Minnesota in the World of Aviation

TwiN-engine cabin airplane developed and designed by John D. Akerman, 1928

COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

MINNESOTA

in the WORLD of AVIATION

TO MARK the fiftieth anniversary of the ville Wright took a machine into the air Wright brothers' first flight and the begin- for twelve seconds and covered a hundred ing of air transportation, the Minnesota and twenty feet. This, Mr. Chaney pointed Historical Society devoted its one-hundred- out, was the "first flight in the history of and-fourth annual meeting, held in St. Paul the ivorld in which a machine carrying a on April 1, 1953, to a program centering man raised itself by its own power into the about the history of Minnesota aviation. air," went "forward without a reduction of The event took the form of a panel dis speed," and "landed at a point as high as cussion following a luncheon at the St. Paid that from which it started." Although in Hotel. Participating were three leaders of this and other flights on the same day, aeronautic activity in the state, each of Orville and Wilbur Wright covered only whom contributed a chapter to the little- short distances, the speaker reminded his known story of Minnesota aviation. In hearers that these pioneer flyers "spanned slightly condensed form, their addresses ap the infinite space between hope and pear herewith. achievement." Before introducing the speakers, the soci Mr. Clmney then introduced the first ety's president, Mr. Clarence R. Chancy of speaker on the panel, Mr. Schroeder, state Minneapolis, provided a background for commissioner of aeronautics, who has, their remarks by recalling the pioneer flight served in this position for ten years and "on the wind-swept sand dunes of Kitty has been ffying since 1938. His remarks on Hawk," where on December 17, 1903, Or- Minnesota's general aviation history follow.

236 MINNESOTA History of cartways, roads, and ultimately highways Fifty Years of Flight became a community and a governmental problem. LESLIE L. SCHROEDER We know that those who labored to sup ply the means of transportation on the frontier looked to the sky and wished that they might move through the air over FROM TIME immemorial, man has aspired swamps and streams and plains and forests. to ride rather than walk, to have his bur In 1859, a year after Minnesota was ad dens carried for him rather than to carry mitted to the Union, four men traveled in them, to be able to move past the limits a balloon from St. Louis to the state of of his immediate horizon, to see what is New York, and in the same year mail was beyond, and to broaden his sphere of in carried between two towns in Indiana. It fluence and activity. The extent to which was not until fifty-four years later that the the individual man has been able to gratify Wright brothers made their first successful the desire to ride — to travel — has been a flight. Now we are celebrating the fiftieth mark of his standing in his own community anniversary of that event. among his fellow men. The extent to which The development of aviation in our own communities, cities, states, and nations have state, as well as in the nation, falls into been able to gratify their needs for im well-defined eras of progress. The period proved forms of transportation and com before World War I may be described as munication has been a mark of their stand the construction phase. One could not buy ing culturally, socially, and economically. a flying machine. If he wished to have one, Transportation is the lifeblood of civiliza he had to build it. In Minnesota, a number tion. of people of skill and patience endeavored The building of means of transportation to build flying machines and some few were and communication was among the first successful in developing aircraft capable of activities of the pioneers who settled in the short sustained flights. This was the begin Minnesota country. Their initial problem ning of the manufacturing phase. While was one of overcoming physical handicaps. there still are no companies in the state Available at first were natural watercourses actually building aircraft, many are build and trails made by the redmen and wild ing component parts and accessories. beasts; soon the settlers hewed others from Following World War I came the exhibi the wilderness by their own labor. Then as tion era. By that time, most people had towns and cities developed, the building learned that man could fly, but few had

