BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Gallery 105: (a) The Golden Age of Flight

DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Gallery 105: (a) The Golden Age of Flight:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. GAL105_150822_012.JPG: Harmon Trophy
2. GAL105_150822_021.JPG: Robert J. Collier Trophy
3. GAL105_150822_036.JPG: 1919: Top speed of a fighter: 264 km/hr (164 mph) Number of licensed pilots in US: 3544 Longest nonstop flight to date: 3116 kilometers (1936 miles) 1929: Top speed of a fighter: 293 km/hr (182 mph) Number of licensed pilots in US: 9973 Longest nonstop flight to date: 7949 kilometers (4877 miles) 1939: Top speed of a fighter: 587 km/hr (365 mph) Number of licensed pilots in US: 31,264 Longest nonstop flight to date: 11,526 kilometers (7162 miles)
4. GAL105_150822_039.JPG: Golden Age of Flight: The "Golden Age of Flight" is a rather loosely defined period that in its broadest sense includes the years between the two world wars, 1919 through 1939. The "most golden" years of the period were from shortly after Lindbergh's flight in 1927 through 1939. The Golden Age is considered "golden" because of the many advances in aviation technology, the many record flights, and the intense interest of the public in aviation events. It was also a time when an individual, with little or not capital, could suddenly propel himself into the forefront of the field. Heroes were made overnight; companies boomed and busted in the course of a season. The names of the air race and aerobatic pilots, the explorers and adventurers were household words, and their exploits were constantly in headlines and newsreels. Winners of the major air races were front page news. Many classic and important aircraft were produced during that period; many pilots established reputations that endure today; and many technological advances occurred then that paved the way for the types of aircraft we know today.
5. GAL105_150822_049.JPG: Jimmy Doolittle The only pilot to win Schneider, Bendix and Thompson air races These drawings were done by Peter Copeland. From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122102309.html Peter F. Copeland, 80; Freelance Illustrator By Patricia Sullivan Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 22, 2007 Peter Franklin Copeland, 80, a freelance illustrator best known for a historical series of children's coloring books, died of lung cancer Dec. 8 at his home in Arlington. Mr. Copeland wrote and illustrated the series "Discovering America," which appeared from 1974 to 1989. The titles, still used in schools, include "Soldiers of the American Revolution," "Pirates and Buccaneers," "The Story of Sacajawea," "The History of Whaling" and "The Amistad Coloring Book." He also wrote and illustrated "Working Dress in Colonial and Revolutionary America" (1977), named by the American Library Association's magazine as an outstanding academic book for the year. Mr. Copeland was born in New York, the son of a Ziegfeld Follies dancer and a ghostwriter for Lowell Thomas. He joined the merchant marine during World War II and served on a tanker hauling aviation fuel to the Pacific. He witnessed the Leyte Gulf landings in the Philippines and remained in the merchant marine for a dozen years after the war ended. He then spent two years in the Army Transportation Corps. Unschooled as an artist, he became proficient while drawing military vehicles, aircraft and ships. He moved to Washington in 1957 to work at the Smithsonian Institution as chief of the illustration department for the old Museum of History and Technology exhibitions. While working also as a writer and historical researcher on exhibitions dealing with the history of military aviation and ballooning, he developed a freelance career as an illustrator and author of magazine articles and historical books. Mr. Copeland joined the Company of Military Historians in 1959 and was elected a fellow in 1964. He received its Distinguished Service Award in 2001 and 2007. He contributed 54 plates to the organization's "Military Uniforms in America" series and was art director of the "Military Collector and Historian" journal. He was a volunteer civilian combat artist in Vietnam in 1967 through the Army. He contributed more than 40 paintings to the Army War Art Collection. After leaving the Smithsonian in 1973, Mr. Copeland became a full-time freelancer and in 1977 worked as a consultant on a nautical archeological project in the Bahamas and West Indies. He was part of a project to combine photography with underwater drawing of an 18th-century shipwreck, drawing with grease pencils on plexiglass while diving the wreck. He later created detailed watercolors of the ship. He finished the final illustrations for a contract with Monmouth Battlefield State Park in New Jersey just two weeks before his death. One of his favorite projects was preparing large outdoor exhibit panels of several Civil War scenes, to be cast in metal, for the National Park Service. In Washington, he painted the sign for the now-closed Admiral Benbow Inn and did a series of articles and drawings about the characters around Dupont Circle from the 1960s and 1970s. His marriages to Peggy Copeland, Lee Copeland and Donna Copeland ended in divorce. His wife of 30 years, Moira Copeland, died in 2003. Survivors include his wife, Linda Horton Copeland of Arlington; a daughter from his first marriage, Ingrid Copeland of Gamleby, Sweden; a daughter from his third marriage, Dianne Thomas of McLean; a daughter from his fourth marriage, Emer Mather of Vicq-sur-Gartempe, France; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
6. GAL105_150822_052.JPG: Jacqueline Cochran World Record Holder
7. GAL105_150822_054.JPG: Frank Lahm First U.S. Army Aviator, organizer of first Air Corps Training Center
8. GAL105_150822_056.JPG: Hap Arnold Pioneer of Bomber Tactics, 1934 US Airmail Pilot
9. GAL105_150822_062.JPG: Amelia Earhart First woman to fly solo across Atlantic, 1932
10. GAL105_150822_065.JPG: Wiley Post Barnstormer, speed flyer, test pilot
11. GAL105_150822_077.JPG: Air Racing and Air Shows: Air races, and the air shows that usually accompanied them, were among the most visible and widely recognized aspects of aviation during the Golden Age. Air racing provided much of the impetus for technological advances, and many air racing pilots and their aircraft also gained fame in military aviation and in aerial exploration. The first of the national air races was held in 1920. Its main event, the Pulitzer Trophy Race, became an annual affair. The Thompson Trophy Race, a closed-course contest begun in 1930, and the Bendix Trophy Race, a cross country race first held in 1931, were the premier national air racing events of this period. The Schneider Cup Race, an international event for seaplanes, had been run before World War I and was resumed in 1920.
12. GAL105_150822_080.JPG: Cliff Henderson Aviation showman and promoter
13. GAL105_150822_083.JPG: Al Williams U.S. Navy Test Pilot
14. GAL105_150822_099.JPG: Roscoe Turner Colorful air racing champion, only 3-time winner of Thompson Trophy
15. GAL105_150822_102.JPG: Jimmy Wedell Speed flying record holder
16. GAL105_150822_105.JPG: Louise Thaden Aeronautical record setter
17. GAL105_150822_110.JPG: General Aviation in the Golden Age: General aviation -- all types of flying except airline and military -- emerged very slowly after World War I. The lack of demand for private and commercial aircraft combined with large stocks of surplus planes and engines to retard aeronautical development until the mid-1920s. Advances in technology, and Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic 1927, greatly accelerated the development of airframes and power plants. The 1930s brought sweeping changes in all areas of aviation. Light airplanes made it possible for the average individual to fly; high-wing cabin monoplanes superseded open-cockpit biplanes in commercial service; and the airlines come of age. The Era of the Biplane: The biplane predominated it the decade after World War I, primarily because extra wing area was necessary to achieve flight with the heavy and inefficient engines of the day. Aerodynamic drag from struts, bracing wires, and the greater frontal area, however, meant that biplanes were slower than monoplanes of comparable power. By the early 1930s, advances in aircraft structures and power plants rendered two-winged aircraft obsolete. Although biplane trainers were built through World War II, the transition to monoplanes was virtually complete by the end of the Golden Age.
18. GAL105_150822_117.JPG: Walter Beech Pioneer designer of commercial and private aircraft. Founder of Beech Aircraft Company, 1932.
19. GAL105_150822_120.JPG: The Era of the Light Plane: The emergence of the light plane is one of the most significant trends in American aviation of the Golden Age. Beginning in 1930, dozens of little airplanes suddenly arrived on the market, making it possible for Americans other than the very wealthy to enjoy private aircraft ownership. Several factors combined to produce the "flivver-plane movement," as it was known: first, the Great Depression made many of the larger and less efficient aircraft of the 1920s two expansive to operate; second, technological advances brought about lighter airframes and reliable lightweight low-horsepower engines; third, public acceptance of the airplane had produced a vast potential market.
20. GAL105_150822_124.JPG: Clyde Cessna Organizer and president, Cesna Aircraft Company
21. GAL105_150822_130.JPG: William T. Piper "The Grand Old Man of Private Flying", founder and president of Piper Aviation Corporation
22. GAL105_150822_135.JPG: Henry B. Du Pont Henry B. du Pont, a well-known sportsman pilot, poses with his Buhl-Verville Airster in 1928
23. GAL105_150822_137.JPG: T. Claude Ryan Early aircraft manufacturer
24. GAL105_150822_140.JPG: The Sportsman Pilot: Private aircraft ownership in America was possible only for the wealthy in the decade following World War I. High society embraced the airplane as it had the boat and the horse, and aviation country clubs sprang up across the country. Catering to this small but lucrative market, manufacturers began building planes for "sportsman pilots" in the late 1920s. These were often touted as the ideal way to attend yacht regattas and polo matches. The light airplane movement swelled the ranks of private aircraft owners in the 1930s, and the concept of the sportsman pilot became obsolete.
25. GAL105_150822_143.JPG: Working Wings: Technological advances after World War I increased the utility and reliability of the airplane. A great variety of uses was found for aircraft in the Golden Age: hauling mail and cargo, carrying passengers, patrolling pipelines, fighting forest fires, transporting company executives, crop dusting, aerial mapping, and skywriting are all examples. Increased specialization led to a greater diversity of aircraft types in the 1920s and 1930s.
26. GAL105_150822_151.JPG: Harold Pitcairn Pioneer of rotary wing flight
27. GAL105_150822_153.JPG: Giuseppe Bellanca Founder of Bellanca Aviation Company
28. GAL105_150822_156.JPG: Soaring in the Golden Age: Wilbur Wright set a soaring record in 1911 of 9 minutes at Kitty Hawk, NC, but it was not until William Hawley Bowlus made a series of flights along the Pacific coast in 1929 that soaring gained popularity in the US. The First National Soaring Contest has held in September 1930 at Elmira, NY, the center of the American sailplane movement. Evolving from the skeletal primary glider, sailplanes increased in efficiency during the Golden Age. Ridge soaring gave way to riding thermals, and durations of several hours aloft became commonplace in the 1930s.
29. GAL105_150822_160.JPG: Reuben Fleet Pioneer airplane builder
30. GAL105_150822_163.JPG: C.G. Taylor "The Father of America's Light Plane"
31. GAL105_150822_166.JPG: Al Mooney Designer of Airplanes
32. GAL105_150822_169.JPG: Alfred Verville Aeronautical Designer and Engineer
33. GAL105_150822_175.JPG: Thompson Trophy
34. GAL105_150822_179.JPG: National Air Races: Other racing events at the National Air Races included the Greve Trophy Race, the Shell Speed Dashes, and Amelia Earhart Trophy Race, the Aerol Trophy Race, and others for aircraft of specified engine displacements. The races between the lower powered aircraft were sometimes more interesting to the spectator, as the shorter course kept the aircraft within sight of the spectators throughout the race. The introduction of the racehorse start in the 1928 Races made closed-course racing much more exciting. Instead of racing against the clock, all the racers lines up in a row and started together at a signal. They were required to fly straight ahead until the first, or scattering, pylon. The planes then continued to circle the course, remaining outside the pylons for the required number of laps.
35. GAL105_150822_184.JPG: Ben Odell Howard Air Racer and Designer
36. GAL105_150822_187.JPG: Steve Wittman Air racer
37. GAL105_150822_193.JPG: This painting, based upon a newspaper photo, shows Jimmy Doolittle taxiing his Gee-Bee in after winning the 1932 Thompson Race in Cleveland. The two boys being held back by the policeman are Doolittle's sons, James Jr. and John.
38. GAL105_150822_200.JPG: The Mitchell Era 1919-1925 A Decade of Progress 1925-1935
39. GAL105_150822_203.JPG: Billy Mitchell Chief of Air Service, 1st Army, AEF 1918. Led the bombers that sank captured German warships, 1921
40. GAL105_150822_206.JPG: Billy Mitchell The Fighting General Commander of US air units along the French front during the final months of World War I, Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell emerged as the outstanding American air combat commander and the self-proclaimed leader of the fight for greater recognition of air power.
41. GAL105_150822_208.JPG: Leaders of the Army Air Service: From 1921 to 1925, "Billy" Mitchell (right) served as Assistant to the Chief of the Air Service, Major General Mason M. Patrick (left). General Patrick's patient, orderly approach to solving the problems of air power was a marked contrast to Mitchell's aggressiveness.
42. GAL105_150822_211.JPG: The 1921 Bombing Tests: General Mitchell believed that the bomber spelled the end of sea power. His feud with the Navy was further aggravated by his successful bombing tests against German and US naval vessels in the Chesapeake Bay in 1921, and again in September 1923, off Cape Hatteras. The photograph at right shows the German battleship Ostfriesland taking a bomb hit from one of the Martin bombers during tests in July 1921. After several direct hits and near misses, the Ostfriesland sank.
43. GAL105_150822_213.JPG: A Decade of Progress 1925-1935 The Air Corps Act of 1926 changed the name of the Air Service to the Air Corps, thus recognizing military service, with the authority to carry out a 5-year expansion and reequipment program.
44. GAL105_150822_215.JPG: The Question Mark Sets an Endurance Record: Numerous records for speed, altitude, and distance were shattered by Army aviators during the immediate postwar decade. Few of these record flights provoked the interest of the public, and had such long-range impact on military aviation, as the flight of the Fokker C-2 trimotor Question Mark. A new world endurance mark of almost 151 hours was set on Jan. 7, 1929, over southern California, using refueling techniques developed in a previous record attempt in 1923.
45. GAL105_150822_217.JPG: "West Point of the Air" Randolph Field, Texas, was dedicated on June 20, 1930, and became the headquarters of the Air Corps Training Center. In 1931, it became the site of primary flight training with advanced training taking place at nearby Kelly Field. Commander of the Air Corps Training Center was Brig. Gen. Frank P. Lahm, first US military pilot and "Father of Randolph Field," which was planned and established on his recommendation.
46. GAL105_150822_220.JPG: The Army Air Arm: World War I ended on Nov. 11, 1918, and the Army Air Service began the transition from an era of combat to another one of peacetime activities. Air racing, record-breaking flights, and aerial exploration were exciting and appealed to the public and were areas in which many military pilots were active. However, efforts to establish an air force independent of Army control, development of a strategic bombardment doctrine, and the search for a heavy bomber were issues of overriding importance to the Army during the two turbulent decades that led to the next war.
47. GAL105_150822_223.JPG: "The Army is Ready and the Mails Will Go Through" With those words, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Army Chief of Staff, committed the Army Air Corps to the task of carrying the mail when government air contracts with commercial airlines were cancelled in February 1934 because of illegal practices. Without proper aircraft, equipment, ground organization, or experience, and flying in one of the worst winters on record, Army pilots courageously attempted to provide a service that the airlines had taken years to perfect. Within 3 months, there were 66 crashes of forced landings, and a dozen fatalities. Subsequent investigations focused attention on existing inadequacies in the Air Corps, leading to increased appropriations and reorganization.
48. GAL105_150822_229.JPG: Lt. Colonel "Hap" Arnold: Of the 14 types of Air Corps airplanes selected to fly the mail, the most unlikely was the tiny Boeing P-12. Standing by the P-12 is the Lt. Col. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold. "Hap" Arnold emerged as the natural leader of the small number of dedicated, farsighted Army officers who sought appropriate missions for the air arm and its proper place in the armed services.
49. GAL105_150822_232.JPG: General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force A Giant Step Towards Independence 1935-1939 Air maneuvers in 1933 had demonstrated the need for a central striking force of long-range bombardment and observation aircraft to defend the US and its possessions from seaborne attack. The GHQ Air Force, formed in March 1935, under the command of Brig. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, removed the combat units of the Air Corps from the control of local ground-based, Corps Area officers and placed these units under one commanding general. Despite Army objections to expensive long-range, four-engine bombers, international tensions forced the beginning of mass American rearmament in 1939 and the recognition of the potential of air power.
