Remembering the plane-train days

(Eastern New Mexico News) You could fly from Clovis to Kansas City for $47 in those days.
If you were brave enough.
Newspaper Editor Mack Stanton and Santa Fe railroader Charles Reichart were overheard discussing safety and health factors related to air travel.
They made “a solemn agreement that each would hold the other’s head in the event air sickness overtook them.” Continued

Harry W. Brown

Courtesy of The
475th Fighter Group
Historical Foundation

Harry Winston Brown (May 19, 1921 – October 7, 1991) was an Army Air Corps second lieutenant assigned to the 47th Pursuit Squadron at Wheeler Field on the island of Oahu during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. He was one of the five American pilots to score victories that day.
Brown was awarded a Silver Star for his actions, and was the first Texan decorated for valor in the war. By the war's end, he was a flying ace. Continued

Transcontinental Air Transport

 

(Wikipedia) Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) was an airline founded in 1928 by Clement Melville Keys that merged in 1930 with Western Air Express to form what became TWA. Keys enlisted the help of Charles Lindbergh to design a transcontinental network to get government airmail contracts.
… It initially offered a 48-hour coast to coast trip (trains by night, and planes by day in nine flights), with the first leg on the Pennsylvania Railroad overnight from New York City to Columbus, Ohio. There, passengers boarded a Ford Trimotor aircraft at Port Columbus International Airport that flew to Waynoka, Oklahoma. Then, passengers caught the Santa Fe Railway for an overnight trip to Clovis, New Mexico, where they would take a second Ford Trimotor flight to Los Angeles. Continued

The Flying Schoolgirl

 

(Wikipedia) Katherine Stinson (February 14, 1891 – July 8, 1977) was an early female flier.
... In January 1911, Stinson went to St. Louis to take flight lessons from Tony Jannus who only allowed her to fly as a passenger.
She then took her flying lessons from the well-known aviator Max Lillie, a pilot for the Wright Brothers, who initially refused to teach her because she was female. But she persuaded him to give her a trial lesson and was so good that she flew alone after only four hours of instruction.
A year after receiving her certificate, she began exhibition flying. On the exhibition circuit, she was known as the "Flying Schoolgirl." Continued

Rick Husband

(Wikipedia) Rick Douglas Husband (July 12, 1957 – February 1, 2003) was a U.S. Air Force Colonel, pilot, and astronaut who was Commander of Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-107.
He and the rest of the crew of STS-107 were killed when Columbia disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Husband is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Husband was born on July 12, 1957, in Amarillo, Texas. He attended Belmar Elementary School, Crockett Junior High School, and he graduated from Amarillo High School in 1975.
Husband earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1980, and a Master of Science degree also in Mechanical Engineering from Fresno State University in 1990. Continued

Ray Crawford

 

(Wikipedia) Ray Crawford (October 26, 1915 – February 1, 1996) was an American fighter ace, test pilot, race-car driver and businessman.
Born in Roswell, New Mexico, Crawford served as a U.S. Army Air Corps fighter pilot and flew the P-38 Lightning in combat over North Africa in 1943. He was tied as the top-ranking fighter ace of the 97th Fighter Squadron with six enemy aircraft confirmed destroyed and one probably destroyed. Rotated home, he eventually became an early jet pilot.
... He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with fourteen Oak Leaf Clusters before separating from active duty as a Captain in February, 1946. Continued

R.I.P. Alan Bean

(Wikipedia) Alan LaVern Bean (March 15, 1932 – May 26, 2018; CAPT, USN, Ret.) was an American naval officer and naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut; he was the fourth person to walk on the Moon.
He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3.
… Bean was born March 15, 1932, in Wheeler, the seat of Wheeler County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle. Continued

'A successful run' for Route 66 Air Tour

 

(Quay County Sun) ... The Air Tour kicked off Saturday with the 24 pilots departing Tucumcari with scheduled landings at airports in Santa Rosa, Las Vegas, Moriarty, and Grants before ending at Winslow.
The tour commemorated both the 90th anniversary of the establishment of Route 66 in New Mexico, and Gov. Susana Martinez's proclamation of February as Aviation Appreciation Month.
The Air Tour was organized by Chapter 179 of the Experimental Aircraft Association in Albuquerque, with the assistance of the Aviation Division of the New Mexico Department of Transportation and the New Mexico Pilots Association. Continued

