THANK YOU!

YOUR PURCHASE OF THESE BOOKS SUPPORTS THE WEB SITES THAT BRING TO YOU THE HISTORY BEHIND OLD AIRFIELD REGISTERS

Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. 375 pages with black & white photographs and extensive tables

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The Congress of Ghosts (available as eBook) is an anniversary celebration for 2010.  It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.

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Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register, 1925-1936 is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Art Goebel's Own Story by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion.  Available as a free download at the link.

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Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race (available as eBook) is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Clover Field: The first Century of Aviation in the Golden State (available in paperback) With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great. 281 pages, black & white photographs.

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WEB SITE AESTHETICS

All the elements of page art you see in this suite of Airfield Register Web sites (except for the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register site) are derived of things from old aviation. The things include old and broken goggles, airplane fabrics and paints, woods and metals. Literally, the pages these sites are written on are as authentic as the Golden Age of Aviation. All the wear, scrapes, cracks, scratches and dust you see are really there. As such, the pages themselves are metaphors for the stories they tell. The links present further information. For interest, the site specifics follow.

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CALIFORNIA!!

CLOVER FIELD, SANTA MONICA, CA: the Clover Field Web page features wood and painted fabric. The wood-grain serving as the background of the top banner was achieved by scanning a sheet of MIL-P-6070 aviation-grade mahogany veneer plywood. Most of the Lockheed Vegas you find in any of the Registers were made mostly of wood.  This type of mahogany plywood was used for the fuselage and wing structures of Vegas until the mid-1930s, when aluminum was substituted for the fuselage structure.

The geometric structure overlaying the mahogany is an old Clark-Y wing rib image, mirrored in PhotoShop with the leading end facing off the page in opposite directions. The Clark-Y rib was designed in the early 1920s.  Each is built in a jig from scratch, by hand, out of close- and straight-grained Sitka Spruce from Alaska. They were tedious to make, and each wing required many ribs to hold the fabric (or wood) covering in the right shape to produce lift.

The dark adhesive visible at the joints and gussets suggests this rib was fastened with resorcinol glue, which would date its construction to sometime after the late 1930s. Note the joints are both glued AND nailed. Charles Lindbergh’s Ryan NYP, the “Spirit of St. Louis,” Lockheed Vegas and many other period airplane brands achieved lift and flew on the Clark-Y rib profile.

The background in the text areas was made by scanning actual doped cotton fabric from one of the airplanes that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield. The fabric is from the trailing edge of the right elevator of NC14415, the Beech Staggerwing flown through Tucson January 25, 1936 by Nancy Harkness and her new husband Robert Love (see below). They were on their honeymoon. This was a brand new, pretty airplane painted, according to the bill of sale, Vermillion and Diana Cream. On the Web page you are viewing the painted surface where you can see peeling paint with a few cracks.

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CALIFORNIA!!

GRAND CENTRAL AIR TERMINAL, GLENDALE, CA: The terminal building at the Glendale, CA airport was a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture.  I try to keep that sense through the Web page art. The propeller image in the banner was mounted on an early aircraft that flew about the time the Art Deco movement was in full swing in the United States (1920s-30s). The banner text font is “Broadway.”

The background of the text area is a macro photograph I took during 2002 of weathered paint that was on a contemporary aircraft stored at the Davis-Monthan Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group facility at Tucson, AZ.

Please click the link above to review the history and see photographs and video, old and new, of the of the building and surroundings. The good news is that the building still exists and there is a movement now to restore it to its original stature as a grand, Golden Age airfield terminal. The link will be updated from time to time as the restoration proceeds. 

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ILLINOIS!!

PARKS FIELD, EAST ST. LOUIS, IL: the Parks Field Web page banner features goggles that belonged to a signer of the old Davis-Monthan Register, C.B. Cosgrove, Jr. Pilot Cosgrove’s son allowed me to photograph his father’s goggles during October, 2006. They are mirrored on the banner and superimposed on a background of aviation aluminum.

Parks Field

The banner background and text area are scans of actual aluminum panels from the trailing edge of a Boeing B-17 (44-85747) right wing, just forward of the right aileron. The panels were removed and discarded because they were corroded.  I’ve left the rivet holes so you can see the corrosion around them. This particular B-17 was not manufactured or in flight during the periods of any of the Registers. However, its wing panel does make an interesting background for the Parks Register pages.

 

 

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COLORADO!!

PETERSON FIELD, COLORADO SPRINGS, CO: the Peterson Field Web page banner features goggles and cotton airplane fabric. The goggle images are from an old aircraft product catalogue from the early 1930s. The fabric is from the same Beech Staggerwing as described in the Clover Field section, above. You can see some of the vermillion remaining on the outside of the fabric that's been folded over at the top of the banner.

Under the text portion of the page, you're actually looking at the inside of the fabric under the printing. You can see a portion of the rib stitching cords that were cut when the fabric was removed.

NC14415 Key

If you direct your browser to the link for NC14415, above, you will discover that the airplane still exists and is being restored.  I visited with it during November, 2002 and you can see photos of the restoration status at the link. At right is a picture I took holding the ignition key next to Nancy Harkness’s signature, and that of her new husband, on page 212 in the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register. Someday I'll clean my fingernails.

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PENNSYLVANIA!!

PITCAIRN FIELD, WILLOW GROVE, PA: the Pitcairn Field Web page banner features the sleek, stylized Art Deco logo of the Pitcairn Company. The logo is superimposed on a stylized cloud line that appeared in a 1932 Company marketing brochure (PDF 27Mb) for their popular autogiros.

Pitcairn Field

 

 

The text area of the page is a scan of a blank fly leaf from the Pitcairn Field Register. The patina of age and a few smudges and wrinkles show through and prepare us to engage with the history in the pages to follow.

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: All Web pages are designed by your Webmaster and implemented by The Web Professional, Inc., Naples, FL & St. Paul, MN. All Web sites are wholly owned, researched, written and operated by Delta Mike Airfield, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit company based in Naples, FL. Unless otherwise noted, all designs and original texts and images are Copyright © Delta Mike Airfield, Inc.

The mission of the company is education, encouragement and support of historical aviation research and multi-media publication to enhance knowledge among public and private sectors around the globe. Specific emphasis is on the Golden Age of Flight. The company operates primarily, but not exclusively, through its Web sites. Other mixed media publications and public appearances also support the Company. Your donations can be made through any of the Web sites.

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 06/13/13 REVISED: