a form of tampon,) and a patent for a toy operating on the same principle as a ouija board. He was born in Italy and became a naturalized US citizen sometime between 25 June 1917 and 8 October 1919 (as revealed by comparing his two earliest patent applications). Pisculli was 53 years old at the time of the flight and resided in Yonkers, New York. He was the founder and Director of the American Nurses' Aviation Service, Inc, which sought to promote the provision of medical care in aviation and through aviation to others. Reprinted as: As this flight was sponsored by the American Nurses' Aviation Service, Inc, the aircraft was renamed The American Nurse. The pilot, William Ulbrich, was born in Denmark and was a resident of Mineola, New York. He was 31 years old at the time of the flight. A barnstormer and flight instructor in earlier years, in September 1932, Ulbrich held a transport pilot's licence and had 3,800 hours flying experience. The third member of the crew was originally intended to be Gladys Bramhall Wilner (13 August 1910 – 3 July 2009) who was ideally suited to the role, being a qualified nurse, a licensed pilot and an experienced parachute jumper. However, she declined to take part in the flight. She was replaced by Edna Newcomer (aged 28) from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, who was also a nurse, pilot, and parachute jumper. Wilner died at the age of 98 in Jacksonville, Florida; she was the last surviving person to have ever flown in Miss Veedol (as The American Nurse). Dr. Pisculli's intention for the flight was to study the effects of fatigue in long-distance aviation and to test his hypothesis that the loss of many previous long-distance flights had been due to the buildup of carbon monoxide in the crew compartment. For the purpose of the first study, the three crew members underwent pre-flight physical examinations, basal metabolism tests, electrocardiograms, and blood chemistry examinations. Pisculli was to take blood samples during the flight, and the basal metabolism tests would have been repeated on arrival in Rome. In respect of his second concern, he brought a woodchuck named "Tail Wind" on the flight, as a carbon monoxide detector, due to these animals' sensitivity to the gas. (Pisculli had found Tail Wind with a broken leg on a road in Westchester County, New York, and had nursed it back to