PRESS RELEASE - 5 new Aviation Websites

PRESS RELEASE - FIVE new Aviation Websites from Delta Mike Airfield, Inc.  The way you view Aviation History is about to crank up to a whole new level!!!

Parks Airport Register, Part of Page 1 (Source: St. Louis University Library)

Check out these web-links to the five new aviation historical websites.

• Clover Field, Santa Monica, CA (www.cloverfield.org), 
• Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, CA (www.grandcentralairterminal.org), 
• Parks Airport, East St. Louis, IL (www.parksfield.org), 
• Peterson Field, Colorado Springs, CO (www.petersonfield.org) 
• Pitcairn Field, Willow Grove, PA (www.pitcairnfield.org).

http://www.parksfield.org/airplanes/NC113K/index.php

The images above are taken from the Parks Airport webpage.

What's up with all of this?....

You are about to be amazed by aviation history in a way you might never have imagined.  If you are a follower of this blog, you may have also heard about an excellent website called "DMAIRFIELD.ORG".    If you haven't, it is a must see for all those who enjoy reading and learning about aviation history. Truly an aviation treasure on the internet, the site is about an old, handwritten, leather-bound, airfield register.  The register's old pages evolved through the years in real-time by military, civilian, and commercial aviation operations of the day.  Noted aviation historian, Gary W. Hyatt, President - Delta Mike Airfield, Inc revived the old register into a living historical record.  Gary's unique website design is formed around an information database that Gary created from the register's handwritten entries.  Expanding from this database, Gary's not-for-profit company solicits and publishes historical photos, articles, short stories, trivia, news-clippings, and other aviation artifacts submitted from armchair historians like you and me.  The result is a compilation with interwoven links to information about the people, airplanes, and events that are related to the Davis Monthan Municipal Airfield in Tucson Arizona.

The success of the DMAirfield website has led Gary into new, but similar undertakings.  Check out this press release by Delta Mike Airfield, Inc. 

Great news to say the least!!  Way to go Gary! 

Again, here are the web-links to the five new websites.

• Clover Field, Santa Monica, CA (www.cloverfield.org), 
• Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, CA (www.grandcentralairterminal.org), 
• Parks Airport, East St. Louis, IL (www.parksfield.org), 
• Peterson Field, Colorado Springs, CO (www.petersonfield.org) 
• Pitcairn Field, Willow Grove, PA (www.pitcairnfield.org).

I am very happy for Gary to have achieved this milestone to bring all five of these registers to us.  It is undoubtedly the culmination of a monumental effort.  But the best part is that this is only the beginning.  From here, it will be interesting to watch these sites grow as the current DMAirfield site has grown.  

Personally, I plan to become a contributor mainly to the Parks Airport site, for which I have already collected a fair amount of historical information.  I am excited about this. I think the format of Gary's pages are ideal for armchair historians and enthusiasts like me who have limited time to compile their collections into a quality publication.  Gary and is great at taking the materials submitted and building them into a first class webpage.  In my opinion, Gary's database format of his website changes everything about the way we can search and use historical data.  It provides a medium of unlimited scale for aviation research to build upon itself by allowing the casual researcher an easy way to add and search for information. Researchers can now gain a broader understanding of history through the links among these regional airfields, events, pilots, and travelers.  So I encourage others to dig through their old clippings and collected airplane photos and send them in to Gary.

My kudos to Gary Hyatt:

Some time ago, Gary and I became friends through internet, email, and phone calls.  We have never met in person.  But through our correspondence I learned that Gary is passionate about aviation history and has a driven purpose to his work of educating people and sharing information about aviation history through his website. I have read  Gary's "airfield register" webpage concept was quite intriguing to me when I first saw it because I knew of another one that existed in the archives of Parks College, Saint Louis University.  The Parks Airport Register covers several years, starting in 1929 and well into the late 1930's from the gone (but not forgotten) airfield associated with Parks College in East St. Louis, Illinois.  I thought it would be great if a similar effort could be done to expose this register, so I mentioned this to Gary.  To my surprise, Gary was already on the trail of several other of these airport registers around the U.S. He told me of his plan to build several websites like the Davis Monthan site to greatly expand the historical information that could be drawn out of these unique documents. He was glad to learn of the Parks Register, which in its own right contains numerous records of interesting events and happenings of U.S. aviation.  We have kept in touch about this over the years.  To me, watching Gary build his databases and to bring these websites all into being at the same time is truly an amazing feat.  I personally believe that the aviation community owes a debt of gratitude to Gary for preserving this information for future generations.  Again.... Way to go, Gary!!

PARKS SCRAPBOOKS VOL.1 NO. 3 and VOL.1 NO 4

C. W. "Speed" Holman's Laird LCR-200, winner of the 1929 Gardner Cup

Vol. 1 No. 3

The Gardner Trophy Air Races
May 28-30, 1929

This documentcontains 43 pages of Scrapbook material and the original 3-part manuscriptcalled, “The Gardner Trophy Air Races”, written by Terry Bowden in 1994.  The first two parts of this work becamepublished in “American Aviation Historical Journal”, Fall/Winter 2007.

Vol. 1 No. 3

The 1929 Women’s Air Derby

Stop-over at Parks Airport

August 24,1929 was an interesting day at Parks Airport. On this day, female participants in the 1929 Transcontinental Women’sAir Derby landed for an overnight stop at Parks Airport.  This document contains 23 pages of related Scrapbookmaterial and a listing of the Air Derby Race Results, compiled by Terry Bowdenin 1990.  Much of the photos arepreviously published.  News clippings areincluded from Saint Louis area newspapers. The photo above from the Parks Airport register includes signatures ofmany ladies who participated.

