Lady Peace Recovery Mission

Richman and Merrill were attempting to cross the Atlantic on a round-trip flight and therefore, made many modifications to their aircraft. One of these was to insert 40,000 Ping-Pong balls in every available space in the wings of the aircraft—a trick they hoped would keep the plane afloat if forced down in the ocean. The flight would become known as the ‘Ping-Pong Ball Flight’.

Richman reportedly sold autographed ping-pong balls from the flight for years after.