THESE fishermen went to Mille Lacs in an amphibian plane in 1933

Summer 1953 actually seen an airplane in flight. Aircraft operators" of aircraft —a term which has made appearances at state and county fairs, survived until recent years. and as people became accustomed to seeing The combined skill of keeping an air machines in flight, the spirit of competition plane flying and providing for economic drew airmen to other spectacular efforts. needs was learned the hard way by the Aerobatics consisting of wing-walking and men who established the first commercial the like on aircraft in flight, then involv air lines. They have continued to be the ing the aircraft itself, and eventually call grass-roots source of many of the skills that ing for formations of aircraft developed sustain aviation today, both civil and mili successively. Many of you here today have tary. The meadows from which they oper seen the famous Blue Angel team. The cli ated became the first private landing fields. max in a progression of exhibits or air Today most of them have been replaced by shows probably was attained a few years publicly owned, improved airports or air ago when five helicopters waltzed with ele terminals. The sheds which passed for hang phantine grace to the tune of the "Beauti ars have been supplanted by improved ful Blue Danube" before the grandstand at shops, and the gasoline drums have been a national air show. replaced by modern gassing facilities and Economic considerations unquestionably the adequate underground storage needed stimulated the next phase of aviation's de by transient aircraft. From these fields still velopment, since there were not enough come most of the young men and women state and county fairs to sustain the air who acquire the basic flight skills and go craft or the pilot. Beginning in the early on to become pilots of military aircraft, air 1920s, aircraft of World War I vintage line pilots, flight instructors, and mainte moved out over the countryside seeking nance men, as well as scientists and re likely looking communities and meadows search men in the field of aeronautics. in which to conduct passenger hopping op Minnesota has made its own special con erations. These were the barnstorming days, tribution to the skill and art of the science during which airmen developed real skill of flight. It was Charles Lindbergh from and ingenuity in the art of keeping an air Lfftle Faffs who in 1926 electrified the craft aloft with the fewest possible parts world with a nonstop flight to Paris in a and tools. They also learned how to make little single-engine airplane. There have a living through the medium of barter, ex been many others, less well known, who changing rides for leases of farmers' fields, have made great contributions. At least for gasoline, food, lodging, and parts to two Minnesotans have been winners of the keep their craft in repair. The farmers who Wright brothers trophy. leased their fields and provided meals and Since occasional spectacular achieve equipment in return for rides were the first ments in aviation completely overshadow flying farmers. The people who rode as pas the plodding nature of its total growth, it sengers from the farmers' fields and mead becomes most difficult to evaluate progress. ows were the first paying passengers in air With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, how craft. For the first time aircraft were being ever, it became necessary for security rea used as vehicles of transportation for hire. sons to locate and pin down all civil air Ultimately, many barnstormers became craft and to guard every public airport. At weary of gypsy life and, finding what ap that time, the state department of aeronau peared to be lucrative locations near com tics received a list of six hundred aircraft munities, settled down in near-by pastures supposedly existing in Minnesota, and the or meadows to operate from what were Minnesota National Guard was ordered to known as permanent or semipermanent establish security control at every airport. bases. Thus originated the term "fixed-base Of these aircraft, ultimately only about

238 MINNESOTA History three hundred were located. The National in Minnesota fly more than twenty million Guard found to its embarrassment that in miles annually. some cases it was guarding empty pastures In 2003 a group similar to that meeting from which the airplanes had long since de here today doubtless will assemble under parted. During the summer of 1942, Minne the sponsorship of the Minnesota Historical sota was asked to provide as many aircraft Society to celebrate the centennial of man's as possible capable of flying patrol along flight. We may be sure that such a group the Atlantic coast, which was threatened will regard the aircraft of our day as rela by submarines. These aircraft had to be tively primitive. The greatest progress stfll equipped with instruments for overwater lies ahead in man's conquest of the air flight and radios, and they had to be cap space to meet his requirements for im able of carrying an observor in addition to proved transportation and communication, a pilot and a small hundred-pound bomb. In the entire state, only two such aircraft were found. FOR THE second address on the program, Mr. Chaney called upon General Harris, Today the name of the owner and the president of Northwest Airlines. In addi location of every civil aircraft in the state tion to a distinguished military career, he is on record with the department of aero has been connected with various air lines nautics. Slightly over eighteen hundred air in an executive capacity since 1926. Thus craft are operating regularly from about he has firsthand knowledge of the develop three hundred airports and landing fields, ment of commercial aviation in Minnesota afl of which are registered with the depart and the nation at large. ment, which has detailed information about the limitations and capabilities of every air port facility. If necessary, within twenty- four hours, Minnesota could provide at least three hundred and fifty aircraft meet Commercial Aviation ing the requirements specified in 1942, and within sixty days the state could furnish about a hundred and fifty additional air HAROLD R. HARRIS craft. From airports, large and small, through out the state, aircraft daily depart and THE "AIR AGE" born at Kitty Hawk a haff return, engaging upon all kinds of missions. century ago is still trying out its wings. Yet Within the space of an hour in this metro it has grown into a pretty robust fledgling. politan area, aircraft may leave for Tokyo, Experimental aviation, with its jets, rockets, for a ranch in one of the Western states, for and supersonic speeds, is today being some of the smaller cities within the state's pressed with a fervor matching that of the boundaries, or for a local flight. At the same Wright brothers. Military aviation, which time, aircraft of all types arrive from all is being used in actual combat in some parts of the world, from other states, and areas, probably offers the free world its from other parts of this state. They are op best promise of peace and survival. Com erated as common carriers, by corporations mercial aviation is expanding over the four for business purposes, by businessmen, and corners of the earth. others. More than ten thousand profes During the past year, regularly scheduled sional and nonprofessional pilots fly with domestic air lines in the United States reasonable regularity over the state. Air hauled more than twenty-six million pas craft other than those operated by sched sengers over twelve billion passenger miles. uled airlines or by the military authorities In addition, the American flag carriers