 

© 2013 by Terry L. Bowden

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ENTIRE SCRAPBOOK

 Vol. 1  No. 3
Vol. 1 No. 4

PARKS SCRAPBOOK VOL.1 NO.2

Vol. 1 No. 2

The Sphere of the Air College

Parks Air Lines, Inc. and Affiliations

This segment of Parks scrapbook items includes more than 45 pages of photos and news articles detailing the earliest beginnings of Mr. Oliver L. Parks’ aviation endeavors. The plot unfolds as Oliver Parks began his career as airplane pilot and car salesman for Gravois Motor Company. You’ll be amazed to discover how quickly he established Parks Air Lines, Inc., which grew to include Parks Airfield, Parks Aircraft Company, Inc. and Parks Air College. Mr. Parks article, titled “The Sphere of the Air College”, published in March 1929 in Aero Digest magazine provides a fitting closure to this segment.

© 2011 by Terry L. Bowden

.

BARNSTMR'S SCRAPBOOK ARCHIVES

In the pages that follow, you will find a hodge-podge collection of photos and information that I collected over the years, with the greatest of intentions, to someday publish some articles, books, or perhaps a few short stories about aviation history. Though a few of these records have not been published before, a majority of them have. Still, I collected this stuff anyway because it was fascinating to me. Perhaps there’s not much here of interest to others, but I have enjoyed finding and assembling these items into a semi-organized mess. I don't see a book happening any time soon. So, I hope you'll enjoy these scrapbooks in the mean time....Terry

Vol. 1 No. 1

The Complete Story of

Parks Aircraft, Inc.

This document contains more than 40 pages of Scrapbook material and the original 13-page manuscript called, “The Complete Story of Parks Aircraft, Inc.”, written by Terry Bowden. A polished 7-page version of this work became published in “Vintage Airplane Magazine”, December 1991.

© 2011 by Terry L. Bowden

Who Cares about History?

As a kid, I was never much interested in history. I didn't see the value in it until some of the people I cared about began to pass away. Then I was left to wish I had known more about their lives. My grandfather, Ward Bowden, is one such example. He was my childhood hero, a Godly man, and I loved him so much. He left our earthly home when I was a teenager. I know he's now in Heaven because of the Christian example he set for me. I think his death was the first reason I ever had to want to learn more about history. As a young adult, I had a misconception that all historical events were somehow known and documented for anyone who might want to know about them. This was especially true about aviation history. NOT! At some point I began to care about aviation history as I came to realize it was about more than just these interesting flying machines. The stories are as much about the lives of the people who designed, built, flew, and maintained them. I discovered that a lot of our aviation heritage is at risk of being forgotten. And even worse, a lot of it has been inaccurately documented. My hat goes off to the expert historians who work to straighten all of this out. And though I am not in that league, I enjoy learning and working to share the little pieces of aviation history that come my way. In a few cases, I have found myself in possession of some rather unique historical information or photos that, when I set out to learn, I discovered had not been well documented. It is in these situations that I enjoy digging into the story to search for the facts. This can be a very rewarding hobby. Some of the most enjoyable aviation history stories that I have run across have been those associated with the activities at PARKS AIR COLLEGE from 1927 through the late 1930's. A few of the small segments of this topic have led to articles that I have had published. I try to view this effort as my contribution toward helping the real experts in the overall effort to learn and share aviation's rich heritage.

Vintage Airplane magazine (an EAA publication) published one article I wrote about PARKS AIRCRAFT, INC. This was the story of a manufacturing company started in conjunction with Parks Air College. Four aircraft models were developed (2 were certified) before the company became a casualty of the Great Depression. Swallowed up by a giant holding company, Detroit Aircraft, the Parks designs slowly faded away from the production line. A few of these airplanes still exist. Heres a photo of the extinct Parks P-3 monoplane.

Another article of mine made it into a more prestigious journal. The American Aviation Historical Society Journal. This was the story of THE GARDNER TROPHY AIR RACES. Again, I must humbly admit that my writings do not justify such a place in the ranks of expert historians. It is more due to the help I got from experts like the late Truman C "Pappy" Weaver and the late Richard "Dick" Kamm who encouraged me to submit the story. And it is a testament to the value the AAHS places on telling stories that might not otherwise be told. A most unique event of 1929, the Gardner Races hold a place of value in the development of aircraft racing, and subsequently made a small contribution toward improved airplane designs. Designers like Clyde Cessna, Matty Laird, and other amateurs participated. Heres a photo of one of the Cessna Racers.

Here's a link to Part 1: http://www.aahs-online.org/BackIssues/v52n3.htm#Article%209
Here's a link to Part 2: http://www.aahs-online.org/BackIssues/v53n1.htm#Article%206

Lately, I have become intrigued by the works of another expert aviation historian. If you care about aviation historical events of the 1920's and 1930's but have never visited the website called "dmairfield.org" you must go check it out. This wonderful living/growing historical mecca is the result of efforts by Mr. Gary Hyatt. I will have a lot more to say in the future about Gary and his works. So for now, take a look and you will find a lot of small works by people from all parts of aviation. If they hadn't cared, we might not have had such a rich aviation industry. And if Gary didn't care, many of these stories might have been forgotten. Good work Gary.