What did the Boeing 299 do on its flight to Wright Field?

The Model 299 had first flown on 28 July 1935, with Boeing's chief test pilot, Leslie Tower, at the controls. On 20 August 1935 the prototype flew from Seattle to Wright Field in nine hours and three minutes, at an average ground speed of 252 mph (219 kn; 406 km/h), far faster than its competitors. At Wright Field, Ohio, the US Army Air Corps had organised an evaluation of various manufacturers' prototypes in August 1935, and the Boeing Aircraft Company presented its four-engined Model 299 there.

In the fly-off, the performance of the four-engined Boeing proved superior to that of the twin-engined DB-1 and Model 146.

The aircraft stalled and crashed to the ground shortly after take-off, and caught fire. The control-surface gust locks had not been released. Hill initially survived the impact but died a few hours later; Tower died on 19 November. The crashed Model 299 could not complete the evaluation, which put it out of the competition. The loss of Hill, Tower and the Model 299 itself was the direct cause of the creation of the modern written checklist pilots still use today.