A year before statehood, a balloon went aloft to take this photo centered on Second Street and Adams (click for a larger image).
Fighter ace Lt. Frank Luke, a Phoenix native, gained fame in World War I as the "Arizona Balloon Buster" for his success against German observation balloons as well as enemy aircraft. Here he is with 13th confirmed kill. He was shot down and fatally wounded two months before the end of the war. German soldiers buried Luke in the Murvaux cemetery; Americans retrieved his body two months later. He received the Medal of Honor and Luke Air Force Base is named after him.
Amelia Earhart visiting Phoenix at the South Central Airport in 1931 (USC Libraries).
An aerial view of the land Phoenix purchased for its new airport in 1935, called Sky Harbor (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Whether from landing or windstorms, aviation was a risky business, especially in its early years as these photos from Sky Harbor show (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Airhaven Airport was around Grand Avenue and Thomas Road in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Ruth Reinhold in 1933. She was Arizona's most famous aviatrix and Barry Goldwater's favorite pilot (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Goldwater himself trained as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces, flying cargo including over the treacherous "Hump" (the Himalayas) bringing supplies to beleaguered Chinese troops fighting the Japanese in World War II. As a colonel in 1946, he founded the Arizona Air National Guard and ordered its desegregation two years before the rest of the U.S. military. He rose to the rank of major general in the Air Force Reserve. Here he is in the cockpit of an F-102 Delta Dagger interceptor in 1967.
A TWA DC-3 on the ground at Sky Harbor in the 1930s near the wedding chapel and terminal.
Thunderbird Field early in World War II. Phoenix was ringed by Army Air Forces training bases because of its good flying weather (National Archives).
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his third wife Olgivanna at Sky Harbor in the early 1950s (Brad Hall Collection).
The front page of the Arizona Republic the morning after two airliners collided over the Grand Canyon, June 30, 1956. All 128 aboard were killed, making it the worst loss of life in commercial aviation up to that date.
An artist’s rendering of the collision.
Motorola, Sperry, Honeywell, and AiResearch were among the companies recruited starting in the late 1940s involved in making aircraft parts, avionics, and cutting-edge research. Motorola pioneered drones at its Scottsdale plant (Brad Hall Collection).
AiResearch's manufacturing plant in the 1940s (Arizona Memory Project).
…And one for Tucson:
The "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, where aircraft are stored for potential use in wartime, spare parts, or for arms control treaties. Russian satellites regularly confirm the number of B-52 bombers cut up and unusable, so the United States is in compliance with treaties — even if Moscow is not (Library of Congress).
RELATED: Sky Harbor.
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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.
Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.
Amazing photos
Also Airhaven and Cactus airports.
I flew with my father in law out of Airhaven located between 27th and 35th Avenues and betwen Grand Avenue and Indian School Road in his Aircoupe in the late 50’s.
While Barry liked to fly with Ruth.
Gus liked to fly with Barry.
2024 slogan posted in “lies we tell” column.
As recently as the early ’60’s, Bonanza and Frontier flew DC-3 services between Prescott and Phoenix. Cost was around $8, which was a lot of money then.
August 7, 1929
Women in Air Derby will Receive Hearty Welcome in Phoenix.
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Lap prizes were presented to the five aviatrices with the fastest time between San Bernardino and Phoenix. Each of the participants in the race received a Navajo Indian “thunder bird,” good luck symbol which resembles greatly the aviator’s wings . . .
. . . Governor Phillips said: “We in Arizona are enjoying a period of great prosperity. Phoenix, perhaps, has enjoyed greater growth than any city in the United States during this period. This city and the valley are becoming world famous as a winter playground, and now tonight we become more famous because we are blessed by the visit of these angels. ………………. The prize winners in the heavy plane division were Mrs. Florence Lowe Barnes, first; Mrs. Louise McPhatridge Thaden, second; and Miss Gladys O’Donnell, third.
……….., , , As each passed along the steel fence, generous applause was given by the throng massed eight and 10 deep the full length of the barrier.
When the first group of 12 aviatrices had checked in at the field, most of them were escorted to the Hotel Westward Ho, where an entire floor had been placed at their disposal.
. . . Miss Earhart’s first words on throttling down her engine so she could be heard were praise for the sportsmanship of the other flyers, who used up practically all of their allotted time at Yuma, to wait for her while a new propeller was placed on her Lockheed Vega cabin plane.
Landing on the Yuma field, Miss Earhart had brought her ship almost to a stop when it struck a soft pile of sand and gently nosed over, bending the “prop.”
Excerpt from “Stories About the Hotel Westward Ho”
The Motorola plant in the photo is actually the one on McDowell in South Scottsdale.