American Aviation Heritage - NPS History

National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior National Historic Landmarks Program

American Aviation Heritage

Draft, February 2004

Identifying and Evaluating Nationally Significant Properties in U.S. Aviation History

A National Historic Landmarks Theme Study

Cover: A Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" Bomber flies over Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, in the late 1930s. Photograph courtesy of 88th Air Base Wing History Office, Wright-Patterson Air

Force Base.

AMERICAN AVIATION HERITAGE

Identifying and Evaluating Nationally Significant Properties in U.S. Aviation History

A National Historic Landmarks Theme Study

Prepared by:

Contributing authors: Susan Cianci Salvatore, Cultural Resources Specialist & Project Manager, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers Consultant John D. Anderson, Jr., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland and Curator for Aerodynamics, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Janet Daly Bednarek, Ph.D., Professor of History, University of Dayton Roger Bilstein, Ph.D., Professor of History Emeritus, University of Houston-Clear Lake Caridad de la Vega, Historian, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers Consultant Marie Lanser Beck, Consulting Historian Laura Shick, Historian, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers Consultant

Editor: Alexandra M. Lord, Ph.D., Branch Chief, National Historic Landmarks Program

Produced by:

The National Historic Landmarks Program Cultural Resources National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Washington, D.C.

United States Air Force Air Force Materiel Command Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Ohio

National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers Washington, D.C.

Revised March 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD....................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................3

HISTORIC CONTEXTS

PART ONE: THE PIONEERING YEARS, 1861-1909 .............................................................. 6

1. BALLOONING IN THE CIVIL WAR ....................................................................................... 7

2. EARLY AVIATORS & FLYING MACHINES .........................................................................12 Samuel Pierpont Langley .......................................................................................................12 Octave Chanute ......................................................................................................................15 Wright Brothers .....................................................................................................................18 Glenn Curtiss .........................................................................................................................26 Marketing the Flying Machine...............................................................................................29

PART TWO: THE EARLY YEARS & WORLD WAR I, 1909-1918 .......................................32

3. AN INDUSTRY EMERGES .......................................................................................................33 Making Airplanes...................................................................................................................33 Airshows & Exhibition Flying...............................................................................................35

4. TRAINING THE MILITARY, 1909-1914 ..................................................................................39 5. MILITARY AVIATION'S POTENTIAL, 1913-1917 ................................................................46 6. AMERICA AT WAR, 1917-1918 ...............................................................................................52

PART THREE: BETWEEN THE WARS, 1918-1939 .................................................................61

7. POST-WAR DEVELOPMENTS, 1918-1926 .............................................................................62 Flying the Mail ......................................................................................................................62 Early Airport Development ...................................................................................................70 Barnstorming & Air Races ....................................................................................................73 Commercial Aviation ............................................................................................................76

8. THE GOLDEN AGE OF AVIATION, 1926-1930 .....................................................................81 Lighted Airways & Aids to Navigation ................................................................................82 Airports .................................................................................................................................86

9. THE GOLDEN AGE OF AVIATION, 1930-1939 ......................................................................92 A National Network of Air Routes ........................................................................................92 New Eras in Passenger Service..............................................................................................96 Air Racing & Record Setting .................................................................................................104 The Everyman's Aircraft .......................................................................................................109 Air Traffic Control .................................................................................................................111 Airports ..................................................................................................................................113

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Balloons & Scientific Research .............................................................................................122

10. AERONAUTICAL TECHNOLOGY .........................................................................................125 Era of the Mature Propeller-Driven Airplane ........................................................................125

11. MILITARY AVIATION BETWEEN THE WARS ..................................................................137 Army Aviation .......................................................................................................................137 Naval Aviation .......................................................................................................................145 Manufacturing ........................................................................................................................149

PART FOUR: WORLD WAR II, 1939-1945 ...............................................................................155

12. MILITARY AVIATION & WORLD WAR II, 1939-1945 ......................................................156 Manufacturing ........................................................................................................................156 Training .................................................................................................................................158 Municipal Airports in Wartime..............................................................................................167 Research & Development ......................................................................................................169 Rotary Flight ....................................................................................................................170 Radar ................................................................................................................................175

PART FIVE: POST WAR & COLD WAR AVIATION, 1945-1978 .........................................178

13. MILITARY AVIATION & THE COLD WAR, 1945-1975 ...............................................................179 Berlin Airlift...........................................................................................................................179 First Strike Capability, 1945-1953.........................................................................................181 Korean War, 1950-1953...................................................................................................184 Massive Retaliation, 1954-1961 ............................................................................................187 Flexible Response, 1961 ........................................................................................................188 Vietnam, 1961-1973 ........................................................................................................190

14. CIVIL AVIATION, 1946-1958 .................................................................................................196 Commercial Aviation.............................................................................................................196 Airports ..................................................................................................................................200 Ground-Based Airway ...........................................................................................................205 Research & Development ......................................................................................................209 The Era of the Plastic Balloon .........................................................................................209

15. THE JET AGE & DEREGULATION, 1954-1978 ................................................................................214 Research & Development ......................................................................................................214 The Era of the Jet Propelled Airplane..............................................................................214 Commercial Aviation.............................................................................................................219 The Swept-Wing Commercial Jet Transport Design: Uniquely American .....................219 Medium- and Short-Distance Commercial Jet Travel .....................................................222

