1911-1994 |
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Photograph from Edgar B. Smith's estate collection, submitted by his son, Donald M. Smith, holder of estate. e-mail at don@donmac.org |
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by his son Don Smith Now, where do I start ...... I remember when I was young, dad telling me some stories on his flying interest. I never followed up on it much. I remember my mother telling me that dad had crashed an aircraft once and the other person in the plane was killed. Dad never talked about it. My dad, Edgar B. Smith, died in May of 1994. In going through boxes and boxes of papers and etc. I am finding lots of very interesting things. Pictures, letters, and etc. When I had to drive to Texas, (I live in Western Washington State) in 1995 for my son's wedding, I stopped and visited a second cousin, Mr. Jack Murray. Jack was close to my dad and he told me some stories of dad. Jack worked as engineer in aircraft industry, one thing he told me of his own history, was he did the design work on the Corsair aircraft control system. (the gull wing WWII fighter) He told me that my dad had wanted to sell his airplane (in early 1930's) and this person was willing to trade a vehicle for the plane, but he wanted a ride first. Upon trying to land in a field, a farmer turned his tractor and was going across the landing strip at the same time, causing my dad to crash. So my dad lost his plane, and the car belonging, he thought, to the deceased, turns out to be a stolen automobile. Dad lost plane and car. How did Max Holtzem and my dad connect? When Max returned to the US from barn storming in Argentina in late 1920's, he settled in Newport, R.I. My dad quit school and became Max's mechanic. My dad was born in 1911 so he was most likely 16 or so at the time. While working for Max my dad was able to get Max to teach him to fly. I do not have much else on following years. I still have a lot of boxes to look through and read. I have my dad's pilot's license, flight record, and scull cap. Relatives have said that my dad and another person was responsible for starting the Newport Airport. I have never got that story straight and or correct. After his flying days, he went back to school Graduated from Oberlin Seminary, was a Missionary and Pastor for 45 years. I made contact with a person at U of Texas Dallas, and they have some records of Max. I sent them copies of pictures I have of dad and some aircraft and they sent me a dozen or so pages on Max, copies of his obituary, some personal letters, and etc. In my dad's pictures, there is one of him standing next the "Winnie Mae". I looked at pictures on Internet of Wiley Post and his "Winnie Mae" and not the same aircraft. In doing more research, I found out that there were 2 planes that Wiley Post flew. The one in the picture I have is the first one, and the one in most pictures of Post and Will Rogers is the second aircraft, the one he flew that crashed and death of the 2 gentlemen. I'll finish with kind of a sad note. Max went to work in late 1930's in Southern California and helped develop a WWII fighter. Our family moved to Southern California in 1956. Max and my dad's travels most likely crossed many times and they never knew how close they lived all those years. We today know due to the availability of information, history and personal, etc, all because of computers and the Internet. |
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Photograph from Edgar B. Smith's estate collection, submitted by his son, Donald M. Smith, holder of estate. |
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"Taken at the Cleveland Air Races and dated 1930." written by EBS Photograph from Edgar B. Smith's estate collection, submitted by his son, Donald M. Smith, holder of estate. February 15, 1931: The Detroit News launched its specially designed autogiro, the first of its kind used for news gathering, aerial photography and emergency distribution of papers. It had a four-bladed rotor mounted on a tripod above the body of a conventional airplane. It was powered by a 300-horsepower Wright engine and standard steel propeller. Those daring Detroit Newsmen in their flying machines. You may read the whole story by clicking on: Flying Machines |
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"Taken at the Cleveland Air Races and dated 1930. Flew a Travelair OX6 with Navy Nus" - written by EBS Photograph from Edgar B. Smith's estate collection, submitted by his son, Donald M. Smith, holder of estate. |
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Photograph from Edgar B. Smith's estate collection, submitted by his son, Donald M. Smith, holder of estate. |
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Photograph from Edgar B. Smith's estate collection, submitted by his son, Donald M. Smith, holder of estate. |
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If you have any more information on this Early Flier, please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper |