Aviation history

IND airport exhibit honors Hoosiers in Flight

Aviation history,

The Indianapolis Airport Authority and the Indiana Aviation Hall of Fame join forces for a new exhibit at Indianapolis International Airport (IND) honoring Hoosiers in Flight.

The exhibit honors Hoosier natives and state institutions with significant roles in aviation history and is located in the IND Bag Claim, near Carousel 3.

The list includes the first flight at Kitty Hawk, the Apollo 11 mission, Amelia Earhart, the Tuskegee Airmen and Rolls Royce.

Here’s a sample of the people, places and achievements honored in the exhibit:

Wilbur Wright, a Millville, Ind., native flew the first airplane flight in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Margaret Hamilton, from Paoli, Ind., invented software engineering and wrote the code for the Apollo 11 mission, helping to put Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969.

Lewis A. Jackson, an Angola, Ind., native combined his aviation skills with his education degree to become the Director of Training for the 99th Pursuit Squadron of Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

Col. Harvey Weir Cook, a Wilkinson, Ind., native, a military hero, and the namesake of the Indianapolis International Airport campus, was instrumental in educating the public in the 1930s about the history of flight and aviation via his radio show sponsored by Pennant Syrup.

Purdue University. Amelia Earhart joined the staff in 1935 as the “Counselor on Careers for Women” and during her four years there encouraged many women to join Purdue’s aeronautics engineering program.

Celebrating the centennial of the first around the world flight

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On April 6, 1924, four U.S. Army planes, each with two crewmembers, took off from what was then Sand Point Airfield in Seattle.

Their goal was to complete the first circumnavigation of the globe by air.

The four planes were Douglas World Cruisers and they were named Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans.

Due to weight restrictions, no more than 300 pounds of supplies could be loaded into each open-cockpit plane. And that meant that some otherwise standard equipment, such as parachutes and life preservers, got left behind.

Although each member of the World Flight carried a stuffed monkey as a mascot.

This monkey was named “Maggie” and flew on the Boston plane. (Image courtesy National Air and Space Museum).

The journey was far from easy. On their way around the world, the team encountered freezing temperatures, typhoons, mechanical breakdowns, crashes, and other obstacles.

But, despite losing two of the original four planes, on September 28, 1924, the Chicago, the New Orleans, plus the Boston II (a replacement) landed back at Sand Point.

The journey had taken 175 days, the crew had made 74 stops, and the team had covered about 27,550 miles.

Today, that first flight around the world is marked with a concrete pillar on a small island at the entrance of the former Naval Air Station where the planes took off.

At the top of the pillar is a large pair of bird wings. At the bottom, a plaque with the dates of the flight and the names of the crewmen and their planes.

This week Seattle is marking the 100th anniversary of the first successful round-the-world flight with celebrations at the Museum of Flight and at Magnuson Park, the site of the former Sand Point Airfield.

From September 26 to 29, more an a dozen aircraft representing decades of around-the-world record flights will be on view in the parking lot of Seattle’s Museum of Flight. Inside the museum, there will be flight lectures and films.

A full schedule for the museum events is online.

Over at Magnuson Park, there’s an afternoon of free commemoration events scheduled for September 28th.

Here’s a video about the first round-the-world flight from the National Archives.

And here’s a video about the around-the-world flight aimed at a very young audience, courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.

Int’l Women’s Day Aviation Round-Up

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March is Women’s History Month and March 8 is International Women’s Day.

Here’s how some airports and aviation museums and others marked the day.

There’s a lot you can learn in a quick scroll.

Aviation lore & more at St. Petersburg Museum of History

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In Florida, the St. Petersburg Museum of History displays a replica of the Benoist XIV airboat used for the first scheduled airline service, which operated nearby.

On January 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line began flying across Tampa Bay.

The flight covered 18 miles and 23 minutes. That journey was 11 hours faster than making the trip between St. Petersburg and Tampa by rail.

(Courtesy Smithsonian Institution)

That plane is just one of the treasures we spotted at the museum when we visited. The museum is home to the largest collection of signed baseballs: 5,036 and still growing; a great exhibit about the artists known as the “Florida Highwaymen,” a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy, artifacts from Webb’s City – a local roadside attraction – and much more.

Airports mark Black History Month

Aviation history

As you travel to and through airports throughout the U.S. in February, keep an eye out for events, exhibits and special programs marking Black History Month.

Here are some of the profiles, tributes and Black History Month campaign kickoffs we spotted on airport social media feeds already.