06/30/2024. Remarks by
Johan Visschedijk: "Derived from the Liberator bomber, this was a sixteen-passenger/ten-berth VIP transport version and six were built under the USAAF designation C-87A Liberator Express, serials 41-23863, 41-24159, 41-24174, 43-30569 to 43-30571. The latter three were transferred to the USN, designated RY-1, BuNos. 67797 to 67799.
After WW II the RY-1 Liberator Express BuNo. 67798 came on the US civil market and had the following owners:
(NL5151N) (
W.T. Larkins Collection)
The Liberator Express NL5151N of ballpoint tycoon and millionaire Milton Reynolds was used for an expedition in an attempt to prove that Mount Amne Machin was higher than Mount Everest.
Located on the border of Nepal and Tibet, British surveyors already in 1856 declared Mount Everest's calculated height was 29,002 ft (8,840 m). Mount Amne Machin, located 876 mls (1,410 km) to the north-east in the Chinese province Qinghai, was first seen by Western surveyors in the 1920s. A 1929 expedition incorrectly estimated that the mountain was 30,000 feet tall, or taller than Mount Everest.
After WW II, Life magazine and the Boston Museum of Science initiated an expedition to investigate the height of Mount Amne Machin, Milton Reynolds sponsored the project. In March 1948, members of the Reynolds Boston Museum China Expedition left Oakland, California, aboard the Liberator Express, named The Explorer. It was flown by pilot William T. 'Bill' Odom and co-pilot Thomas C. 'Tex' Sallee.
Arriving at Peking the party ran into problems with the authorities, later an incident with the starboard landing gear during taxying worsened the situation. The expedition was cancelled and in the end the aircraft was flown illegally to Japan.
Since it has be recorded that Mount Amne Machin, with a height of 20,610 ft (6,282 m), is definitely not higher that the 29,031.7 ft (8,848.86 m) high Mount Everest.
