landed at Davis-Monthan during 1929, fl ying the same Vega and carried one passenger, James Piersol [1900- 1962], the aviation editor for the Detroit News. Records for the famous National Air Tour of 1929 list Piersol as a newspaper reporter in the accompanying Vega [NC32M] with Byerley as the pilot. Hyatt’s biography of Piersol includes his remarkable career beginning in 1919, as a self- proclaimed “grease monkey,” barnstormer, and newspaper reporter. He was a mechanic! Unexpectedly, I found myself down a research rabbit hole chasing Piersol’s pilot, Frank Byerley.
A BOY OF THE SOUTH Often written with respect, but usually based upon oral history provided by family and friends, I do not expect obituaries to be entirely accurate. Nevertheless, they contain clues, which is how I learned that Byerley was considered to have experienced “one of the most colorful and varied careers of any resident” in Lake Providence, Louisiana. According to his eulogist, he was a pilot and newspaper reporter, “associated with Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Doolittle, and Wylie Post.” Byerley’s family were farmers in Louisiana. He attended college in Tennessee, majoring in “science.” At the onset of WWI, Byerley trained at Scott Field in Louisiana where he earned his pilot’s license, most likely as one of the members of the Aero Squadrons from Kelly Field, TX in 1917. Between 1927 and 1937, Byerley was employed by the Detroit News, where he teamed up with Piersol. The interior of their Vega [NC32M] was specially designed by Piersol, which Hyatt notes was “equipped with a desk and typewriter, radio, wing-mounted camera and a dark room for developing pictures while aloft.” Byerley was a photo-journalist as well as a pilot for his
editor, Piersol. The Detroit News is not digitized online, therefore I have not yet found Byerley’s byline for an article although there are several by Piersol. Aside from the National Air Tour fl ights, Byerley is believed to have fl own to aviation events as far away as Alaska.
THE DETROIT CONNECTION During the Golden Age of Aviation, commercial airlines and delivery of mail by air spread across the continent but the U.S. Territory of Alaska remained isolated. At the time travel by dog sled was the only transportation used in Alaska’s harsh weather conditions. But, Carl Benjamin “Ben” Eielson [1897-1929] was a relentless advocate for aviation, correctly anticipating that the future route from the U.S. to the Orient would be over Alaska. By 1914, Eielson was enrolled at college in his home state of North Dakota. Although he was a good student,
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