‘Forgotten Flight’ Pangborn film gets $50,000 boost from Port

WENATCHEE — A film about the Wenatchee Valley’s place in aviation history now has the financial backing of the agency that operates the airport bearing Clyde Pangborn’s name.

The Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority voted Sept. 22 to contribute $50,000 to The Forgotten Flight, a feature-length documentary being developed by Wenatchee-based North 40 Productions. Commissioners described the contribution as a one-time commitment and discussed paying for it through the Port’s 2027 airport marketing budget.

The vote came four weeks after filmmaker Jeff Ostenson introduced commissioners to the project and asked them to help tell the story of Pangborn and Hugh Herndon’s first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean.

The two left Misawa, Japan, in the Miss Veedol in October 1931. After more than 40 hours in the air, they landed near Wenatchee, completing a flight the filmmakers believe deserves a far larger place in public memory.

“We call it the greatest story never told,” Ostenson told commissioners during his Aug. 25 presentation.

North 40’s planned film has plenty of story to tell. The aviators were arrested in Japan before their departure after photographing military installations. They modified the plane to shed its landing gear after takeoff, reducing its weight and drag. When part of that assembly failed to fall away, Pangborn climbed outside the aircraft over the Pacific to free it.

Ostenson told the Port in August that the filmmakers were aiming for a Wenatchee premiere in 2029, followed by broader distribution ahead of the flight’s centennial in October 2031. The project would involve research in archives and filming in locations that include Misawa, Washington State University and Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

North 40 had received $45,000 in seed funding from local philanthropists Mike and Joann Walker and Rudi Pauly. Ostenson said the immediate goal was to raise approximately $50,000 more to complete pre-production: identifying interview subjects, researching the story, planning filming and establishing the documentary’s structure before the larger production effort.

Commissioners made no funding commitment at that first presentation. On Sept. 22, however, they agreed that a film capable of reaching audiences beyond the valley fit with the Port’s efforts to promote Pangborn Memorial Airport and the flight behind its name.

The discussion also revealed a limit to that support. Some commissioners favored contributing promptly so the filmmakers could move ahead, while others stressed that $50,000 was a substantial amount for the Port and should not become the first installment of an annual commitment.

CEO Jim Kuntz said the Port could also help by writing letters of support as North 40 seeks money from other sources, an idea that commissioners immediately agreed with. He said he would include the project among the agency’s state and federal legislative priorities.

The Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center is serving as the film’s fiscal sponsor and partner. North 40 is also working with regional filmmakers, the nonprofit Spirit of Wenatchee and members of Pangborn’s family.

For Ostenson, the ambition extends beyond a local screening or an anniversary tribute.

“What we want to do is have the world celebrate this moment with us,” he told commissioners in August.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media