Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, September 6, 1924. Putting down in Boston.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, September 6, 1924. Putting down in Boston.:   

Saturday, September 6, 1924. Putting down in Boston.

 

And of course, it was Saturday.

Last edition:

Friday September 5, 1924. Back in the US.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Calvin Coolidge, First Around The World Flight, Maine, U.S. Air Force

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, August 27, 1924. First flight of the USS Los Angeles.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, August 27, 1924. Color photos over the...: 

Wednesday, August 27, 1924. Color photos over the wire.

The German built, due to reparations, USS Los Angeles made its first flight.

The Lost Angeles over Berlin, 1924.

She was the longest serving rigid airship, serving, with interruptions, until 1939.

Last edition:

Monday, August 25, 1924. Ratifying the Dawes Plan and questionable movies.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, 1924 at the Movies, Camping, Dawes Plan, Diplomacy, German Weimar Republic, Movies, Politics

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, July 26, 1924. Other around the world flights.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, July 26, 1924. Other around the world f...: 

Saturday, July 26, 1924. Other around the world flights.

Argentinian pilot Pedro Zanni and mechanic Felipe Beltrame began their rather belated attempt to fly around the world.

Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transcontinental flight.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transco...:

Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transcontinental flight.

Protype of the excellent Curtiss P-1.   The P-1 was the first of a series of "hawk" biplane fighter aircraft manufactured by Curtiss that would serve right up until the eve of World War Two.

1st Lt. Russell Maughan made the first dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the United States.

Landing at Crissy Field in San Francisco one minute before technical sundown, he had started the day off at Mitchel Field, Long Island and had flown his Curtiss P-1 across the country with stops in Dayton, Ohio; St. Joseph, Missouri; North Platte, Nebraska; Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Bonneville Salt Flats at Salduro

Maughan was a significant early military aviation pioneer who has appeared on this site before.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, June 18, 1924. The Cummins Incident.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Denmark, Diplomacy, Mexico, United Kingdom, USSR

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 13, 1924. Macready jumps into the dark.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 13, 1924. Macready jumps into the dark.: 

Friday, June 13, 1924. Macready jumps into the dark.

Lt. John A Macready, already famous for this; 

The Aerodrome: First "Crop Dusting". August 3, 1921.:

First "Crop Dusting". August 3, 1921.

On this day in 1921, crop dusting, spraying pesticides by air, was performed for the first time in an experiment involving the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

First crop dusting being conducted.

The first flight featured Army Air Corps pilot John A. Macready and aircraft engineer Etienne Dormoy who performed the test with a Curtiss JN4 over a field outside of Troy, Ohio.  Lead arsenate was sprayed to attack caterpillars.

Dormay left, Macready right.

Macready would complete an Army career prior to World War Two, leaving the service in 1926, but was recalled to serve in the Second World War.  He retired from the Army Air Force in 1948.  He was a legendary pilot at the time and had many firsts while in the service, including being the first Air Corps pilot to parachute from a stricken aircraft at night.

made his aforementioned night jump.

He landed in a tree, which saved his life.

Which, in an odd way, brings up this item:

Mosquito Control Notification: Aerial Granular Larvicide Scheduled for June 13

Laramie, Wyoming – City of Laramie Mosquito Control has scheduled the application of granular larvicide to control larval mosquitoes in rural areas adjacent to the city.  The application is scheduled for Thursday, June 13th beginning at daylight.   The product is a granular form of Bacillus thuringensis israelensis (Bti) that is designed to penetrate heavy grasses and brushy foliage to reach water sources, especially in maturing hay fields, where larvae are present. The application is targeting both nuisance and vector mosquito larva. The product is environmentally friendly and will not harm fish, amphibians, livestock, or other aquatic invertebrates. If weather conditions are not favorable for the application, it will be postponed until weather conditions allow for the application. 

Treatment areas include irrigated acreages along the Big Laramie River southwest of the city, flooded riparian zones in the Big Laramie flood plain southwest and north of the city, and acreages north and west of the city that are irrigated by the North Canal and the Pioneer Canal.  

Schedules regarding Mosquito Control, Parks, and Cemetery chemical applications for control of weeds and insect pests are available daily through the Mosquito Control and Integrated Pest Management Hotline at 721-5056. The schedule is updated at approximately 4pm daily. Spraying information is also available on the city website. Look for the daily mosquito and chemical application hotline tab on the home page at www.cityoflaramie.org.   For further information contact Hunter Deerman, Mosquito/IPM Supervisor at 721-5258; hdeerman@cityoflaramie.org or Scott Hunter, Parks Manager at 721-5257 SHunter@cityoflaramie.org.

