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Monday, March 26, 2012

Airports in the Oil Patch Are Booming -- Carpe Diem

Link here.

The article also mentions Stinson Municipal airport. This airport has a fascinating history.

Historical data points (see link) regarding Stinson Municipal Airport on south side of San Antonio, or rather the founder of the airport:
  • Katherine Stinson, born 12 years before Wright brothers made historic first flight
  • wanted to become a piano teacher; needed money to study in Europe
  • took up stunt flying to earn money
  • learned to fly in four hours
  • learned stunt flying under Max Lillie of Chicago
  • fourth American woman to earn a pilot's license (1912)
  • ;gave up plans to teach music; barnstormed across the country
  • mother and Katherine found Stinson Aviation Company in Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1913
  • move to San Antonio, 1913
  • US Army allowed her to turn Ft Sam Houston parade grounds into flying field
  • established Stinson School of Flying
  • first woman and fourth pilot in US to perform the particularly dangerous loop-the-loop; in a plane she built herself
  • first person (of either sex) to fly an airplane at night
  • 1915: first person to skywrite at night: spelled out "CAL" over Los Angeles
  • 1916: Amelia Earhart graduated from her flying school
  • first woman to fly in the Orient; "Air Queen" fan clubs throughout Asia
  • China leaders were granted a private exhibition
  • 1917: set long-distance record of 610 miles, flying alone from San Diego to San Francisco
  • first woman pilot to be commissioned as a US Post Office mail pilot
  • broke her own flying record while carrying airmail: 783-mile flight from Chicago to near NYC
  • applied to fly for US Army in WWI; rejected because she was a woman
  • volunteered as an ambulance driver instead for WWI; contracted tuberculosis during the war
  • sought tuberculosis cure in Santa Fe, New Mexico, upon return; required less active live
  • designed apartments in Santa Fe; influenced by Pueblo Indians and Spanish missions
  • one of "my heroes"

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