MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS RACING THROUGH THE ROARING TWENTIES HAPPY NEW YEAR 1920!
GREETINGS FROM THE TRANS-CONTINENTAL GATES FLYING CIRCUS OF SAN FRANCISCO (“The Daddy of them All”)
BY GIACINTA BRADLEY KOONTZ
Between 1920 and 1929, the weekly magazine Aviation published editorials, current events, and special features lavishly illustrated. My copy of the October 1925 issue is typical of the advances and setbacks of America’s aviation industry alerting me to stories of interest one hundred years ago.
After a coast to coast five-year tour of their flying
circus, the Gates wing-walkers, pilots, parachute jumpers and “aerial acrobats” arrived in New York advertising that they were “now operating in the eastern territory.” Gates flying circus somehow survived following WWI even though Americans now had genuine heroes of the air who emerged when the U.S. military aircraft met the finest of Europe’s pursuit planes. The era of exhibition flying was replaced by air races entered by civilian and military contestants at which speed, endurance, and altitude records were routinely made and broken. The International Air Races of 1925 were held at Mitchel Field on Long Island, NY, with ten different categories of events ranging from model airplane competitions to the coveted Pulitzer Trophy race.
THE DECADE OF ADVANCES AND SETBACKS In Washington, D.C., Presidents Warren Harding (1920), Calvin Coolidge (1924) and Herbert Hoover (1928) attempted to mediate and/or negotiate resolutions among politicians in favor of a separate Department of Commerce for aviation and those who opposed government regulation on any level. President Coolidge formed an “Air Board” with Congressional hearings to sort out the roles of aviation in the Army and Navy. Not surprisingly, Aviation magazine’s editorial concluded that the hearings “settled nothing” and described the process as politically divided. The decade of controversy eventually set in motion the formation of the Federal Government’s role in aviation forming the 1926 Air Commerce Act, ultimately the basis of the Civil Aeronautics Authority (1938) and our current Federal Aviation Administration. Wm. P. MacCracken, Jr.
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Aviation magazine was published every Monday during the 1920s. Subscriptions were four dollars a year or ten cents an issue. A staff of four contributing editors as well as frequent articles submitted by vendors was led by W. Laurence LePage. Printed 9”x12” the large format was supported by advertising submitted by aviation-related products from aircraſt to the plywood and dope used to manufacture them.
was the first director assigned to “foster air commerce” with forming the licensing of pilots and aircraft mechanics. Seat-of-the-pants flying, and farm-field repairs without inspection was no longer acceptable, even though enforcement was imperfect.
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