Summer 1953 239 COURTESY OF ST. PAUL DISPATCH-PIONEER PRESS LOADING a mail plane at the St. Paul airport, 1926

which operate internationally flew two-and- consin and Minnesota. Now North Central a-half million passengers some three billion serves sixteen cities in Wisconsin, thirteen passenger miles. Besides passengers, the in Minnesota, seven along the upper penin planes of the scheduled air lines carried sula of Michigan, as well as Chicago, Far some two hundred and thirty-eight million go, and Grand Forks — a total of thirty-nine ton miles of cargo on the domestic routes cities. Nearly three hundred of its em and seventy-eight million on the interna ployees live in the Twin Cities, where the tional. Operating revenues passed the line now has its base of operations. $1,200,000,000 mark for Unffed States Other air lines serving Minnesota are scheduled carriers. Western, which has routes extending to the Minnesota has contributed substantially Pacific coast; Braniff, with which Mid- to this development. Here we have in oper Continent was merged, running south as far ation the oldest and the second oldest air as Buenos Aires; and Capital, which serves lines of the nation. These pioneer com a group of Eastern and Southern cities. panies have retained their original identi Western started its service into the Twin ties; they are not merely carriers whose Cities on April 1, 1947, and Capital on lineage runs back to predecessor companies December 1, of the same year. Hanford with which they have had rather tenuous Airlines, which preceded Mid-Continent, ties. Western Air Lines started operations started operations here in 1932; Mid-Con in the Far West on April 27, 1926, and tinent in 1938; and Braniff on August 16, Northwest Airlines began here in Minnesota 1952. Wisconsin Central made its appear on October 1, 1926. They lead the parade. ance on the local scene on February 27, Another air line which has contributed 1948. These air lines put Minnesota on a much to the growth of commercial avia route map which covers much of the United tion in Minnesota and the adjoining area States and extends beyond the borders to is North Central, formerly Wisconsin Cen South America, Alaska, the Orient, and tral Airlines. This company began opera Hawaii. tions on February 24, 1948, at Madison, Northwest Airlines, one of the nation's serving Chicago and eighteen cities in Wis four transcontinental carriers and the only

