Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Mobile Aviation
    Mobile Aviation
    Mobile Aviation
    Ebook189 pages58 minutes

    Mobile Aviation

    By Billy J. Singleton

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Local businessman and inventor John Ellis Fowler introduced the concept of the flying machine to Mobile and South Alabama. Fowler s innovative designs mark the beginning of the remarkable aviation heritage of Alabama s port city, a legacy further enhanced by the evolution of military and civilian aviation on Alabama s Gulf Coast. A mild climate and abundance of flat terrain made the region attractive for the establishment of military flight training programs during the World War II while the availability of air, rail, and sea transportation made Mobile an ideal location for construction of a supply and repair depot to support military aviation in the Southeast. Images of Aviation: Mobile Aviation is the story of the first century of powered flight in Mobile and South Alabama.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 28, 2011
    ISBN9781439641606
    Mobile Aviation
    Author

    Billy J. Singleton

    A resident of Clanton, Billy J. Singleton is the author of five books and has written extensively on the history of Chilton County and the state of Alabama. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Troy University and a Master of Aerospace Science degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He has served as chair of the board of directors of the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame and the Southern Museum of Flight, president of the Chilton County Chamber of Commerce and member of the board of directors of the Friends of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. As a newspaper columnist, he has traveled the back roads of Chilton County to uncover unique and unusual stories relating to long-forgotten people, places and events hidden within the chapters of local history.

    Related to Mobile Aviation

    Related ebooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Growth Of An Industry

      Nov 1, 2023

      Growth Of An Industry
      3 min read

    • Article

      North To alaska

      Jul 25, 2023

      North To alaska
      11 min read

    • Article

      Outstanding in its Field

      Jun 17, 2021

      Outstanding in its Field
      7 min read

    • Article

      Comox Air Force Museum

      Dec 4, 2018

      Comox Air Force Museum
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Many Lives Of A Bolo

      Oct 24, 2023

      The Many Lives Of A Bolo
      4 min read

    • Article

      Bombers In The Big Sky

      Aug 9, 2022

      Bombers In The Big Sky
      6 min read

    • Article

      PLANES TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

      Sep 26, 2023

      Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum: The nonprofit is dedicated to acquiring, restoring, displaying, and operating antique and vintage aircraft, mostly from 1920–1939, the golden age of flight. 14301 Creve Coeur Airport. National Museum of Transport

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Final Layover

      Oct 11, 2022

      The Final Layover
      3 min read

    • Article

      United States Of America

      Aug 27, 2021

      United States Of America
      16 min read

    • Article

      Flights Of Fancy

      Sep 28, 2021

      Flights Of Fancy
      5 min read

    • Article

      Briefing

      Apr 5, 2022

      Briefing
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Comet Story

      Jun 12, 2020

      The Comet Story
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Weird World Of Airships

      Apr 13, 2023

      The Weird World Of Airships
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Show On The Ground And In The Air

      Oct 24, 2018

      A Show On The Ground And In The Air
      5 min read

    • Article

      How Rail Crash-land Ed Over Air Services

      Jun 17, 2022

      Back in the 1960s, in the period just after Beeching and when the railway was starting to plan its way out of the negativity of closures and cutbacks, the designation ‘Inter-City’ was taken from a Western Region named express and applied to all BR’s

      4 min read

    • Article

      9 Museums To Be Visited In The Us

      Oct 24, 2019

      9 Museums To Be Visited In The Us
      8 min read

    • Article

      Wacky Warbirds

      Jun 8, 2021

      Wacky Warbirds
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Dole Disaster

      Apr 25, 2023

      The Dole Disaster
      12 min read

    • Article

      Aviation’s Living History

      Feb 18, 2020

      Aviation’s Living History
      10 min read

    • Article

      1961 - 1970

      Jul 5, 2019

      In the hottest years of Cold War, some American and Soviet bombers permanently remained alert in the air, already loaded with atomic weapons, to response to a surprise attack. In January 1961, an American B-52 suffered a structural failure and disint

      7 min read

    • Article

      Taking Flight

      Aug 4, 2021

      AS EARLY AS 1904, Curtiss had begun to manufacture engines for airships, and on 4 July, 1908, he flew 1550m to win the Scientific American Trophy and its $2500 prize for making the first pre-announced publicly-observed flight of a heavier-than-air fl

      1 min read

    • Article

      Birth Of The Aircraft Carrier

      Nov 7, 2017

      Birth Of The Aircraft Carrier
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Mobile Aviation

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Mobile Aviation - Billy J. Singleton

      reality.

