and that's where he landed.

The first time he flew around Sumter, the cars lined up this road and the crossroad for $20 a ride.

Now that was in 1926... [laughing] ...which would be like somebody trying to give you $200 today.

One friend just begged him to take him up, and he said, "All I've got is $5."

Paul told him, "Well, I'm sorry, but there are other people that paid the $20, and that wouldn't be fair to them."

He always came back and stayed with us.

After he'd kind of finished some time here that he planned to stay, he called the man and told him to come, he'd give him a ride.

He felt so sorry for him!

He got his ride.

(Mary) Th at sounds like a wonderful man!

[no audio] (Mary) Aerial advertising led him to his wife-to-be.

In 1924 he was working for the J.F.

Riker Cigar Company in Toledo, Ohio.

Its distributor, C.C.

Hillabrand, had him fly over the city dropping sample cigars tied to small parachutes.

It was Hillabrand's daughter and not the aerial advertising business that caught his fancy.

In 1925 he married Gertrude Hillabrand.

He spent several more months in Toledo, Ohio, operating an airport, and then he moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he took a job with the federal government.

He became a flying revenuer.

He would fly over areas and spot illegal stills from the smoke rising from them and then report the location to officers on the ground.

[no audio] By 1927 Redfern had found his challenge... the Dole Derby.

James Drummond Dole, the Hawaii pineapple king, had offered a prize of $25,000 to any pilot who would fly from California to Hawaii.

The trip was shorter than Lindbergh's.

It was 2,600 miles instead of 3,600 miles, but Redfern changed his mind.

He had found another adventure.

It was just as well because the Dole Derby was a disaster.

Five planes were wrecked, three lost at sea, and ten men were killed.

[airplane engine humming] After Lindbergh flew, the world became suddenly air-minded.

I guess his adventuresome spirit got him to thinking he'd like to do something like Lindbergh.

At first he had a contract to fly to Hawaii.

The Hawaii pineapple king, uh.... (Mary) Th e Dole Derby?

The Dole Derby had a prize for the first man to fly from the States to Hawaii.

It kind of bothered us, you know, that he wanted to try that whether he could or not.

Then the Army accomplished that, and something accomplished loses its challenge.

We thought, Oh, Paul will be coming home.

Instead, he wired, "I have a bigger and a better proposition."

And that's when he was going to Brazil.

[no audio] Redfern planned a far more dangerous flight.

He intended to fly nonstop from Brunswick, Georgia, to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

This flight was 1,000 miles longer than "Lucky Lindy's."

The flight was intended to be a promotion for the port of Brunswick, as it competed with nearby Savannah for commercial development.

So, in the summer of 1927, Redfern began his first flight into history.

He flew from Detroit to Brunswick in a brand-new Stinson Detroiter.

The single-winged plane was christened the "Port of Brunswick," and preparations were made for the flight.

The plane was the best of its kind.

It was powered by a 225 Wright Whirlwind motor, the same motor that took Lindbergh across the Atlantic, and adaptions were also made for the fuel... 550 gallons, just a little more than enough to take Redfern to his destination traveling at 90 miles per hour.

[no audio] It's clear he feared going down in the jungles of the Amazon, because he made plans for this.

He had rations for ten days, fishing tackle, a collapsible rifle with ammunition, medicines, a water-distilling outfit, and more.

He included something many pilots ignored to save space... a parachute.

News of the Dole Derby disaster reached him.

He said little about it and went on with his preparations.

The Stinson Detroiter was test-flown three times.

Every mechanical detail was checked and double-checked.

He even had the maker of the plane, Eddie Stinson, fine-tune the engine.

Extra compasses were added to the dashboard.

He rejected all ideas that he take a copilot.

He faced a long flight... over two days of staying awake, controlling the movement of the plane every moment.

[surf rolling] Weather forced delays in takeoff.

A storm was reported in the flight path south.

Finally, as the weather settled, Redfern climbed aboard the "Port of Brunswick" for the last time.

[surf rolling] On the afternoon of August 25, he said good-bye to his well-wishers, allaying fears about a possible downing.

He said, "Don't give up hope in my return.

God willing, I am going to Brazil."

His wife Gertrude climbed into th e cockpit for a last embrace, and as she was leaving, he whispered, "Don't worry...

I'll see you soon."

[surf rolling] The Wright Whirlwind engine sprang to life.

The loaded, green-and-gold plane lumbered down the beach of Sea Island and lifted off toward the ocean.

In 50 hours it was to touch land again in Brazil.

News was flashed to Rio.

Crowds were waiting to welcome the triumphant flyer.

Banners were hung across the streets to welcome the "Lindbergh of South America."

Signs near the airport were erected saying, "Benivenido Paul!"

In the crowd was Clara Bow, the film star who had just finished the movie "Wings."

She, too, would welcome the heroic flyer.

[surf rolling] The "Port of Brunswick" carried no radio, so sightings were the only way friends and family would know the progress of the flight.

Report came from the Bahamas that the plane had been seen at 2,000 feet.

At Macapa, on the north end of the Amazon, Redfern was supposed to have dropped a signal flare... red if his fuel was low and crews needed to stand by and green if he would continue, but at Macapa, no signal, no flare, and no word.

The hours were long.

[no audio] In Brazil an anxious crowd waited.

At 55 hours they knew the worst had happened.

Paul Redfern and the "Port of Brunswick" were down.

The first searches by air proved nothing, but in the next few weeks, there were reports of sightings.

♪ The crew of a Norwegian steamer reported that they had seen the "Port of Brunswick."

They had sighted it near Trinidad.

The plane circled the ship twice and dropped a handwritten note into the sea, which a crewman retrieved.

