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Three
internationally famous pilots are linked to early Iowa aviation
history.
Clarence Duncan Chamberlain (1893-1976), born in Denison,
Iowa, in 1893, captured the nonstop, long-distance record
by flying from New York to Berlin, and was the first to
fly a paying passenger across the Atlantic Ocean. In April
1927, at age 34, Chamberlain gained world-wide fame by breaking
the world endurance record in his Bellanca monoplane: he
stayed in the air 51 hours and I I minutes. This was six
hours beyond the worlds nonstop record and 10 hours longer
than Charles Lindbergh's historic nonstop flight to Paris.
In 1976 Chamberlain was inducted into the National Aviation
Hall of Fame.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) flew in and
out of many locations in Iowa and dedicated several airports.
During August 1927 Lindbergh visited several Iowa cities
on a nationwide tour sponsored by the Daniel Guggenheim
Fund which was established to promote aeronautics. On a
stop at the Moline, Illinois, airport on August 19, 1927,
the citizens of Davenport, Rock Island, Moline and East
Moline presented Lindbergh with a ring symbolizing their
admiration for the famous aviator.
Amelia Mary Earhart ( 1897-1937?), Americas famous
aviatrix, moved to Des 
Moines in 1908 as a young girl. At age 10 she saw her first
airplane ar the Iowa State Fair. She left Des Moines in
1914 and moved to Chicago. In October 1922 Earhart began
participating in record-breaking attempts and set a women's
altitude record of 14,000 feet. She was the first woman
to fly across the Atlantic (June 1928) and made the first
solo flight from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast (September
1928). Shortly thereafter she visited several Iowa towns
on a series of lecture tours. In 1929 she formed the now-famous
women pilots' organization, the Ninety-Nines. In 1932 she
was the first woman to successfully make a solo flight across
the Atlantic. In 1935 she made a trans-Pacific flight from
Hawaii to California. On June 1, 1937, she began her attempt
to become the first woman to fly around the world. On July
2, 1937, her last voice transmission was heard, "KHAQQ
calling Itasca. (U.S. Coast Guard cutter) We must be on
you but cannot see you... gas is running low..." The fate
of Amelia Earhart has fascinated Americans since she and
her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared during that flight.
Some believe the two drowned because their plane ran out
of fuel. Others believe they were killed or captured by
the Japanese. But there is no firm evidence to prove any
of the theories. |
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The Iowa City airport was the first in the state to be used on the
Chicago-to-Omaha commercial air freight route. On Jan. 8, 1920, the first consignment was
transported: 400 pounds of mail for Omaha and meat for a banquet in honor of General John
Pershing. On the return trip, the plane carried a hog for a banquet at the
Congress Hotel in Chicago.
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In May 1920 the first regular consignment of U.S. airmail reached Iowa City. The
package contained a motion picture destined for Maquoketa. Iowa City became a
stop on the second leg (Chicago-to-Omaha) of the east-west transcontinental air route.
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Iowa's
first commercial airline passenger flight occurred when
a single-engine Boeing mail and passenger biplane carried
one passenger - Jane Eads, a 20-year-old reporter for the
Chicago Herald. She flew from Maywood, Illinois, to Iowa
City in 1927.The plane was piloted by Ira A. Biffle of Lincoln,
Nebraska, who was Charles Lindbergh's first instructor.
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In
1928 the Des Moines Register and Tribune purchased a five-person
Fairchild cabin monoplane. This was the first privately
owned plane of its class in the country, and the first airplane
owned and operated by any newspaper in the United Stales
with a pilot on full-time pay. The plane's name "Good
News," was selected through a statewide contest in which
thousands of people participated. In addition to serving
as a means at getting photographs and stories to readers
as quickly as possible, the plane promoted better aviation
and airports in Iowa.
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| Midwest Airways Corporation, owned by
Iowa Falls native
John Livingston, operated the first scheduled airline in Iowa, flying
between Waterloo and Des Moines. Flight service began in 1928 and the price
for a round trip was $ 18. Regulation of commercial airlines began in 1938.
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 Ila
Fox, the first woman born in Iowa to earn a pilot's license,
was one of twin girls born at Calendar in 1904. On September
1, 1929, Fox received private pilot's license number 7738,
the first issued to an Iowa woman. Soon thereafter she received
a letter from Amelia Earhart asking her to join a new organization
for women pilots. She agreed and became a charter member
of the famous Ninety-Nines.
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Cresco
native Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess
in the country. She had approached the traffic manager of
Boeing Air Transport (United Air Lines) with her idea of
hiring nurses to serve passengers. Still somewhat skeptical
of the idea, the board of directors did hire Church as the
chief stewardess. Church subsequently hired seven more nurses
and helped design their uniforms. The women began working
May 15, 1930.
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Air
marking, which began in 1959, was one of the earliest priorities
of the Iowa State Highway Commission. An air marker was
the name of the town painted on top of the root of a local
building in 10-foot high letters so the name was clearly
legible from an altitude of 3,000 feet.
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For
the years 1941-1978, an excellent source is:
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Fitzpatrick, John. Wings
Over Tomorrow; A History of Iowa Aviation. Sergeant
Bluff, 1979. 98 pp.
For additional
information you may contact the Iowa Dot Librarian at 515
239-1200
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