240 MINNESOTA History one to cross the northern tier of states from They held off, despite the persuasive pow coast to coast, has always had its head ers of Colonel L. H. Brittin, then executive quarters in Minnesota. At present more vice-president of the St. Paul Association. than three thousand Minnesotans are on its A man of vision, he wanted to organize an sixteen-million dollar local payroll. Its air line to take over a mail contract which system overhaul base is in St. Paul, its Charles ("Pop") Dickinson, a venturesome maintenance base in suburban Minneapolis, old-timer, was about to discontinue. When and its headquarters in the Midway dis local people made no haste to invest in his trict. plan. Colonel Brittin turned to the Ford This Minnesota air line started operations Motor Company, which with his help had out of the Twin Cities in 1926 with a route obtained power concessions for its assembly to La Crosse, Mflwaukee, and Chicago. plant on the Mississippi River near Fort With a twenty-thousand-mile network of Snelling. lines extending across the United States A long-distance telephone call to William from New York and Washington, to Seattle- Mayo, chief engineer for Ford at Detroit, Tacoma and Portland, along the great cir brought an encouraging invitation. "Come cle route through Alaska to the Orient, and here and tell your story," Mayo said. "I'll overseas to Hawaii, it has become one of have thirty Detroit millionaires sitting the world's major air lines. Its world-flung around a table at the Detroit Athletic Club operations are being directed from Minne to listen to it." Colonel Brittin presented sota. such a good case for his project and the po At the beginning, Minnesotans ironically tentials of commercial aviation that the were reluctant to engage in this enterprise. Detroit group signed up.

COURTESY OF ST. PAUL DISP.'iTCH-PIONEER PRESS

"SPEED" Holman Northwest Airways pilot, 1929

Summer 1953 241 Northwest Airways — as it was then called invest in this new industry, this new com — was organized as a Michigan corpora pany? It would. It did. The bond issue was tion. It was capitalized at three hundred sold. The base of aviation stock ownership thousand dollars, and there were twenty- was greatly broadened. Investors scattered nine original stockholders. That was on Sep throughout the nation now hold more than tember 1, 1926, It was pretty much a De 1,200,000 shares of common and preferred troit outfit, with Harold Emmons of that stock in Northwest Airlines. What started city as the first president, and his fellow as a sort of Minnesota stepchild has be townsmen holding most of the offices. come a national and international institu The new company promptly made two tion. moves. First, it bid $2.75 a pound to fly the Northwest Airlines observed its silver an mail between the Twin Cities and Chicago. niversary two years ago. But it is not living It got the contract. Second, it ordered three in the past. It is looking ahead to greater airplanes. Its first pilots were Charles things for the future. It is buying new air ("Speed") Holman of St. Paul, a fabulous planes. It has applied for new routes in figure of the day; David L. Behncke, later southeast Asia which would add some thir the controversial head of the Air Line teen thousand miles to its route structure. Pilots Association; and Chester Jacobson. It has also applied to the Civil Aeronautics The air line has been in business ever Board for routes to strengthen its domestic since. Some other air lines that reached structure. It expects to keep up with every the top have expanded by mergers or simi forward development of the Air Age. North lar devices. This company has grown from west Airlines has been and is a Minnesota within. It always has been Northwest — product. It hopes to continue that identity. without a hyphen. Although it got its start with the backing of Detroit capital, it was not long before St. Paul and Minneapolis IN introducing the third speaker. Professor businessmen began to take an interest. At Upson of the department of aeronautical the beginning, their investments were engineering in the University of Minnesota, prompted more by a sense of civic respon Mr. Chaney called special attention to his sibility than by a thought of profit. "Thev widely known work in aircraft construction agreed with Colonel Brittin that the Twin and with lighter-than-air craft. Professor Cities should have a spot on the aerial map Upson here reviews Minnesota's spectacular which was being drawn by a new and contributions to aeronautical science, both dynamic industry — commercial aviation. through its university and its commercial They backed their civic pride with their organizations. dollars. On Aprfl 26,1927, the first evidence of a new investment balance appeared when three directors from St. Paul —J. M. Han- naford, Jr., C. E. Johnson, and Roger B. Shepard —were added to the board, with Johnson as treasurer. Then, on August 26, Aeronautical Science 1929, the Minnesota interests took over. Richard Lilly, a St. Paul banker, was named RALPH H. UPSON president, and A. R. Rogers, a Minneapolis lumberman, became chairman of the board. THEORY without experiment is barren, Investment banking houses of St. Paul, and experiment without theory is blind, but Minneapolis, and Milwaukee offered a hun together they can work miracles —the mir dred thousand shares of Northwest Airlines acle of human flight itself, of speed ex stock in the open market. Would the public ceeding that of sound, of reaching alti-

