The Lost Pilot

Winston Groom: On August 25, 1927, pilot Paul Redfern took off in a single-engine monoplane from Sea Island, Georgia, bound for Rio de Janeiro, hoping to capitalize on Charles Lindbergh's recent success in making aviation history.

Instead he flew into a mystery that has spanned most of the last century and into this one, and however commendable his quest was, Redfern seemed to have less in common with Lindbergh than he did with "Wrong Way" Corrigan—the aviator who famously took off from New York headed for California, and instead wound up in Ireland.

Redfern's adventure was extremely ambitious, not the least because Rio de Janeiro is a thousand miles farther from the United States than…