The Famous Fliers’ Wall at the Mission Inn, Riverside, CA. Photo: W.W. Parks
FIND YOUR AVIATION ANCESTRY
By Giacinta Bradley Koontz
bronze tablets that need polishing or a vacant hangar with broken windows. There might be a small aviation museum nearby, one that is open only a few days a week and is run by unpaid volunteers. Find your past. Drive, fl y, walk or visit a Web site. Take your friends or family. Learn the story behind the name of an airport or why a rusted quonset hut in a fi eld bears the faded logo of an aviation gasoline company. Weather, land development and lack of funding will soon physically remove these sites, but they are your legacy not found elsewhere. I will share some of the places marked with stone monu-
T
ments, bronze tablets and statues, and unlikely sites that commemorated a part of our American aviation history. Most of these tributes were placed between 1920 and 1950. Many sites were once famous. Some retain public interest, like the Wright brothers monument at Kitty Hawk, NC. Some are obscure but not hard to fi nd.
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his year, the theme of my column will be encouraging you to visit sites that commemorate an aviation event, person or place. You might fi nd some
I have not visited historic aviation sites in every state, but
I’ll share those that I found, photographed and shall never forget. I hope to stir within you a renewed pride in your chosen profession of aviation by learning about your “avia- tion ancestry.”
THE FAMOUS FLIERS’ WALL Riverside, CA, has a long history of residents who promoted their town as a perfect place for an airport. Since 1917, when the air-minded citizens leveled a landing fi eld, until the pres- ent, Riverside has boasted enthusiastic promoters of aviation, and is best known for the nearby March Field Air Museum. Its static display aircraft include the SR71 Blackbird, but you might fi nd yourself hesitating beside the statue of a war dog
DOMmagazine
RIVERSIDE
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