AIAA Historic Aerospace Site

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Historic Aerospace Site Pearson Field Vancouver, Washington Lincoln Beachey landing at the Vancouver Barracks, 19 September, 1905. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Historic Aerospace Site Pearson Field Vancouver, Washington AIAA Historic Aerospace Site 3 n the morning of September 19th, Oregon staged the Lewis and Clark O1905, an odd-shaped, bulbous Centennial American Pacific Exposition object lifted off from the banks of Guild’s and Oriental Fair from June to October Lake, in Portland Oregon, flew over of 1905. Part of the purpose of the fair the Columbia River, and 40 minutes was to showcase modern technology, later landed at Vancouver Barracks, in and the Gelatine proved an exciting Vancouver, Washington. The Gelatine, as example of advances in air travel. it was named (because it was sponsored The rich heritage of aviation in the by the Knox Gelatine Company), was an Pacific Northwest can be traced to the Army Signal Corps blimp that had just successful completion of the airship made the first controlled flight in the journey to Vancouver Barracks, setting Pacific Northwest. Piloted by Lincoln the tone for many eventful years to Beachey, the Gelatine set an endurance come, with the Vancouver Barracks site Lincoln Beachey (1887–1915) record, and because it carried a letter often playing a central role. from a Fair official to the Barracks lthough only 18 when he commander, it also marked the first time After Lewis and Clark’s exploration, A piloted the Gelatine, Beachey an airship was used to deliver a letter. the U.S. and Britain spent many years was already a well-known aviator in the disputing the territory of what is now Northwest. He worked on dirigibles at first, One hundred years before, Meriwether Washington and Oregon. After the but soon switched to fixed-wing aircraft. Clark and William Lewis had led the Treaty of 1846 established the boundary He was the first person to fly a plane over Corps of Discovery through the Pacific between the U.S. and Canada, the U.S. Niagara Falls. He became famous for his Northwest Wilderness and had camped began establishing a military presence aircraft stunts, and joined Glenn Curtiss’s over the winter of 1805 in what was in the Pacific Northwest, and in 1850 exhibition team. He stopped for a time, now Astoria, Oregon. To mark the built Columbia Barracks, later called blaming himself for the deaths of pilots anniversary of their achievements, Fort Vancouver after an earlier fort built who tried to emulate him, but came back when Curtiss developed a plane that could perform an inside loop, and although Beachey was not the first to perform the maneuver, he perfected the technique. In fact, over 17 million people watched him perform on a tour in 1914. He said he performed in order to bring the world’s attention to the capabilities of the airplane. In fact, he saw its ominous side, too, and in 1914 dive-bombed the White House and Congress in a mock attack to prove to them how unprepared the U.S. was in terms of the coming uses of air power. Sadly, he died in 1917 during a demonstration at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, when the plane he was piloting broke apart over San Francisco Bay. The Gelatine floating over the Lewis and Clark centennial Exposition, 1905. 4 AIAA Historic Aerospace Site Pearson Field nearby by the Hudson’s Bay Company. And in August of that year, Walter Fort Vancouver served as the main Edwards carried the first U.S. Post military headquarters in the area, and Office sanctioned airmail between two during the Civil War, detachments of states: Washington and Oregon. The the 1st Washington Territory Infantry facility also welcomed Glenn Curtiss, Volunteers and 1st Oregon Cavalry were who held an air circus at the site. stationed there. In 1866, most of the fort burned down in a large fire. The Army During World War One, the U.S. rebuilt the fort, and in 1879 renamed Army Signal Corps converted land to it Vancouver Barracks. It was used for the west of the airfield into the largest ammunition storage, a blacksmith shop, spruce milling operation in the world, and gardens, and later became popular to provide the War Department and as a polo field. U.S. allies with spruce for airplane construction. An average day at the The field at Vancouver Barracks was Vancouver Barracks mill produced half officially recognized as an “aviation a million feet of lumber – enough to camp” by the U.S. Army in 1911, and build three hundred airplanes. became a base for the fledgling U.S. Fort Vancouver Army Air Service. On June 15, 1911, In the first four years after WWI, the Vancouverite Charles “Fred” Walsh army air service focused primarily on made the first fixed-wing