50. GAL105_150822_239.JPG: Carl Spaatz Front line pilot, 1918. Commander of the "Question Mark" endurance flight of 1929
51. GAL105_150822_242.JPG: Hap Arnold Pioneer of bomber tactics. 1934 US airmail pilot.
52. GAL105_150822_245.JPG: Ira Eaker Pioneer of blind flight. Assistant to Chief of Army Air Service in 1925.
53. GAL105_150822_248.JPG: Elwood Quesada Long distance flyer, 1934 US mail pilot
54. GAL105_150822_252.JPG: Claire Chennault Pioneer of fighter tactics, advisor on air warfare to Chiang Kai-Shek, 1937
55. GAL105_150822_259.JPG: An Era of Changing Perspectives: Military aircraft development in the postwar decade consisted of refinement of the basic concepts of World War I. Funding inadequacies and technological barriers resulted in few noticeable changes in service aircraft appearances or performance. The basic military aircraft of the 1920s was still an open-cockpit, wire-braced biplane. Int eh early 1930s, wires and struts gave way to the monoplane with enclosed cockpit, and later with retractable landing gear. By 1939, as the Golden Age drew to a close, many of the bombers and fighters with which the US would fight the next war had flown for the first time.
56. GAL105_150822_268.JPG: Naval Aviation in the Golden Age: In the history of U.S. naval aviation, the 1920s stand out as a period of exceptional growth in the size of the Navy's air arm, in technical progress, and in efforts to adapt the aircraft to naval usage. The 1930s, on the other hand, began quietly, with reductions in naval armament and the Depression. In the late thirties, however, money became available for more aircraft, ships, and air stations. Both decades were characterized by Navy experiments with various ways to take aviation to sea -- aboard ship, with rigid airships, and through large patrol aircraft operations.
57. GAL105_150822_269.JPG: The Aircraft Carrier Capital Ship of the Future The US took a major step toward obtaining an aircraft carrier in the summer of 1919 when Congress provided for the conversion of a coal ship. For the liberals in he Navy, it was another logical step in the ascendency of airpower in the Navy. For the conservative faction, the guns of the Fleet were still at the core of sea power.
58. GAL105_150822_281.JPG: Frank Schilt Air racer and combat flyer
59. GAL105_150822_282.JPG: Apollo Soucek Record breaking high altitude flyer
60. GAL105_150822_285.JPG: Marc Mitscher Veteran naval air commander
61. GAL105_150822_287.JPG: Alfred Pride Sailor, airman, admiral
62. GAL105_150822_292.JPG: Kenneth Whiting Pioneer in Aircraft Carrier development
63. GAL105_150822_295.JPG: The Rigid Airship as a Naval Scout During the two decades between the wars, the US Navy enjoyed limited success in its attempts to develop the rigid airship as a reconnaissance craft. Of the five rigid airships constructed for the Navy, all but one came to disastrous ends.
64. GAL105_150822_299.JPG: William A. Moffett The father of US Naval Aviation
65. GAL105_150822_303.JPG: ZR-1, USS Shenandoah: The Navy's first rigid airship and the first helium-inflated rigid airship, the Shenandoah, flew on Sept. 4, 1923. It was used to develop tactics and procedures of working with the battle fleet at sea. The Shenandoah disintegrated in a storm and crashed in Ohio on Sept. 3, 1925. The Shenandoah is shown moored to the mast of the USS Potoka, a specially built airship tender.
66. GAL105_150822_309.JPG: Records and Exploration Higher, faster, and farther were the goals of almost all aviators in the Golden Age. Distance geographical locations beckoned: the uncharted Polar regions; the jungles of New Guinea, the Amazon, and the Yucatan; the deserts of southwestern US and northern Africa; the vast expanses of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Pilots in the Golden Age were also attracted by greater speeds, high altitudes, and flights of longer duration. Much of the technology and many of the modifications developed for these daring aerial ventures spanned the years and have influenced aviation as we know it today. Many of the aerial explorers and their aircraft were familiar names also in air racing and in military aviation.
