Postcard History

HUGE CROWDS POUR INTO PHOENIX TO SEE THE MAN-BIRDS FLY,” blared headlines in the February 10, 1910, edition of the Phoenix Gazette. The occasion was the country’s second aero meet, following soon after aviators had converged on Los Angeles for the first meet a month earlier. At the time, powered flight was still a novelty, if not a miracle, to most Americans.

The Wright brothers had first flown at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, but few people had personally witnessed powered aviation prior to 1909. Arizonans, along with people around the world, quickly developed a passionate interest in flying machines and in the men who made and operated them.¹ Participation and attendance at early aviation events reflected this widespread enthusiasm.

In August 1909, more than two dozen pilots competed for speed, endurance, and distance at the world’s first International Aviation Cup meet in Rheims, France. Almost a half million spectators witnessed an unknown American, Glenn Curtiss, beat out the favored French flyers to win the prestigious Gordon Bennett Cup.

During the Hudson-Fulton celebration the following October, over a million New Yorkers watched Wilbur Wright circle the Statue of Liberty in his first public flight. New speed and cross-country distance records were set and broken at a rapid pace, with each new record emblazoned in front-page headlines around the world.²

Experimentation, along with the number of successful flights, boomed in the half-decade following the Wright brothers’ pioneering achievement. Viewing airplane manufacture as a profitable business, several entrepreneurs-including the Wrights, Curtiss, and other bicyclists and amateur mechanics-began production.

The government’s call in 1907 for bids to purchase the first military airplane heralded the start of a huge potential aviation market and fanned further interest in flying machines. Unfortunately, the first military prototype aircraft produced by the Wright brothers, crashed after a few months of successful flight, resulting in the first aviation fatality, a passenger, and seriously injuring pilot Wilbur.

Nevertheless, the general environment of danger and excitement fostered a breed of aeroplane daredevils who traveled around the country demonstrating aerial feats, thrilling crowds, and occasionally transporting wealthy “locals” aloft.³

The first exposure to aviation in Arizona came in the guise of traveling “aeronauts,” who went from town to town with dirigibles or balloons. For example, aeronaut Roy Knabenshue appeared with his dirigible at the 1908 Arizona Territorial Fair.

The following year, Otha O’Dell offered balloon trips to wealthy and adventurous fairgoers, while also providing a new forum for local advertising on its wicker basket. Capitalizing on local interest, merchants featured balloons in the background of their advertisements in both Phoenix newspapers.⁴

In an intriguing sidebar story of early aviation in Arizona, Gates Fowler displayed his home-made glider – the “Desert Eagle”- as a late entry in the crafts exhibit at the 1909 fair. On the closing day, Fowler hauled his primitive craft outside, attached it to an automobile, and flew it at a height of four feet as it was towed around the racetrack. Surprisingly few people witnessed the territory’s first aeroplane flight, and the historic event received only a brief notice in the following day’s newspaper.

Public interest in aviation was sufficient for the Gazette to devote several column inches to Knabenshue’s tentative promise to bring a “Wright aeroplane” to Phoenix for the 1910 Territorial Fair.⁵

Los Angeles planned and executed the first major air show in America at Dominguez Field in Los Angeles County from January 10 -20, 1910. The event drew over 40 lighter than air and powered aircraft including entrants from across America (including four from Arizona), and four French flyers. The event drew almost a quarter million attendees. Several entrants expressed interest in traveling the next month to participate in the next Aero Meet.

As the first decade of the 20^th century ended, Phoenix was growing rapidly as local businessmen were aggressively promoting the Salt River Valley in central Arizona. Local boosters viewed an aviation meet following the Los Angeles event and aerial competition as a wonderful promotional opportunity and as a splendid enticement for California visitors and investors to visit Phoenix. Local businessman H. I. Latham traveled to Los Angeles, where he met with the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association, and the Jobbers’ Association to coordinate a businessmen’s excursion to Phoenix for the planned aero meet.

The Arizona Republican optimistically hoped that Latham “will be able to bring a large delegation of the Los Angeles businessmen here, not only for the added success of the meeting, but for the commercial and developing benefits that will follow a closer acquaintanceship between the two cities.”⁶ Although the businessman’s excursion was abruptly cancelled a few days later, interest in the Phoenix Aero Meet rapidly grew.

On February 3^rd, a week before the event in Arizona was scheduled to occur, the Gazette touted the Phoenix Aero Meet as a subject worthy of worldwide publicity. The American Press Association solicited photographs of planes in flight from the Los Angeles meet, which it intended to distribute to help promote the Phoenix event. The only cost, the newspaper noted, would be $30-$50 to have the photographs taken. An enormous potential audience was predicted. “Most of the aviation cuts [photographs],” the Gazette reminded its readers, “are run as front-page stuff.”

Planning and preparation for the Phoenix Aero Meet involved a coordinating broad range of logistics, services, and accommodations. The Aero Committee established an “aviation center” to assist visitors with room reservations and local travel arrangements during their stay in Phoenix. Residents were encouraged to make space available to the anticipated large crowds of spectators and listings of potential rooms for rent were compiled. Although the committee advised travelers “to write or call for reservations,” it assured anyone who might be concerned “that Phoenix was working to make sure that all who come will be accommodated.”⁷

Dignitaries, of course, received deluxe treatment. The Aero Committee extended special invitations to notables throughout the Arizona territory, including Governor Richard Sloan. Private boxes went on sale on Tuesday, February 8^th, at aviation headquarters. Each ticket cost $18, and subscribers had to be present to claim their box. The tickets sold out quickly. The following day, on February 9^th, the Phoenix newspapers listed the names of all fifty-two box holders for the meet.

Phoenix’s preoccupation with the Aero Meet was evident everywhere. Sales and promotional materials revolved around images of flight, and many store advertisements incorporated aeroplanes in their backgrounds. The Miller-Sterling Company invited attendees to “Kodak the Flying Events” with one of its cameras, while Paslap and Herman enticed patrons to “Aviate to Cow Ranch Restaurant.”

The H. A. Diehl Shoe Company sponsored a contest inviting boys under seventeen to build model flying machines, offering “five dollars in gold” to the winner and a three-dollar pair of shoes to the runner-up.⁸

The Aero Meet generated a holiday atmosphere, with local businesses announcing that they would close during the event. Educators were caught up in the excitement as well. Classes at public elementary schools would be suspended all day on February 11^th, and high schools and the Normal School in Tempe would be closed for half a day, so that students could experience the wonders of the new machines.⁹

By February 1^st, daily reports of flyers who would be participating in the upcoming Aero Meet dominated the front pages of both Phoenix newspapers. The list of invitees read like a “Whos Who” of the aviation world, including the Wright brothers, Glenn Curtiss, Louis Paulman, Charles Hamilton, and Charles Willard.

Unfortunately, several of the best-known aeronauts were unable to attend. On February 6^th, the Wrights sent their regrets, explaining that none of their planes were in condition to fly. Louis Paulman, the famous French aviator, declined after he was slightly injured, and his plane demolished when it hit a fence during takeoff wile in Denver.

Glenn Curtiss, who had become world famous after winning the Gordon Bennett Cup in Rheims, committed to bringing two planes to Phoenix. Word arrived on February 9^th, however, that a court injunction tied to legal action by the Wright brothers would keep Curtiss himself from attending the meet.¹⁰ An Egyptian aviation meet scheduled for late February drew most of the major European flyers.

End of Part I … Part II continues
on Thursday, September 12^th.