In this hastily written note, Redfern requested that the ship point toward land and wave a handkerchief for every 100 miles to shore.

The ship pointed toward Venezuela and waved a handkerchief twice.

♪ Later another sighting came in.

An engineer in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, reported seeing a green-and-gold airplane flying over the city, headed southeast.

It was trailing a thin wisp of black smoke.

This was the last time that the "Port of Brunswick" was ever seen in the air.

Here the facts of Paul Redfern's flight ended, and the myth began.

[no audio] There have been dozens of stories about the fate of the flight.

Countless times, the families their hopes raised and lost.

His father, his sister, his wife hung on every report from South America, every scrap of information, but nothing could be proved about his survival.

Their hopes were not unfounded.

Redfern warned them of a possibility of a crash and carried survival equipment.

He said that if he survived a crash, he could survive the jungle, and he warned them not to give up hope for at least six months.

[no audio] Adventurers, promoters, newspapers followed every rumor of Redfern's fate.

There had been 13 expeditions mounted into the backwaters of South America trying to find evidence of either the crash or Redfern.

The most famous expedition occurred in 1937 when a very interesting report came to light.

The Columbia newspapers hit the streets saying, "Redfern Found Alive in West Guiana."

Two explorers said that they had seen Redfern, crippled, living with a group of wild, primitive Indians.

The Indians, they said, held him captive because they thought he was a god since he had fallen from the skies.

The newspaper said that a reporter for a Guiana newspaper, Alfred Harred, and a former Army pilot, Art Williams, had found Redfern and had spoken to him.

They had seen the "Port of Brunswick" hanging from a tree.

They were surrounded by 500 wild Indians who refused to let Redfern leave.

He had broken both his arms and his legs.

The bones had been set by a local medicine man.

[airport terminal sounds] Then an expedition was launched by famous explorer and friend of the family, Theodore Waldeck.

He took his wife, Dr. F. J.

Fox, and William Astor Chandler.

This expedition, paid for mainly by the Redfern family, was not successful.

Dr. Fox died in the jungle of fever and exposure.

Waldeck returned, saying that he had seen the remains of the "Port of Brunswick" and had evidence that Redfern was dead.

Whatever evidence he'd brought back, the family would not accept it.

Dr. Redfern and sister Ruth rejected it completely.

Well, I think after so many years, your hope fades, but there's something about--hope is eternal.

Even though common sense tells you it's almost impossible that we would ever hear now-- but for quite a long time we did.

We had--I think it was in 1936.

Anyway, there were 13 expeditions to Brazil to see what could be accomplished.

(Mary) We re these expeditions se nt by the government or by th e family?

Who were th ese people who genuinely tried to find Mr. Redfern?

Well, there was a couple, the Waldecks.

He was an adventurer and a lecturer, and they thought they could possibly find out something.

In their profession, it would've been a big thing to them.

They went, and my son was supposed to go with them.

In the meantime they decided the best-- I even borrowed some money, put a mortgage on my house to help send him along.

Then it kind of phased out.

They just went themselves with a doctor from New York.

I believe that was all that....

So, th at was one.

What about th e other 12?

Were these in terested people?

They were interested people.

My uncle in Rochester, New York, Dick Redfern, put up some money, and he just felt surely-- somebody sold him on the idea that they knew where they could find him.

You know, Rochester's the "Kodak City," and he got a lot of equipment for the man to take, and a lot of money, and the man was arrested in Brazil for squandering money.

He was an imposter.

What heartbreak to the fa mily that must have been!

Yes, yes.

Dr. Redfern never gave up hope that his son would be found alive.

He died in 1941, and Redfern's wife Gertrude, who died in 1980, finally concluded that the fate of her husband would always remain a mystery.

She finally believed that we would never know what happened to Paul Redfern.

So people think he got lost somewhere.

There are several theories.

One...he got caught up in a whirlwind or a cyclone or whatever.

Another is that the metal deposits in the northern coast of South America had so much iron deposits that it deflected his aviation compass needles, and he could've gotten lost, confused, and made a forced landing in, most people think, the Amazon forest.

(Mary) What is your feeling?

I figure he did get lost in the Amazon, but the Amazon is so big-- these people who claim they have seen his plane in the top of trees of the Amazon-- it'd be pretty difficult.

Not many maps show you the Amazon, so he could be anyplace.

Is it your feeling that he's still alive?

My feeling is that he could be alive, because he'd be about six months older than I, and I can still get around a little.

Stories came back of people who said, "I saw the plane in a tree, and the natives"-- witnessed the whole thing-- "and they nursed him back to health, "and they thought that he was some kind of a god.

"They made him chief of the clan, "and gave him the best teepee they had, "furnished with all kinds of attractions... "women, food, entertainment.

"He was so good-- "he liked the situation so well-- he decided to stay there and not try to get back."

Others were that he got killed, so who knows what?

The story of a downed pilot held captive by Indians and made a god was too great for writers to ignore, and the myth grew.

It's the makings of great drama, a hit movie, but it's not true.

♪ Whatever happened to Paul Redfern over South America?

Perhaps that is less important than what happened because of Paul Redfern, Charles Lindbergh, and Amelia Earhart.

Because of them, men and women in small planes and jumbo jets cross prairie and field, ocean and continent.

And so, the mystery of Paul Redfern continues, as does his dream.

♪ As to the mystery of his fate, his mother wrote lines which say it all... "We only pray that God reveal, "and to us at home unseal "the mystery which seems so deep that bids the jungle and stream their silence keep."

[fountains gushing] ♪ Program captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning, Inc. 803.988.8438 ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