Harry Lyon (aviator)

File:Warner Lyons slnsw P1-1041.jpg

File:StateLibQld 1 139254 Landing the aircraft, Southern Cross in Brisbane, Queensland, ca. 1928.jpg

American Harry Lyon (1885?–1963?{{cite web |url=https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/272/page/531/display?use_mmn=1 |title=Henry Lyon Jr.: An Old Sea Dog Takes to the Air |first=Ann |last=McDonald |website=www.mainememory.net}}), was the navigator for the first flight across the Pacific in 1928 with Charles Kingsford Smith (as pilot), Charles Ulm (as co-pilot) and fellow-American James Warner as the (radio operator) in the Southern Cross.[http://www.pirep.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1967&sid=d972bca075fe42c7e4de50d7e3623724 Old Newspaper Articles - various Australian newspaper clippings, with reports and photos about the Pacific Ocean crossing in 1928] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315053356/http://www.pirep.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1967&sid=d972bca075fe42c7e4de50d7e3623724 |date=2012-03-15 }}{{cite book|last=Freeman|first=Donald B.|title=The Pacific|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Im8_io3M_2oC&pg=PA122|year=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415775724|pages=122–123}}

According to the Spokane Daily Chronicle, he was a son of US Navy Rear Admiral Henry W. Lyon and served as a lieutenant commander on the transport {{USS|Westerner|ID-2890|6}} and as first lieutenant aboard the cruiser {{USS|St. Louis|C-20|6}} during World War I.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19280531&id=Hc1XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pfQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4763,5859919&hl=en |title=Four Men Make Hop |date=May 31, 1928 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |agency=Associated Press}} However, an article of uncertain reliability but much greater detail states that though he was accepted into the United States Naval Academy in 1905, he flunked out and worked in the Merchant Marine, eventually rising to captain of the S.S. Likliki.

After the pioneering flight, he took up rum running in San Francisco, California.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SN19280616.2.18 |title=Harry Lyon the Adventurer |date=June 16, 1928 |newspaper=Sausalito News}}