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.

Load more