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The Wide-Body Jets: Bigger May Not be Better.............................................................223 Airports ..................................................................................................................................225 Deregulating the Airways ......................................................................................................228

NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS REGISTRATION GUIDELINES............................231

METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................................................................237

SURVEY RESULTS ........................................................................................................................239

PROPERTIES RECOGNIZED AS NATIONALLY SIGNIFICANT ..............................................239 The Pioneering Years, 1861-1909 .........................................................................................239 The Early Years & World War I, 1909-1918 ........................................................................240 Between the Wars, 1918-1939 ...............................................................................................241 World War II, 1939-1945 ......................................................................................................243 Post War & Cold War Aviation, 1945-1978..........................................................................244

PROPERTIES RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY .........................................................246 The Pioneering Years, 1861-1909 .........................................................................................246 The Early Years & World War I, 1909-1918 ........................................................................246 Between the Wars, 1918-1939 ...............................................................................................247 World War II, 1939-1945 ......................................................................................................250 Post War & Cold War Aviation, 1945-1978..........................................................................252

PROPERTIES REMOVED FROM FURTHER STUDY .................................................................257 The Pioneering Years, 1861-1909 .........................................................................................257 The Early Years & World War I, 1909-1918 ........................................................................261 Between the Wars, 1918-1939 ...............................................................................................265 World War II, 1939-1945 ......................................................................................................274 Post War & Cold War Aviation, 1945-1978..........................................................................277

TABLE 1. THE PIONEERING YEARS, 1861-1909 ......................................................................279 TABLE 2. THE EARLY YEARS & WORLD WAR I, 1909-1918.................................................281 TABLE 3. BETWEEN THE WARS, 1918-1939 .............................................................................283 TABLE 4. WORLD WAR II, 1939-1945.........................................................................................286 TABLE 5. POST WAR & COLD WAR AVIATION, 1945-1978 ..................................................287

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................289

APPENDIX A. MENTOR BIBLIOGRAPHIES ..........................................................................313

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Foreword

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FOREWORD

From the Wright brothers to the present-day pioneers, no national community has contributed more to aerodynamics and to resulting flight technology than the United

States.

?James Hansen1

On December 17, 2003, thousands gathered at the Wright Brothers National Memorial near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to witness the reenactment of a milestone in American aviation heritage. On that day, pilots in a reproduction wood-and-muslin 1903 Wright Flyer biplane taxied down a sloped ramp to re-enact the world's first powered flight by the Wright brothers 100 years earlier, a flight that would spawn the Air Age and change the world. One can see the original Wright Flyer, an icon of flight, within arm's length at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. "Through the original artifact it is possible, to a degree," writes early aviation curator Peter L. Jakab, "to transcend time and identify with the Wright achievement in a very direct way. . . . The Flyer is a visible, tangible symbol of the monumental inventive effort that has immortalized the Wright name."2

In recognition of this heritage, the National Park Service and the U.S. Air Force funded this theme study to identify other tangible symbols that exemplify the past century's aeronautical achievements. As aerospace historian John Hansen states, "The inextricable link between the technical development of flight and the military's participation in that quest has been a persistent theme throughout the twentieth century."3 To this end, the U.S. Air Force provides the introduction to this study and describes the important contribution Dayton, Ohio, has played in the history of aviation. From Huffman Prairie Flying Field where the Wright brothers flew, to Wright Field--a world class center of aviation technology and education, and today part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base--Dayton has become synonymous with flight.

This study has two primary components. A national historic context judges the relative significance of people, places, and events that may be nationally significant in aviation history. The chapters provide a chronological approach to aviation history covering aviation's pioneering years, civil aviation, military aviation, and aeronautical technology. Serving as the foundation, and at times the narrative for the historic context, is a comprehensive library of essays completed by the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission which was established by Congress in November 1998 through the "Centennial of Flight Commemoration Act" (Public Law 105-389). Aviationrelated areas are not covered in the context include World War II in the Pacific, man in space, and rocketry. The first two topics are covered in separate theme studies and rocketry is considered a separate topic from the manned aviation flight covered in this essay.

The study's second primary component, the property section, assesses properties according to the NHL criteria and exceptions, and discusses the high degree of integrity required for National Historic Landmarks as described in the National Register Bulletin How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations. Identified properties fall within three categories: those already

1 James R. Hansen, ed., with D. Brian Taylor, Jeremy Kinney, and J. Lawrence Lee, The Wind and Beyond: A

Documentary Journey Into the History of Aerodynamics in America (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and

Space Administration, NASA History Office, Office of External Relations, 2003), vol. 1, xxv. 2 Peter L. Jakab, Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention (Washington, DC:

Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), xiii. 3 Hansen, Wind and Beyond, xlvi.

Foreword

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recognized as nationally significant, those recommended for further study, and those removed from further study.

Although a subject as vast as aviation history cannot be thoroughly exhausted in one theme study, this study provides the framework for identifying and evaluating many of the most remarkable achievements associated with this topic. As Tom D. Crouch, curator of Aeronautics of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum states, "[T]he identification, preservation, and interpretation of historic sites, documents, and objects relating to the history of flight should be of concern to all of us who seek to better understand the foundations of the world in which we live."4

4 Tom D. Crouch, "Flight in America, 1784-1919," Cultural Resource Management, no. 2 (2000): 8.

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