Route 66 Air Tour slated Saturday

 

(Quay County Sun) A fleet of small planes will launch Saturday from the Tucumcari Municipal Airport, flying above the Mother Road through New Mexico into Arizona to kick off the Route 66 Air Tour.
The air tour winging its way across the state will highlight aviators, aircraft, and significant historical events along Route 66, said Tour Coordinator Richard L. Perry.
Perry said tours like this one are older than the 90-year-old road itself, fixed-wing aviation pilots have been flying air tours to exhibit aircraft capabilities and share their passion for aviation. Continued

Rick Husband

(Wikipedia) Rick Douglas Husband (July 12, 1957 – February 1, 2003) was a U.S. Air Force Colonel, pilot, and astronaut who was Commander of Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-107. He and the rest of the crew of STS-107 were killed when Columbia disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Husband is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Husband was born on July 12, 1957, in Amarillo, Texas. He attended Belmar Elementary School, Crockett Junior High School, and he graduated from Amarillo High School in 1975. Husband earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1980, and a Master of Science degree also in Mechanical Engineering from Fresno State University in 1990. Continued

Letter from Back East: My Dutiful Balloon - Precarious Reconnaissance in The Great War

(Falmanac) While wandering through a churchyard the other day we found an odd line on a gravestone: 28 BALLOON CO. That was a new one. We were a stone's throw from the border of Aberdeen Proving Ground [Maryland] and it got me to wondering if APG was home to a balloon company, and even stranger, what if the guy landed here and was buried on the spot? Well, he didn't land there, dead in a graveyard, but the base was home to the 28th Balloon Company, also a balloon school, and a unit of the 18th Airship, whatever that was.
The balloonists were hoisted in the air in baskets, hanging from little blimps, which were tethered to the ground, in order to see what the enemy was up to. The enemy didn't care for it and would shoot at the balloons. The balloonists were well protected with covering fire to discourage attack, but this didn't deter enemy aircraft from targeting them anyway; there was a whole class of aces known as "balloon busters." The balloonists were equipped with parachutes which they seemed to use rather often.
But it must have been an effective way to gather information as there were a lot of balloon outfits on both sides. According to Stars And Stripes, there were 35 American balloon companies in France during World War One. 23 of the companies were active at the front, making 1,642 ascensions. I imagine the balloonists were a breed apart. Who would take such hazardous duty? One story from Stars and Stripes relates how a French soldier, forced to parachute from his burning craft (Did I mention the balloons were filled with flammable hydrogen?), found himself being strafed by a German plane, the balloonist calmly pulled a pistol from his holster and started blasting away at the pilot. The paper also noted that the members of the balloon corps were usually near the top of the list when it came to generosity, donating liberal amounts of their pay to various charity drives.
By 1923 it was all over; lighter than air technology was on its way out and the army was through with the balloon corps. Nearly a hundred years later, it is just another forgotten aspect of an unpopular time.

The Things You Find on Google Maps

Abandoned airfield, De Baca County, NM (Google Maps)

Such as this abandoned airport, some miles north of Taiban, along Route 252. It was built during World War Two, and was officially known as Fort Sumner Auxiliary Airfield #5. Sumner trained bomber pilots, B-17's and B-24's. I imagine #5 was a bit nerve-wracking for those trainees to land on as it sits out on a finger of the Caprock. Today, it just sits, a weird squiggle on a satellite map.

Wiley Post

(Wikipedia) Wiley Hardeman Post (November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935) was a famed American aviator during the interwar period, the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high-altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits and discovered the jet stream. On August 15, 1935, Post and American humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post's aircraft crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow in the Territory of Alaska.
Post's Lockheed Vega aircraft, the Winnie Mae, was on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center from 2003 to 2011. It is now featured in the "Time and Navigation" gallery on the second floor of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Continued