Northern Wings

Northern Wings Volume 6 No.10 The Aero Club of Northern California Official Newsletter Of Animal HusbandryFall 2007 2007Crystal Eagle Dinner delayedasFossett vanishes With the disappearance of aviator Award, the Aero Club of Northern and adventurerSteve Fossett,the California has postponed the annual Global Flyer over Sierra Nevada honoree for the 2007 Crystal Eagle event until early in 2008. Fossett,the only man to fly solo around the world non-stop– in both an airplane and a balloon--was to receive the award at the annual Crystal Eagle Dinner Oct. 20. The award is presentedannually by the Aero Club of Northern California to honor those whose achievements are among the highest in aviation. Fossett has been missing since. Sept.3 when he took off from a private airstrip near Minden, Nev., in a single-engine Citabria Decathelon aircraft to scout dry lakes as possible locations for his planned attempt to break the world’s land speed record by driving more than 800 mph in a jet- powered car. Steve Fossett in cockpit of Global Flyer -- Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer photos (Continued on Page 2) San Jose’s‘New Airport’terminaltopped off Construction ischarging aheadon ceremonies Aug. 10. Among them Mineta San Jose International was Norm Mineta, the former San Airport’s new passenger terminal Jose mayor, congressman and U.S. facilities, with a milestone reached secretaryof transportation for whom recently and a 2010 completion target the airport was renamed by the city firmly in sight. council in 2001. As thefinal steel beam was hoisted The380,000-square-footNorth into placetocomplete the frameof the Concourse, costing $324 million,is newNorth Concourse of the JamesM. the first major component ofSan Nissen Passenger Terminal, hundreds Jose’s “New Airport”programto -- Northern Wings photo of construction workers and replaceorrebuild passengerfacilities S.J.Mayor Chuck Reed,Aviation community and political leaders over the next three years. Director Bill Sherry andNorm Mineta attended the traditional topping out (Continued on Page 3) atNorth Concourse topping-off. Page 2 Northern Wings Fall2007 San JoseCouncil RonaldReuther,78,founder namesSweeney ofOaklandair museum,dies to SJC Commission Ronald T. Reuther,78, aformer Reuther had loggedmore than Aero Club board member and founder 5,000 flight hours in military and Frank Sweeney, a retired newspaper of the Western Aerospace Museum in civilian aircraft. AirForceduty took journalist and member of the Aero Oakland, died Oct. 4 after a long him to Europe, Africa and the Middle Club Board of Directors, has been battle with cancer. East in the mid-1950s.He flew in the appointed to a three-year term on the Reuther, who National Guardafter leaving active San Jose Airport Commission. spent decades as an military service. Sweeney’s term Air Force, National As a civilian,Reuther was a will run through Guard and zoologist by profession. He was June 2010. The commercial pilot, manager, director or curator of five seven-member served on the Aero city zoos--Lodi, Cleveland, commission advises Club’s board of Indianapolis, San Francisco and the San Jose City directors from 2003 Philadelphia. Council on aviation --Northern Wings photo to 2005, when he issues, including the resigned for healthRonaldReuther In 1980, Reutherwas one of the $1.3 billion reasons. founders ofthe Western Aerospace passenger terminal At the October 2006 Crystal Eagle Museum at Oakland International Frank Sweeneyexpansion at Mineta Dinner, the Aero Club presented Airport’s North Field.A Belvedere San Jose International Airport. Reuther with a National Aeronautic resident, Reuther later wasmuseum A private pilot who has logged Association Certificate of Honor for executive director and lectured on time in 16 types of aircraft over the hislife-long contributions to the aviation history, in particular on past 33 years, Sweeney was a advancement of flight. Amelia Earhart. reporter and editor at the San Jose Mercury News for 37 years, retiring in2004. He wrote about aviation, transportation, government and Steve Fossett vanishes; science issues. He is editor of Northern Wings. A journalism graduate of San Eagle Dinner delayed Jose State University, he served as (Continued from Page 1) an antisubmarine warfare specialist Days of aerial searches and refueled flight around the worldfrom in the Coast Guard and Reserve in satellite surveillance have failed to Salina, Kan.,in 67 hours in the Virgin the early 1960s. turn up a trace of the legendary aviator Atlantic Global Flyer in 2005. in the rugged and barren Nevada The next year, again alone aboard desert. The search was officially the single-engine jet Global Flyer, he Carl Honaker–president suspended on Oct. 2. set the absolute record for the longest Scott Yelich–vice president Fossett, 63, is best known for flight of any aircraft in history, going Eric Peterson– treasurer around the world in 76 hours 43 Ray Hutchings– secretary setting117world records, including Rick Willson–pastpresident five non-stop