242 MINNESOTA History tudes above almost all the atmosphere, of flying distances comparable to the size of the earth. It was the realization of what co ordinated research can accomplish that caused Professor John D. Akerman of the University of Minnesota department of aeronautical engineering to take over the Gopher Ordnance Works, now the univer sity's Rosemount Research Center, in 1947, There, in one building, you can see a wind tunnel in which a model aircraft or missile can be tested at any desired air speed up to and beyond that of sound, to nearly a thousand miles per hour, as well as two other tunnels that take the speed on up to about five times that of sound, all in continuous flow for as long as required. In another building are two intermittent type tunnels that will be capable of speeds up to more than eight times that of sound. Outside are large open jet tunnels in which full-size missiles or power plants can be tested. For observation of the air flow and the forces it creates, special photographic, mechanical, and electronic equipment, largely developed in adjoining laboratories and shops, is available, Stfll another bufld ing houses the offices in which the theoreti cal work is done; there the tests are planned COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA and the results co-ordinated and inter preted. INFLATING an early plastic balloon, 1936 Thanks to this university research center and others like it, there has recently been like zero on a thermometer. The speed at a veritable explosion of aeronautical prog which sound is transmitted through the ress, marking an advance as great in a few air is that at which the slightest pressure brief years as in all preceding centuries. disturbance travels and makes itself felt. Whereas fifteen years ago sustained flight But what if the source of disturbance is approaching the speed of sound — that is, traveling at an even greater speed? Instead sonic speed — was generally thought im of sending out continuous pressure signals possible, this barrier has now been passed, in the direction it is moving, it pushes out and we are entering into a new "super concentrated waves of thunderclap inten sonic" regime ruled by new laws and new sity. techniques. To use another example: How does the It may well be asked: "What is the air in front of an ordinary airplane wing sound barrier that constitutes such an im get out of its way to flow smoothly around portant obstacle, such a dividing line be it? The same pressures, not necessarily audi tween the old and the new?" It is far more ble but still there, force the air to deflect. than a merely convenient reference point. If you sound your automobile horn to warn

Summer 1953 243 a pedestrian ahead, the warning is effective neer work in the exploration of the upper as long as the sound message travels faster air. In this field, the most effective method than you do. If, however, you are traveling of doing the research job has been by free faster than sound, the pedestrian will be balloons. Through their use, isolated studies run over before he hears anything. Thus can be made of the air constituents and it is no wonder that as supersonic speed is physical properties, of solar radiation, of reached, a new type of flow appears, with cosmic rays, and of horizontal and vertical air-shattering shock waves, and with gen currents — nearly all the items that affect erally far greater demands on thrust and aircraft performance and organic survival. power. Among the major recent projects at Rose- ALTHOUGH the first bafloon flights in mount has been a study of surface shock Minnesota were made nearly a hundred waves and of methods by which their per years ago, their scientific use is much more nicious build-up of pressure can be relieved recent. Sparked by the ideas and initial — for example by sucking part of the dis stratosphere observations of Dr. Jean F. placed air into slots in the surface of a mis Piccard, the first practical balloon of plastic sile or other moving object. As might be material was made at the University of Min expected, much of the work done in the nesota and launched from the stadium in supersonic field is on missiles, and it re 1936. General Mills of Minneapolis since mains highly classified. In a general way, has gone into the manufacture and further however, it may be said that the big prob development of these balloons on a large lem is to get the desired performance with scale. Important additional theoretical and out excessive loss of power in shock waves experimental research has been contributed and other forms of energy dissipation. In by members of the university physics staff addition to the university, the recently or and other departments, and practical con ganized FluiDyne Engineering Corporation struction has been furthered by another in of Minneapolis, which has available excel dustrial group, Winzen Research, Incorpo lent supersonic test facilities, is working in rated, of St. Paul. In fact this particular this field. field of aeronautical development has be Another basic problem faced by the aero come, by virtue of intensive application, nautical engineer is that of minimizing and almost a Twin City monopoly. It is a com dealing with the very high temperatures mon performance for the gigantic un developed by air reaction at high speed. manned balloons manufactured and released A familiar illustration is the heating of in this area to rise to heights of more than meteorites as they enter the atmosphere. twenty miles. The small "pillow balloons" Such problems are being particularly recently used to carry messages behind the studied by Research, Incorporated, recently Iron Curtain were made of the same organized in Minneapolis. Still another material as that used for the local giants. group, Research Associates of St. Paul, spe How best to remove ice and snow from cializes in electronic devices. These in turn parked aircraft is the subject of a study, are vital components of control and instru of particular interest to the Air Force, now mentation, the field in which the Minne in progress at the University of Minnesota. apolis-Honeywell Regulator Company is It takes advantage of the state's winter the national leader. weather. Clothing and oxygen equipment One of the surest ways of minimizing the have been specialties of the Strato Equip terrific penalty imposed by air forces at ment Company of Minneapolis. Other re high speed is by simply flying where there cent Minnesota contributions to the aero isn't much air —in other words, at high nautical sciences have been in the structural altitude. Minnesota agencies have done pio field. They relate to such questions as how

