The Mission Inn Celebrates Aviation

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The Mission Inn Celebrates Aviation
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Quickwrite

• What is aviation?
• Why is aviation important?

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All of the living WWII veterans are
growing old and eventually they will all be gone.
How do we remember them and what they did for
our country?
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Frank Miller Founder of the Riverside Mission
Inn

• Called air minded and impressed with the spirit
  and accomplishments of aviation
• Dedicated much of his Mission Inn, and helped to
  establish March Air Force Base, in honor of those
  men and women in aviation

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Orville Wright built and tested the first manned
powered flight the same year Frank Miller opened
his mission-styled hotel in 1903.
Kitty Hawk Sand
Rib from Wrights Glider
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Orville Wright Wings
French Book on the Wright Brothers
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To chronicle advances in aviation from that time,
Mr. Miller included in his Mission Inn Museum
collection, the Earl Ovington photography album
(circa 1911) and the Los Angeles air show program
dated January 14, 1910 to serve as extraordinary
evidence of pioneer manned flight.
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As the Army and Navy were looking to expand their
early aviation programs, Frank Miller knew they
would need an airfield for their planes and
trained flyers.
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Mr. Miller and other community leaders convinced
and persuaded the U.S. government to locate an
airfield east of Riverside and the first military
plane landed at the new airfield on March 1,
1918- March Field (March Air Force Base)
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Frank Miller recommended architect Myron Hunt to
design March Field to harmonize with the best
traditions of the historical architecture of
Southern California. The first flight of a
Lockheed P-38 was at March Field in January of
1939.
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During World War II and the Korean War, airplanes
with cartoons, Disney characters, comic strips,
or other images were commonly seen on Army Air
Corps (later Air Force) aircraft, especially
bombers. During the Korean War there was a B-29
bomber, once stationed at March Air Force Base,
that displayed nose art identifying the Mission
Inn. The images combined with identifying names
and phrases provided a certain sense of luck
while taking jabs at the opposing forces.
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Early Passenger Flight
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Frank Miller had the Saint Francis Chapel built
and dedicated as the International Shrine for
Aviators on December 15, 1932. Mr. Millers
chapel became a symbol of hope and protection.
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The plaque with the motto of the Franciscans is
surrounded by copper wings, each dedicated to an
individual or a group of fliers. The Famous
Fliers Wall became known to thousands. The copper
wings are 14 inches wide.
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Among the 151 honored are an
extraordinary list of individuals and groups of
fliers. General H.H. Hap Arnold, Major General
Robert Olds, Amelia Earhart, James H. Doolittle,
General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Brigadier General
Chuck Yeager, Mercury astronaut and Senator John
Glenn, John K. Northrup, General Curtis LeMay,
Jacqueline Cochran, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker,
Charles Lindbergh, the MIA POW (the copper wing
wrapped in barbed wire), Orville Wright, the
WASPs, and the Medal of Honor Aviators are among
the one hundred and fifty. Even if ones wings
were not found on the wall, there was a sense of
community, a community of fliers not all
military and not all men.
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Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart is
one of 151 aviators or groups of aviators who
have been honored at the Mission Inn. On February
3, 1936 Earhart attended a ceremony at the hotel
at which copper wings with her etched initials
were affixed to the Famous Fliers Wall. In 1937
Earhart and navigators Fred J. Noonan and Harry
Manning attempted to circumvent the world (globe)
in a Lockheed Electra twin-engine aircraft. Early
in their attempt on March 20, 1937 their plane
crashed on takeoff from the Honolulu airport. The
three were headed for Howland Island in the
Pacific in an east to west flight plan. The plane
was sent back for repairs to Lockheeds
manufacturing facility in Burbank, California.
This piece of aluminum and a Lunkenheimer made
gas strainer (also in the Mission Inn
collections) are from the Lockheed Electra.
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In May of 1937 Earhart and Noonan (without
Manning) disappeared on their second attempt to
fly round the world. They were flying from New
Guinea to Howland Island (the second time flying
west to east) when they were last heard from We
are running north and south.
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• The small metal ring with the hat inside was the
  insignia or symbol for a group of fliers during
  World War I called the 94th Aero Pursuit
  Squadron. One of the members of the squadron was
  Eddie Rickenbacker. Before the War Rickenbacker
  was an internationally known racecar driver. He
  went on to become the president of Eastern
  Airlines. On March 20, 1942 Rickenbacker was
  honored at the Mission Inn. Later that same year
  Rickenbacker was on an inspection trip for the
  United States, when the plane he was on crashed
  into the Pacific Ocean. Rickenbacker and six
  others survived on rubber rafts for 24 days
  before being rescued.

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• The Hindenburg was launched in March of 1936. One
  hundred thirty five feet in diameter, the ship
  was 804 feet long and was powered by four
  Mercedes Benz engines. The airship traveled
  between Lakehurst, New Jersey and Frankfurt am
  Main, Germany. Ten roundtrip voyages were made
  between Germany and the United States between
  March 1936 and May 1937.
• Millers grandson and namesake, Frank Miller
  Hutchings, was on the last successful flight of
  the Zeppelin Hindenburg.

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• Frank Miller was fascinated with aviation and
  felt it was important to our countrys success.
• Create a timeline of the progress of aviation
  over its first 100 years.