Silent Cal had a brief statement for the Press:

Blog Mirror: Around the World in 175 Days, 1924: Department of State Contributions to the U.S. Army Flight Around the World: Part IV: Shanghai, China

 

Around the World in 175 Days, 1924: Department of State Contributions to the U.S. Army Flight Around the World: Part IV: Shanghai, China

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 17, 1924. U.S. Flyers reach Paramashiru.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 17, 1924. U.S. Flyers reach Paramash...: 

Saturday, May 17, 1924. U.S. Flyers reach Paramashiru.

Notre Dame students clashed with Ku Klux Klan members arriving in South Bend.

By Vallee - Made with freely available DEM data using QGIS and AerialOD, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=144444385

Three U.S. Army airplanes flew from Attu to Paramashiru in the Kurils, the longest and most dangerous leg of their transglobal flight.

The route allowed the effort to avoid Soviet airspace.  The US had not yet recognized the USSR.

Attu has been discussed here several times before, Paramushir (Russian: Парамушир, Japanese: 幌筵島, Ainu: パラムシㇼ) has not.  It is a volcanic island in the northern portion of the Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk in the northwest Pacific Ocean. The Kurils have been mentioned on this blog only once previously. 

Paramushir derives from  Ainu and means “broad island” or “populous island”.   Now a Russian possession, it was a Japanese one at the time.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, May 8, 1924. Westland Dreadnaught and Celtic Air Mail.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, May 8, 1924. Scottish question results in ...: 

The Westland Dreadnought was destroyed in a crash.

Air mail service from Belfast to Liverpool was established.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 3, 1924. Zinaida Kokorina.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, May 3, 1924. Foundings.: 

Zinaida Kokorina, against the odds and through the intervention of the Soviet head of state, became the first female military pilot on this day in 1924.

She wanted to become a fighter pilot, but was persuaded to remain a flight instructor, which she did through World War Two.  She later became headmistress of a village school at Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan before retiring to Moscow.

Sunday, April 6, 1924. The launch of the around the world flight.

The United States Army Air Service launched its around the world flying expedition from Seattle, Washington, although as previously noted, it could be argued the party had commenced several days prior by flying to Seattle.

Chicago, the lead Douglas World Cruiser.

Around the World in 175 Days, 1924: Department of State Contributions to the U.S. Army Aerial Circumnavigation: Part I

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 17, 1924 First Around The World Flight Commences

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 17, 1924 Telephones and grim news.: 

Monday, March 17, 1924 Telephones and grim news.

The first around the world flight attempt was commenced by the United States Army Air Service.  The aircraft consisted of four Douglas World Cruisers.

The initial leg of the trip was from Santa Monica, California, to Seattle, which was the actual departure point.

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, February 24, 1924. Machines.

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, February 24, 1924. Machines.: 

Sunday, February 24, 1924. Machines.

Mexican Federals defeated rebels in Tamaulipas.

The Berliner gyrocopter No. 5 gave its first successful demonstration.  U.S. Army Lt. Harold R. Harris flew it for one minutes and 20 seconds at the College Park Airport, near the University of Maryland, in front of the press and members of the U.S. Navy.

Harris has been mentioned here before due to his career as a test pilot.  He lived until 1988, dying at age 92.

The Beverly Hills Speedway hosted its final race, which was attended by 85,000 automobile racing fans.  Harlan Fengler broke the world's record for a 250 mile race, averaging 116.6 mph.

Fengler would go on to be the Chief Steward of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1958 until 1974.  He passed away in 1981 at age 78.

Today In Wyoming's History: Major Gale "Buck" Cleven

Today In Wyoming's History: Major Gale "Buck" Cleven:  

Major Gale "Buck" Cleven

 

In the Apple TV series Masters of the Air, one of the characters is Maj. Gale "Buck" Cleven, who reports himself as being from Casper twice in the first episode.

Who was he, and was he really from Casper?

Clevens was born in Lemmon, South Dakota, on December 27, 1918, just after the end of World War One.  His family moved to Casper when he was still a child, although I'm not certain when, as they moved first to Lusk, in 1920.  He likely was a 1937 graduate from Natrona County High School, the only high school in Casper at the time (Natrona County had a second one in Midwest).  Following graduating from high school, he attended the University of Wyoming while also working on drilling crews as a roughneck.

He did, in fact, move at some point to Casper, where he was employed as a roughneck on drilling crews.  He used the money he earned to attend the University of Wyoming and was enrolled by the fall of 1937, presumably right after high school.  His name appears in the social pages of The Branding Iron as having had a date attend the men's residence hall October dance.  He was a guest of a different young lady at the 1939 Tri Delts Halloween sorority dance.  The same year he was apparently in a fraternity, as he's noted as having attended the Phi Delta Theta dance with, yes, another young lady.  In February 1939 he went to a fraternity dance with Nova Carter, whom I believe I'm related to by marriage.  A year later, February 1940, he took a different gal to the same dance.

