flew." Record breaking flights The notoriety that Hawks gained by his self-promotion led to a contract with Maxwell House Coffee and with their sponsorship, he entered the 1927 National Air Races in Spokane, Washington where the now renamed "Miss Maxwell House" came in first for speed in the Detroit news Air Transport Speed and Efficiency Trophy Race. Also on December 5, 1927, the Texas Company (Texaco) hired Hawks to head up its own Aviation Division as a Superintendent to market aviation products. The "Texaco One", a custom-built Ford Trimotor (NC3443) was delivered in January 1928 and Hawks was dispatched to advertise the company across the United States and abroad beginning with flying a Texas delegation from Houston to Mexico City and back. It was the first goodwill trade extension air tour from the U.S. to Mexico and received wide coverage in American and Mexican newspapers. Later in the same year, Hawks embarked on a nationwide goodwill tour, visiting more than 150 cities and covering approximately . It was estimated that 500,000 people saw the "Texaco One". He described the tour in his autobiography Speed: "In the course [of the tour]. I visited 175 cities, carried 7,200 passengers, and did 56,000 miles of cross-country flying. All of this without a mishap to plane and passengers." In December 1928, the Trimotor was destroyed in a crash at Floresville, Florida. In early 1929, Hawks was approached by Lockheed to ferry their new Air Express (NR7955) to New York in time for an air show. On February 4, 1929, flying with Oscar Grubb, superintendent of final assembly at the Lockheed factory, who had volunteered to serve as flight engineer to pump fuel from auxiliary fuselage tanks, Hawks set a transcontinental speed record. He flew from the Lockheed factory in Burbank, California to New York in 18 hours and 21 minutes. Hawks shortly after convinced Texaco to purchase the record-breaking Lockheed Air Express, named "Texaco Five" as a replacement for "Texaco One". Four months later, Hawks shattered the record again by 43 minutes in "Texaco Five". The aircraft accumulated some before being lost in a 17 January 1930 accident when Hawks attempted a takeoff from a soggy field in West Palm Beach, Florida, destroying the "Texaco Five" in a spectacular crash that catapulted it into a row of three parked aircraft. Hawks walked away from the carnage with no injuries. Gliding In 1930, Hawks convinced