      INTRODUCTION

      The massive Brookley Complex in Mobile is a testament to the evolution of aviation during the first century of powered flight. Enormous swept-wing aircraft propelled by powerful turbojet engines routinely lift thousands of pounds of payload from runways that extend more than a mile in length and then transverse the sky at velocities approaching the speed of sound. The size and complexity of these modern marvels of technology would have been inconceivable to early aeronautical experimenters who devoted their lives to the pursuit of sustained and controlled flight in heavier-than-air machines.

      Aircraft departing the north runway of the Brookley Complex trace a path over a parcel of land located on the west bank of Mobile Bay at Garrow’s Bend. Late in the 19th century, this area was transformed into a venue for residents of Alabama’s oldest city to enjoy a brief respite from the daily demands of metropolitan life. In addition to a scenic view of the bay and access to Arlington Pier, Monroe Park offered visitors an open-air theater, amusement rides, a carousel, and a baseball stadium. The inauguration of the city’s newest transportation technology, an electric streetcar line, operated by the Mobile Light and Railroad Company, provided an economical and efficient means to access the park’s recreational facilities.

      The introduction of electric rail service was not the only new technology on display at Monroe Park. During the early years of the 20th century, curious visitors flocked to the park to view the unique flying machine designs of Mobile businessman and aerial experimenter John Ellis Fowler. Considered a mechanical wizard by customers of his clock repair shop, Fowler constructed two of his flying machine designs behind a large wooden enclosure at Monroe Park. To finance these projects, visitors paid an admission fee to observe Fowler’s work and to learn about his theories relating to the design of flying machines and propellers. Although no evidence exists to indicate that Fowler was successful in his quest to achieve flight, the inventor did receive patents for his Flying Machine and Propeller for Flying Machines designs.

      Fowler’s dream of creating a machine capable of carrying a human aloft ushered in the age of heavier-than-air flight in Mobile. By 1916, flying machines had become a more common occurrence in the skies over Mobile. At the Gulf State Fair, aviatrix Katherine Stinson and Professor Osbert E. Williams thrilled the crowds with exhibition flights above the fairgrounds. Located only a short distance from Monroe Park, the fairgrounds provided a level, obstruction-free surface suitable for the operation of flying machines prior to the development of the airfield.

      Mobile’s first flying field, Legion Field, consisted of a 100-acre tract of land located at the south end of Ann Street, extending for a number of blocks along Duval Street. Leased by the city in 1917, the site served as the municipal landing field during the first officially sanctioned airmail service to the city. On April 17, 1925, Lt. Robert Knapp and Sgt. J. A. Liner, military aviators serving at Maxwell Field in Montgomery, participated in a trial to prove the feasibility of connecting airmail service from the Gulf Coast with the transcontinental service at Chicago. The proposed route originated in New Orleans and included intermediate stops at Mobile, Birmingham, Nashville, Louisville, and Indianapolis. Upon arrival in Chicago, the mail would be placed on aircraft bound for New York, Los Angeles, and other municipal terminals on the transcontinental route.

      The city of Mobile entered the era of commercial aviation on May 1, 1928, when the first scheduled airmail flight landed at Legion Field. Commercial Air Mail Route 23, served by St. Tammany Gulf Coast Airways, connected the cities of New Orleans and Atlanta with intermediate stops in Mobile and Birmingham. The new service initially operated from Legion Field because construction of the city’s new municipal airport had not been completed. The Mobile Municipal Airport, Bates Field, was located on Cedar Point Road, 4 miles south of the business district and half a mile west of Mobile Bay. Bates Field was dedicated in November 1929 and named in honor of Cecil F. Bates, a city commissioner who had been instrumental in the development of the new facility.

      Bates Field consisted of approximately 125 acres of land that included two sod runways, an office building, restrooms, and a telephone. The city name was painted in bold letters on the roof of the hangar to help orient transient aviators. A pamphlet produced by the chamber of commerce described the field as laid out roughly in the shape of a right triangle with the base running north and south and the hypotenuse in a northeast-southwest direction. The pamphlet reminded pilots that the sod surface of the landing field remained firm even in the wettest weather. By 1939, improvements to the facility included a new terminal building, a hangar, a concrete ramp area, and two hard-surfaced runways.

      In January 1940, the U.S. government acquired the Bates Field property and adjacent land for the construction of a new maintenance and repair depot to support military aviation in the Southeast and Caribbean areas. The facility was one of two depots initially constructed during the massive expansion of military forces as the United States prepared to intervene in the escalating conflicts in Europe and Asia. The new depot was designated Brookley Field in honor of Wendell Holsworth Brookley, a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps who lost his life in an aviation accident while testing an experimental propeller design.

      Brookley Field was unique in being the only military aviation installation in the United States served directly by four modes of transportation: air, rail, sea, and highway. An ocean terminal, constructed on a parcel of land adjoining the depot at Garrow’s Bend, made Brookley Field the only military aviation depot in the United States with a deepwater port. During the Second

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1