He left UW in 1941 to join the Army, intent on being a pilot.  The October 21, 1943, edition of the UW Student Newspaper, The Branding Iron, notes him (inaccurately) as being stationed in North Africa and having received the Distinguished Service Cross, which he in fact did receive for piloting his badly stricken plane from Schweinfurt to North Africa, the flight path taken on that raid. This even is depicted in Masters of the Air.  The Branding Iron noted that he had attended UW for three years.  In June, 1944, the student newspaper reported him a POW.  He's noted again for a second decoration in the March 2, 1944, edition, which also notes that he was a Prisoner of War.

As depicted in Masters of the Air, his B-17 was in fact shot down over Germany.  He ended up becoming a POW, as reported in the UW paper, at Stalag Luft III for 18 months, after which he escaped and made it to Allied lines.  He was put back in the cockpit after the war flying troops back to the United States.

Following the war, he was back at the University of Wyoming.  He graduated from UW with a bachelor's in 1946.  He apparently reentered the Air Force after that, or was recalled into service, and served in the Korean War, leaving the Air Force around that time.

He was on the Winter Quarter 1954 UW Honor Roll and obtained a Masters Degree, probably in geology, from UW in 1956.  Somewhere in here, he obtained a MBA degree from Harvard and an interplanetary physics doctorate from George Washington University.  

He married immediately after the war in 1945 to Marjorie Ruth Spencer, who was originally from Lander Wyoming.  They had known each other since childhood.  She tragically passed away in 1953 while visiting her parents, while due to join Gale at Morton Air Force Base in California.  Polio was the cause of her death, and unusually her headstone, in Texas, bears her maiden name.  Reportedly, her death threw Cleven into a deep depression.  He married again in 1955, to Esther Lee Athey.

His post-war career is hard to follow.  He flew again during the Korean War, as noted, which would explain the gap between his bachelors and master’s degrees, and probably his doctorate.  He's noted as having served again during the Vietnam War, and also has having held a post at the Pentagon.  He was in charge of EDP information at Hughes Aircraft.  Given all of that, it's hard to know if an intended career in geology ever materialized, or if his World War Two service ended up essentially dominating the remainder of his career in the form of military service.  The interplanetary physics degree would and employment by Hughes would suggest the latter.  His highest held rank in the Air Force was Colonel.

Following retirement, he lived in Dickenson, North Dakota, and then later at the Sugarland Retirement Center in Sheridan.  He died at age 86 in 2006, and is buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his marker noting service in three wars.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, February 29, 1924. Air assisted victory.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, February 29, 1924. Air assisted victory.:

Tuesday, February 29, 1924. Air assisted victory.

Mexican Federal forces took Esperanza in Puebla in a hard fought battle.

The counter-attack featured strafing runs by Mexican-born American pilot, Ralph O'Neill.

O'Neill had distinguished service with the US Army as a pilot in World War One and held three Distinguished Service Cross citations.  He lived until 1980, dying at age 83 in California.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, November 2, 1923. Air Speed Record

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, November 2, 1923. A person of interest.:

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Harlold J. Brow set a new flight airspeed record of 250 mph, making him the first person to fly faster than 400 kph.  His plane was a Curtis racer.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, Sepember 22, 1923. The ZR-1 over Washington, D.C.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, Sepember 22, 1923. Henning Hotel Robbed.: 

Saturday, Sepember 22, 1923. Henning Hotel Robbed.

The Navy's ZR-1 dirigible flew over Washington, D. C.

September 1, 1923.

 

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, August 22, 1923. Air Mail.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, August 22, 1923. Oaths of Office, Air Ma...: 

Tuesday, August 22, 1923. Oaths of Office, Air Mail, No French Concessions, Japanese Navy Disaster, Societal Shifts.

Mail was getting speedier.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, July 27, 1923. Martin MS-1s.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, July 27, 1923. Casper living on Tulsa Time?: 

The Federal Archives list these photos of a Martin MS-1 that the Navy was experimenting with.  The concept was to carry the biplane on a submarine, something that proved viable, and while the U.S. Navy gave up on it by World War Two the Japanese did not.

The Imperial Japanese Navy would, in turn, use submarine born monoplanes to attack the U.S. West Coast, albeit with no success.

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, July 15, 2023. First service by Aeroflot.

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, July 15, 2023. Harding drives a golden sp...:

Sunday, July 15, 2023. Harding drives a golden spike.

The most dangerous major airline in the world, Aeroflot, saw its birth when its predecessor, Dobrolet, began operations with a flight from Moscow to Nizhny.