MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS


Right: “Every time Johnny started he led the field around the first pylon.” From the Sports section of the Waterloo Daily Courier, Iowa, October 2, 1932.


Leſt: Livingston Display case at Waterloo Regional Airport, IA. Photo: Cedar Falls Historical Society


1920 to 1940. For many old-timers, this is a pilgrimage to stroll among hundreds of classic aircraft which have been restored and maintained to airworthiness. Iowa has been actively participating in aviation events for decades. Many pilots, designers, manufacturers and operations personnel are unheralded. But the fly-in at Blakesburg has prompted me to relate what I have learned about one of Iowa’s most famous aviators, John Livingston.


THE IOWA BOY John Livingston left high school early and went to work as a teen repairing bicycles and motorcycles. By 1919, he became well known as an excellent mechanic, attracting the attention of the Miller-Scales Airplane Company in Waterloo, IA, which hired him as an aircraft mechanic. Without any experience working with aircraft engines, John was soon an expert with repairs and rebuilding OX-5 engines found on the post WWI, Curtiss JN4 “Jenny”and the Standard J-1. John taught himself to fly and was hired as a pilot by another Iowa firm, Midwest Airways Corporation. Between 1920 and 1933, he managed several airfields in Iowa and Illinois, and took time to teach his brother, Aden Livingston [1903-1995] to fly. By 1929 John held licenses for Commercial, Glider and Seaplane rating, flight instructor, and A&E mechanic. John’s remarkable talent for adaptations and redesigns coaxed extra power and durability out of his barnstorming


20 | DOMmagazine.com | oct nov 2016


and racing planes. His early years were typical of the traveling “flying circus” teams that criss-crossed the US at county fairs and air meets. When he was not at the controls of a stunt plane, looping above the astounded crowds below, he was performing as a wing walker and parachutist. Eventually, he entered air races, modifying his own aircraft to suit the contest. In 1930, John purchased a Monocoupe 110, tailoring the landing gear, engine cowling and struts to his own needs. A few years later he shortened the wings from 32 feet to 22 feet, dubbing it the Monocoupe 110 Special.


COAST TO COAST WINNING During the 1920s and 1930s John entered 65 air races, placing first in 41 contests, and among the top three in all the rest. He flew a wide range of aircraft including Wacos, Monocoupes, Ryans, and Cessnas. His trophies included those for the 1928 Transcontinental Speed Races (New York to Los Angeles); the 1929 Ford National Air Tour; the 1931 National Air Races at Cleveland, OH; and the 1939 Miami Air Races. (FL). Never far removed from his Iowa roots, he participated in most of the Iowa Good Will Air Tours between 1928 and 1937. In 1916, Otto Schnering, a candy maker from Illinois,


formed the Curtiss Candy Company, named after a relative. In 1920, they produced their wildly popular chocolate, caramel, and nut combination they marketed as the “Baby Ruth Bar,” which sold for five cents. Speculation later emerged that the candy had been named for the 1920 baseball star, George “Babe” Ruth (1895- 1948). But Schnering held to his claim that the candy had been named in honor of the former President’s daughter. In 1923, Schnering chartered a plane to drop


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104