circumnavigations of the minutes and covering 25,766 miles Jerry Bennett– director globe as a solo balloonist, airplane non-stop unrefueled. Ron Blake–director Sandra J. Clifford--director pilot and sailor. As a glider pilot, hisworld records In 2002, on his sixth attempt, Janet Russell Hitt– director includethe Aug. 29, 2006 flight with Frank Kirkbride– director Fossett became the first person to co-pilot Einer Enevoldson that set the Thomas E. Leonard– director make a solo balloon flight around the absolute altitude record forsailplanes Harold Oberg– director world. He took off from Western at 50,727 feet. James Ricklefs– director Australia on June 19 and landed more Sharon K. Sweeney–director than 13 days later in Queensland, Fossett grew up inGarden Grove, Frank Sweeney–director Australia, covering 20,626 statute Calif., and graduated fromStanford andnewsletter editor Northern Wings ispublished quarterly miles. University. He founded and managed by the Aero Club of Northern As an airplane pilot, Fossett made a Chicago-based financial trading California, an affiliate of the National the first solo non-stop and non- company. Aeronautic Association. Fall2007 Northern Wings Page 3 San JoseCouncil Ernie Renzel, namesSweeney Father of SJC, to SJC Commission dies at age 100 Ernest H. Renzel Jr.,known as the “Father of San Jose Airport,’’ died Sept. 15 at his home in San Jose’s Naglee Park neighborhood where he had lived since the 1930s. He was 100 years old. The airfield– the runways and the land– at Mineta San Jose International Airport is named “Ernie Renzel Field’’ for good reason.More than 60 years ago,Renzel, a civic- minded wholesale grocer, led the publicdriveto build an airport in San -- Frank Sweeney photo RonaldReuther Jose. He headed the Citizens Airport Ernie Renzel with daughter Jenifer at Renzel Field dedicationin2004. Committee in a campaign to “get San campaign in 1940 to finance the manager and build the airport. Frank Sweeney Jose out of the horse-and-buggy era,’’ purchase.But developmentwas The first commercial airlineflight as he put it. delayed during World War II when at San Jose Municipal Airport took The committee, with the federal governmentbanned place on Feb. 1, 1949, whenatwin- representatives of three dozen civilian flying within 150 miles of the engine Southwest Airways DC-3 with fraternal and civic organizations, in West Coast. two pilots, seven passengers and 2,550 1939 identified the best location for a In 1947, Renzel was on the San baby chickens landed. municipal airport-- 483 acres of open Jose City Council andhadserved as In 2003, the San Jose City Council land a couple miles north of mayor. Renzel convinced Jim Nissen, at the request of the Aero Club of Steve Fossett vanishes; downtown San Jose. who with two others had leased 16.4 Northern California named the airfield Renzelled the negotiations to sell acres of the airport land and operated for Renzel and the new passenger the land to the city. He and his a small flying service, to sell his terminal complex for Nissen, who Eagle Dinner delayed committee promoted a $300,000 bond business, become the city airport developed the airfield into a modern jet airport by the mid-1970s. SJC event marks topping offnew North Concourse (Continued from Page 1) The$1.3 billionproject includes replacing the 1965-vintageTerminal C with a new Terminal B. Terminal A will be expanded, and a new3,400- space rental car parking garage and improved roadways will bebuilt. The nine-gate North Concourse is scheduled to be completed next year and go into service in 2009. It will have an automated state-of- the-art baggage sortingand explosive detection system to replace temporary screeningfacilities. North Concourse framework towers over television crews. Page 4 Northern Wings Fall2007 History Corner Civic campaign brought Moffett to Bay Area As the Great Depression deepened in the early 1930s, a real estate agent began a campaign to get more federal money into the SouthSan FranciscoBay Area. The Navy was looking at the San Diego and the Bay Area to base one of its huge airships. Laura Whipple worked with chambers of commerce from San Jose to San Francisco, convincing them to donate $276,000in 1931, with which they bought 1,000 acres of farmland and offered it to the Navy for one dollar. That clinched the deal that created Moffett Field. The Navy spent $5 million to build what was then Moffett Field’s Historic Hangar One-- Northern Wings photo calledSunnyvale Naval Air Station-- in Mountain View. In return for its local investment, the South Bay edge of aeronautical research, took Santa Clara Valley got hundreds of new jobs. into the space age and nowoperatesMoffett Field. When the base opened in 1933, the 785-foot-long The base went under Army control in the late 1930s, into the space age. The base went under Army control in the late 1930s, but was given back to the Navy in 1942 and renamed Moffett Field after the Navy admiral who died in a crash of another airship off the Atlantic Coast.

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