flight from the practical applications of flight – aerial polo grounds in his “Curtiss pusher” mapping and, in cooperation with the – so called because the engine and Forest Service, firespotting in the vast propeller were situated behind the pilot’s Pacific wilderness. seat. Starting in 1923, the airport played Silas Christofferson was also setting a key role in the development of U.S. records that year at Vancouver’s flying air power and general aviation in the field. He was first to carry passengers Pacific Northwest. In 1924 Lieutenant there, and in returning to California, Oakley Kelly was transferred to established altitude and single-day Vancouver Barracks to command Silas Christofferson distance records. the new 321st Reserve Observation Squadron and expand the role of On 9 June 1912, in conjunction with both military and civilian aviation. Portland’s Rose Festival, Christofferson Lt. Kelly, one of the crew members flew off a ramp built above the rooftop of the first non-stop crossing of the of the Multnomah Hotel in downtown continental U.S.. was instrumental in Portland, and landed at the aviation the development of the field as a major camp in Vancouver. It was the first airport and U.S. Army Air Base. What airplane flight ever from the roof of a began as the polo field for Vancouver building. His flight to Portland was also Barracks evolved by the mid-1920s into the first airplane flight from Washington one of the premier Army Air Corps into Oregon across the Columbia River. installations on the West Coast, largely Oakley Kelly through Kelly’s efforts. AIAA Historic Aerospace Site 5 On September 28th, 1924, the airfield became an intermediate stop on the final 240-mile leg of the Army’s epic Douglas World Cruisers’ round-the-world flight. The DWCs had landed at the airfield five months earlier on the way to Seattle to begin their journey. After nearly six months and 27,000 miles of flight, two of the four original aircraft completed the world record flight. In 1924, John Gilbert Rankin, known by almost everyone as “Tex,” moved his well-known flying school to Vancouver U.S. Mail Service, 1912. Barracks. Rankin, a famous aviator of the time, was known both as a world record aerobatic champion and flight instructor. At one time his students numbered over 400, the most of any aviation school in the world. One of Rankin’s instructors was Elrey Jeppesen, who is probably best known for his “Jepp Charts,” which remain the worldwide standard for instrument navigation to this day. The army renamed Vancouver Barracks Aerodrome as Pearson Field on Curtis Air Circus, c. 1912. Tex Rankin. 6 AIAA Historic Aerospace Site Pearson Field September 16th, 1925, in honor of In 1929 a Tupolev ANT-4, Land of it again in the late 1930s). His tenure Lieutenant Alexander Pearson Jr., who the Soviets, made a stop at Pearson was marked by rapid expansion was killed while preparing for an air Field during its historic goodwill flight of commercial operations on the race the year before. Pearson had been from Moscow to New York. After field, which was accompanied by a prominent figure in the Army Air a pioneering flight across the Soviet much political intrigue between Service, and set the land speed record in Union, and then across Alaska, the Vancouver, Washington and its 1923. plane reached Washington State. By neighbor across the Columbia River, that point, however, the airplane was Portland, Oregon. The dispute Pearson Field also helped give rise to a experiencing mechanical difficulties, concerned the future of commercial major U.S. airline. In 1926, Vern Gorst, and Pearson Field was selected as the aviation operations in the area, the owner of Pacific Air Transport, ideal place to conduct repair work, given and ultimately led to the decline applied for and won Contract Air Mail its military pedigree and its ability to of Chamber of Commerce Field, Route 8 in January, 1926. He based his limit the crowds around the airplane as as Pearson’s civilian sector on the company at Pearson Field because the repairs took place. The plane successfully east end was called. Although it nearby city of Portland, Oregon, did departed the next day for San Francisco, had become the region’s premier not have a suitable airport at that time. before heading eastward to complete its Pacific Air Transport carried the mail, journey to New York. and then passengers, up and down the West Coast for two years, until it merged In 1929 Lieutenant Carlton Bond took with Boeing Air Transport. The Pacific command of the 321st Observation and Boeing partnership later merged Squadron at Pearson Field, serving until with Varney Air Lines and National Air 1933, in what became the first of his two Transport to form United Airlines.

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