Chapter 6 Golden Age (1927-1939)

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Chapter 6Golden Age (1927-1939)

1. Charles Lindbergh
2. Adventure, Exploration, and Sport
3. Commercial Airlines and Airliners
4. Aviation Radio and Military Aviation

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Section ACharles Lindbergh

• In 1927 the young American pilot Charles
  Lindbergh flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean to
  France and fame. More that 90 people had flown
  across the Atlantic before Lindberghs historic
  flight, so his flight both closed the postwar
  period of long distance flying and opened the
  Golden Age of Aviation.

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Charles Lindbergh

• Lindbergh took his first flight lesson in 1922.
• Received 8 hours of dual instruction
• Joined friends barnstorming, wing walking, and
  parachuting.
• He bought his own airplane in 1923
• Curtiss JN-4D Jenny
• First solo

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Charles Lindbergh

• Educated at Brooks Field, Army Air Service, San
  Antonio, Texas in 1924.
• - Graduated in 1925 in a class of 18 that
  started with 104 cadets.
• Lindbergh joined the Robertson Aircraft
  Corporation of St. Louis as an airmail pilot

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Charles Lindbergh

• Orteig Prize
• Raymond Orteig, a New York businessman, offered a
  25,000 prize for the first nonstop airplane
  flight between New York and Paris in either
  direction.
• This lured Lindbergh from flying the mail to
  planning the flight.

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Charles Lindbergh

• Lindbergh raised money from the St. Louis
  business community.
• He selected a single-engine monoplane less
  drag, less fuel consumption.
• More than 90 people made the trip, but never
  nonstop in an airplane.

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Charles Lindbergh

• In 1927, there were more than 20 attempts.
• On 21 Sept. 1926, French ace Rene Fonck and his
  crew crashed their Sirkorsky S-35 on takeoff,
  killing 2.
• Despite, the prize attracted many!!

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Charles Lindbergh

• 20-21 May 1927
• Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis, a Ryan
  monoplane, non stop from New York to St. Louis.
• 3600 miles crossed in 33 hours and 29 minutes.
• He won the 25,000 Orteig Prize.

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Charles Lindbergh

• The flight also won Lindbergh the reserve officer
  promotion to colonel and the Congressional Medal
  of Honor.
• Wrote a book We, referring to man and machine,
  about the flight.
• His book The Spirit of St. Louis won a Pulitzer
  prize in 1953.

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Charles Lindbergh

• The flight proved the reliability of aircraft and
  engines designed and built after the war.
• Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis on tour of
  the US, visiting all 48 states, covering 22,000
  miles, logging 260.7 flight hours

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Charles Lindbergh

• Lindbergh got jobs with two airlines
• Pam Am and
• Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) which later
  became known as The Lindbergh Line.
• End of Section A

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Section BAdventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Aviation was sport and spectacle. It was an
  adventure in the exploration of the planet, the
  plane, and the pilot. Pilots promoted
  themselves, their aircraft, and their flights.
  Geographical and scientific expeditions used
  airplanes not only as service vehicles, but to
  attract supporters of aviation. Filmmakers used
  airplanes for aerial photography an as subject
  matter. Light airplanes, homebuilt, and glider
  brought aviation to ordinary people. This was
  the Golden Age of Aviation.

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• James D. Dole organized a Pacific Air Race with a
  35,000 prize for nonstop flight from Oakland,
  California to Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Who Wants to be a Millionaire?...
• How about the next American Idol?...
• Any Bachelors looking for date?...
• Prizes, Prizes, Prizes

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Many triedmany died.
• Two planes did complete the race, both with the
  Wright J-5 engine.
• The Winning plane, the Woolaroc, flown by Art
  Goebel and William V. Davis.
• Second was the Aloha

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Although the Pacific was the new challenge, some
  did not lose interest in the Atlanic.
• Amelia Earhart the Lady Lindy in 1932 became
  the first female pilot to make a solo, nonstop
  transatlantic flight.
• James Allan Mollison made the first east-to-west
  solo flight
• Graf Zeppelin made 18 crossings of the South
  Atlantic.
• In 1932, 5 planes carried 22 passengers across
  the Atlantic.

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Douglas Corrigan
• Decided to fly across the Atlantic, but lacked
  the necessary authorizations.
• On 17-18 July 1938, Corrigan made the flight
  claiming that he intended to fly to California,
  but flew the wrong way.
• Earned the nick-name Wrong-Way Corrigan.

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Round the World
• 1929 Graf Zeppelin made a circumnavigation
  flight.
• Pilot Wiley Post and navigator Harold Gatty flew
  around the around in 1932.
• Von Gronau flying boat trip in in 1932.
• Post made a second round the world flight in
  1933, this time solo.
• Howard Hughes made it in 1938.

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Polar Flights
• Remember Richard Byrd??
• Well he does it again. This time to the South
  Pole, Nov. 1929.

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Italian Distance Flights
• Nation Pride at stake
• Benito Mussolini sent his Minister of Air Italo
  Balbo to the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1933.
• They flew 25 plane from Rome, Italy to Chicago
• Lost one plane on the way
• Lost one more on the return trip.

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• 1934 MacRobertson Air Race
• 12,300 miles from England to Australia.
• C.W.A Scott and T. Campbell Black won the race in
  a de Havilland 88 Comet.
• Second and Third place were won by Americans.

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Altitude Flights
• 1934, William Kepner, Orvil Anderson, and
  observer A.W. Steven manned a balloon (Explorer
  1) and rose to more that 11 miles
• The next year Kepner and Anderson did it again in
  the Explorer II, this time to 72,395 ft or 13.7
  miles

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• Speed Flights
• Absolute speed record at the time Lindbergh
  crossed the Atlantic
• 278.481 mph
• Speed records were set and broken
  constantlyalmost on a yearly basis.
• 9 times in 12 years

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Adventure, Exploration, and Sport

• French Raids
• The French started exploratory flights, known as
  raids.
• French govt. air ministry offered prizes for
  first flights to far destinations
• Additional prizes for the fastest flights to
  those destinations already reached.
• Raids were classed as a sport in the 1930s

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Light Airplanes

• Europe
• de Havilland DH 60 Moth biplane became so popular
  that the word Moth came to denote every small
  airplane. Much like how the word Cessna is
  used today
• United States
• C.G. Taylor and William Piper finds the Taylor
  Aircraft Company and starts production of the
  Model A Cub in 1930.

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Homebuilt Aircraft

• Starting with the Montgolfier Bros., aircraft
  have been built at home.
• Even the Wright Bros. sold airplanes with the
  intention of the customer building it at home.
• The Heath Parasol was one of the first aircraft
  to be marketed solely as a homebuilt.
• Homebuilt gliders and the Germans are what began
  in our investigating and understanding of
  thermals.

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End of SectionB