244 MINNESOTA Hlstory to get more strength with less weight and how to deal with atmospheric gusts. The G-suit, one of the outstanding devel opments of World War II, was largely a product of medical and mechanical research conducted by the personnel of the Mayo Clinic at Rochester. This is a pressurized suit that resists the tendency of a fighter pilot's blood to be forced into his lower extremities in a tight maneuver. The story goes that the Germans first tried to develop such a suit, but failed and gave up the ef fort as impractical. Gradually they became aware that American jet pilots were running rings around them, not because of higher speed but because they could make turns and pull-outs that would result in complete unconsciousness for the Germans who tried them. Still obsessed with the idea that a G-Suit was impractical, the Germans thought we had discovered some wonder drug that we fed our pilots. For a considerable time, no American fighter was brought down intact in Ger man-held territory. When this finally hap pened, the strange-looking suit was discov ered. It was sent to Goering, He could make nothing of it; neither could Hitler, By mere chance, it was seen by a man who had worked on the earlier German project. "Gott in Himmel," he shouted, "They have a G-suit that works!" It was immediately copied and put into production. Soon the Germans had enough such suits for every pilot in the Luftwaffe. But by that time American air superiority was so complete and German transportation was so disor ganized that the suits could not be distrib uted and delivered to the airports. The Ger man suits were still in the stockpiles as the war drew rapidly to a close.

WHAT of the future? Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, director of the National Advisory Commit tee for Aeronautics, recently stated con i. •****•*—•^^i!^'^»gl»V!^»'^^i^'ii^''!!im^,>'m»- servatively that speeds of aircraft would probably be increased as much in the next five years as in all aviation history up to COURTESY OF GENERAL MILLS, INC. World War II. A combat aircraft that will LAUNCHING fl moclcrn giant plastic balloon

Summer 1953 245 travel at twice the speed of sound is al which, if not air supported, can hardly be ready being designed, and there is no end classed as aircraft. But even rockets des in sight. Predictions are easy. It is still tined for outer space must start through easier to cite an old one that is well on the the air and ordinarily return through it. way to fulfillment. In a paper published Thus aeronautical science remains of vital fifteen years ago, I predicted that it should importance in their operation. By keeping be possible to support a properly designed our sights on these and allied requirements, balloon in air only one one-thousandth of and by continuing co-ordination of theory normal air density. This is the density of air and experiment — with a liberal dash of about thirty miles above the earth, and we resourceful imagination — we can ensure for are now nearing that goal. aeronautical science in Minnesota and in Anything much higher would have to the nation as a whole a future of high be reached by rockets or "space ships," promise.

^1P- THE PIONEER

MILDRED B. LEE

We turned the plodding oxen from the trail, And all at once it seemed to me Our creaking wagons were tall ships a.saU Upon a boundless emerald sea. Where grassy waves, cloud shadowed, ran to meet And swirl and break about the oxen's feet.

This is our land, we said; remote, unchanged In swell and slope since time began. Here buffalo and antelope once ranged. But on its virgin soil no man Has set his mark. So we believed, until Our mother found beyond that rounded hill, Untended and alone, A tame rose blooming by a flat white stone.

MRS. LEE frequently contributes verse to The Moccasin, the quarterly of the League of Minnesota Poets. A resident of Granite Falls, she is a former president of the Yellow Medicine County Historical Society.

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