67. GAL105_150822_314.JPG: Altitude 1939: 17,083 m (56,046 ft), M. Pezzi, Italy 1934: 14,433 m (47,352 ft), R. Donati, Italy 1929: 12,739 m (41,794 ft), W. Neuenhofen, Germany 1924: 12,065 m (39,586 ft), Calizzo, France 1919: 10,640 m (34,910 ft), R. Rohlfs, US
68. GAL105_150822_315.JPG: Speed 1939: 755 km/hr (469 mph), F. Wendel, Germany 1934: 708 km/hr (440 mph), F. Agello, Italy 1929: 576 km/hr (358 mph), A.H. Orlebar, Great Britain 1924: 448 km/hr (278 mph), F. Bonnett, France 1919: 364 km/hr (226 mph), S. Lacointe, France
69. GAL105_150822_383.JPG: Martin and Osa Johnson African air explorers
70. GAL105_150822_385.JPG: Charles Lindbergh "The Lone Eagle" Pilot of first non-stop solo flight, New York-Paris, 1927
71. GAL105_150822_388.JPG: Allan Cobham Pioneer of in-flight refueling, aerial photography specialist
72. GAL105_150822_390.JPG: Richard E. Byrd Polar explorer and scientist
73. GAL105_150822_395.JPG: Lincoln Ellsworth Antarctic Explorer
74. GAL105_150822_413.JPG: Northrop 2B Gamma Polar Star: Lincoln Ellsworth went on his first polar expedition in 1925 with Roald Amundsen. Although Ellsworth was a pilot, it was his use of aircraft in exploration that earned for him a place in aviation history. The US Congress voted Ellsworth a special gold medal for his Antarctic exploration and "for claiming on behalf of the United States approximately 350,000 square miles of land in the Antarctic representing the last unclaimed territory in the world."
75. GAL105_150822_416.JPG: Sam Heron Pioneer aviation engineer, designer of aircraft piston engines
76. GAL105_150822_419.JPG: George Lewis 25-year director of aeronautical research, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Architect of specialized wind tunnel development
77. GAL105_150822_424.JPG: Bendix Trophy
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Description of Subject Matter: The Golden Age of Flight
April 5, 1984 – January 2, 2019
This gallery covers the years between the World Wars (1919-1939) but focuses on the period shortly after Lindbergh's flight in 1927 through 1939. Described as "golden" because of many advances in aviation technology, record-making flights, and intense interest by the public in aviation events, the era produced many of today's legendary aviation heroes. Aircraft and engines, newsreel coverage of aviation events, photographs, models and reproductions, and newspaper headlines are included. The opening of this exhibition coincided with the 60th anniversary of the takeoff of the Douglas World Cruisers, a major event during the Golden Age.
Highlights include:
* Wittman Buster: 1947 air racer that won the most races in aviation history
* Beechcraft Staggerwing: popular general aviation aircraft of the 1930s
* Northrop Gamma Polar Star: first transantarctic flight, 1935
* Hughes H-1 racer, set transcontinental and closed-course speed records in the 1930s
* Curtiss Robin Ole Miss: set endurance record of 27 days over Meridian, Mississippi, in 1935
* A reproduction of the Gee Bee Z
* The Golden Age Theater, featuring film footage of famed pilot Jimmy Doolitle
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Gallery 105: (a) The Golden Age of Flight) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2010_DC_SIAIR_Gall105A: DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Gallery 105: (a) The Golden Age of Flight (18 photos from 2010)
- 2008_DC_SIAIR_Gall105A: DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Gallery 105: (a) The Golden Age of Flight (8 photos from 2008)
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2015 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. I retired from the US Census Bureau in god-forsaken Suitland, Maryland on my 58th birthday in May. Yee ha! Trips this year: a quick trip to Florida. two Civil War Trust conferences (Raleigh, NC and Richmond, VA), and my 10th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Los Angeles). Ego Strokes: Carolyn Cerbin used a Kevin Costner photo in her USA Today article. Miss DC pictures were used a few times in the Washington Post. Number of photos taken this year: just over 550,000.
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