LINDBERGH DOES IT! TO PARIS IN 33-1/3 HOURS cried out the newspaper headlines on May 22, 1927. Lindbergh’s epic flight made front page headlines in papers all around the world.
We are all aware of the impact Lindbergh’s New York-to-Paris ?ight had on the public, but what other aviation events of the 1920s and 1930s were deemed of enough importance to garner headlines in the newspapers?
Aviation burst upon the American public in 1910 through a frenzy of air meets, contests, daring flights and maneuvers. Over the year, 100 regularly organized meets and exhibitions were held. New records were set and broken almost every week. During that one year, the art of aviation made such extraordinary advances that there are few comparisons in the history of technology.
Aviators became heroes, and the top heroes changed constantly. Cosmopolitan magazine called the new birdmen “Wizards of the Air” for their daring do. One of the most active and daring pilots was Charles K. Hamilton, who in 1910 became famous for thrilling the crowds. During the year Hamilton would appear in events from coast-to-coast, along the way setting records.
Last year the Terrafugia Transition, a flying car project developed by a small group of MIT graduates, passed an important regulatory hurdle when the FAA agreed it could be certified in the Light-Sport Aircraft category. The concept of a flying car has captivated the imaginations of aviation dreamers for decades.
Those who are familiar with today’s Federal Aviation Regulations know that they are a thicket of rules, occupying four volumes of the Code of Federal Regulations, consisting of 460 sections extending over 3,600 pages.
But 85 years ago, it was a simpler time for aviation. That’s when the regulation of aircraft and pilots began with the Air Commerce Act of 1926. Continue Reading »
In a previous column, I discussed the penetration of the ubiquitous, war-surplus Curtiss OX-5 engine into the new aircraft market, which lasted into the 1930s. Not only was the OX-5 engine used as a powerplant option on new aircraft, it also powered custom-built aircraft that were used in exhibition work and races.
In fact, the Aero Club of Southern California would pioneer OX-5 class races and foster the design of new class of race planes designed around the engine.
Aerial hitchhiking, the practice of carrying an aircraft aloft on or under a larger one, dates back to the ballooning era, but still has application in today’s space age. SpaceShipTwo, the first project to carry passengers to the edge of space, is air launched at 50,000 feet from its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo.
Dennis Parks is Curator Emeritus of Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
Aviation was introduced to California — and Californians were introduced to aviation — via a spectacular 11-day event held at Dominguez Ranch outside of Los Angeles in January 1910. Continue Reading »
Dennis Parks is Curator Emeritus of Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
When Wilbur Wright arrived in France May 29, 1908, to carry out demonstrations for a French syndicate interested in building Wright Flyers, it would be the first time one of the Wright brothers flew outside of America. Wilbur not only faced the challenge of flying but of skepticism in the European aviation community that had taken an anti-Wright stance. European newspapers, especially in France, were openly derisive, calling them bluffeurs (bluffers). The Paris edition of the New York Herald summed up Europe’s opinion of the Wright brothers on Feb. 10, 1906: “The Wrights have flown or they have not flown. They possess a machine or they do not possess one. They are in fact either fliers or liars.”
Dennis Parks is Curator Emeritus of Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
Before they pioneered the airplane, inventors such as Orville and Wilbur Wright and Glenn Curtiss had another technical fascination: Bicycles.
Dennis Parks is Curator Emeritus of Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
Ever since the conception of the light airplane in the 1920s, the magnitude of flights achieved by pilots using light planes never ceases to surprise, especially when used for around-the-word tours. Such trips would seem to be in the provenance of larger, higher-powered aircraft, not small, low-powered aircraft.
The year 1925 saw the birth of the first highly-produced, practical, reliable light plane, the de Havilland Moth. This plane was designed as a two-seat light plane capable of withstanding the stresses of instructional work, while large and comfortable enough for cross country flying. The craft was so popular that by 1926 output was about one a day.
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