What you didn't know about Goodyear blimps in South Florida, always a WOW

 

Goodyear Blimp 1980
State Archives of Florida/Hastings

Goodyear Blimp Base
1500 NE 5th Ave., Pompano Beach, Fl 33060
Passenger rides no longer available except by invitation
Base tours only
954-946-8300

By Jane Feehan

Goodyear blimps have been capturing live sporting events for broadcasting long before drones. They’re still at it. These blimps also capture the attention of residents and visitors to South Florida. They seldom fail to stop conversations or to draw eyes upward as they majestically glide by.

Goodyear first built airships in 1917 for use in World War I. In 1919 after the conflict ended, the company started building their own for commercial interests. They launched the Pilgrim, Puritan, Volunteer, Mayflower, Vigilant, and Defender in the years that followed. Built at Wingfoot Lake, Ohio blimps were named after winners of America’s Cup, the international sailing race. This naming protocol was used until early 21^st century.

The company opened a blimp base on Watson Island in Miami in 1930, where it remained until 1978. The blimps cruising over Fort Lauderdale* flew from that base until Goodyear lost its lease (see link below about airship blimpcasting” over Fort Lauderdale in 1948). By 1978, they were known for covering Superbowl and Orange Bowl games and other events. Though Hollywood, Florida made a pitch for relocating the base to their city, Goodyear settled on Pompano Beach.

Pompano Beach “blimpmania” began in August 1979 when its City Commission approved the deal: $25,000 a year for a 30-year lease for 22 acres at their air park. Many hoped the ship would put Pompano Beach on the map and serve as goodwill ambassador for the city. The Pompano Beach Chamber of Commerce sponsored a parade and red-carpet welcome held November 9^th for the maiden voyage of Goodyear’s Enterprise. Mayor Emma Lou Olson christened the airship before thousands who gathered for the event. By November 28 rides were available to the public for $7.50 for adults and $5 for children under 12.

 A 45,000 square foot hangar was built to house the airship. Permanent administrative offices were dedicated in 1986. Enterprise was replaced in 2017 or 2018 by Wingfoot Two (named by Akron, Ohio native and wife of basketball great LeBron James, Savannah James).

About airship construction, movement and use

Today’s Goodyear airship models are not technically blimps. No longer bags of highly flammable hydrogen, their fleet is comprised of semi-rigid structures filled with helium and air. Pilot Tracey Lawford says today’s models fly with engines that swivel and use propellers. Control of the balance of helium and air pressure moves the craft through the air. “Today they are much easier to maneuver,” says Lawford. She also flies helicopters and says the craft ascends much the same as a helicopter. Wingfoot Two cruises 40-45 mph and is quieter than older airships.

Goodyear blimp tourists
in Miami 1960
State Archives of Florida/Hansen

Today’s mission for the Goodyear airships is primarily advertising but its Stars and Stripes was pulled into emergency service after the devastating Hurricane Andrew in 1992. It flashed signs about relief supply locations to storm survivors.

Lawford stresses the importance of the ground crew in the movement of Wingfoot Two. A retinue of 20 staff travels to events. It includes two trucks with one serving as a mechanic shop. Destinations are scoped out ahead of a temporary relocation to make sure the landing area is level and free from mud for a flight. Ground crews are instrumental in ship launch and landing.

Airships no longer leave Pompano Beach for six months a year as they used to. Travel is assignment-based after which they return home. There are three bases today: Carson, California, Wingfoot Lake in Ohio and Pompano Beach, Florida (one in Spring, Texas closed in 1992). These craft do not fly in the cold.

We don’t see them as much as we used to in Fort Lauderdale due to air traffic patterns of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, but when we do, there is always a sense of ... WOW!

 Thank you, Goodyear.

* About blimpcasting over Fort Lauderdale in 1948 - See index

About the Defender and Seminole passengers:- Use search box for "A cultural exchange"

About the Graf Zeppelin trip to Miami, use search box for "Celebrated Graf Zepplin lands ..."

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

 Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 16, 1979

Fort Lauderdale News July 10, 1979

Fort Lauderdale News July 11, 1979

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 8, 1979

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 2, 1979

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 9, 1979

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oct. 22, 2016

Fort Lauderdale News,  Jan. 19, 1986

Goodyear Blimp:

 Tags: Goodyear blimps, Goodyear blimp in Pompano Beach, Pompano Beach airpark

Arthur Burns "Pappy" Chalk and Chalk's Flying Service, once oldest in the world

Chalk's seaplane landing 1974
 State of Florida Archives

 

By Jane Feehan

The history of his eponymous airline is better known than the personal story of Arthur Burns “Pappy” Chalk. A look back at decades of articles, want ads and his obituary fills in some of the gaps in his background while raising contradictions. His choppy personal and career history suits a timeline presentation rather than a narrative format. The A.B. Chalk story—gaps and all—remains an interesting one.

1889 – Arthur Burns Chalk was born in Illinois. One Miami obituary claims wanderlust prompted him at 11-years old to move to Paducah, Kentucky. Wanderlust probably didn’t claim him. There were a few people named Chalk in Paducah at that time; some were elected officials. Someone he knew lived there, father or other relative maybe?

1911 – Chalk reportedly operated an automobile garage service in Paducah. He learned to fly after Tony Janus, a “dare devil” pilot, gave Chalk a flying lesson in return for a plane repair. Chalk “flew as an amateur” for five years.

1916 – Chalk moved to Miami – probably with his mother, “Mrs. E.J. Chalk,” and two sisters. They lived on NE 23^rd Street. Nothing was in the news about Chalk that year. Some accounts say he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I but returned after a short stint because of a “disability.” Wikipedia reports he flew for the Army Air Service.

1917 – A.B. Chalk’s name begins appearing in Miami newspapers. He informally launched his flying service in July that year at the end of Flagler Street “under an umbrella.” Columbian airline Avancia once claimed it was the oldest airline in the world, also established in 1917. Chalk’s by some accounts, began a few months earlier. (Some say KLM is now the oldest existing airline.)

1918 - Chalk had also been operating a garage for car repair as he launched flying service. A classified ad introduces his shop, a “first class auto repairing” service at 1508 Avenue D in Miami. It read:

Attention – Arthur B. Chalk, formerly foreman of the mechanical department of Dixie Highway Garage has bought the Seminole Garage at 1508 Avenue D. We announce a policy of efficient, careful attention to all makes of automobiles … free air and water can be obtained in front of the garage – no inconvenience of driving inside.

1918 – Another classified ad by Chalk offers a Cole 7-passenger (car), a bargain, phone 643

1919 – Chalk’s Flying Service begins “boat plane” flights between Miami and Bimini

1920 – Chalk moves his flying operation to Watson Island (near MacArthur Causeway) where his company remained until after his death. In the early days, he offered sightseeing flights for $5 and flying lessons for $15 an hour.

Chalk's Flying Service
       Watson Island circa 1920
State of Florida Archives

1920 – Automobiles became ubiquitous and provided Chalk a steady income through repairs and sales. He advertises cars and planes for sale at his now-named Royal Palm Garage on Avenue D:

One Curtis F Flying boat for $1,500. Includes flying instructions

One 1920 5-passenger Maxwell for $1,000

One 7-passenger Hudson with wire wheels for $2,000

1923, February – Chalk aborts his flying boat takeoff with two passengers after hitting a “porpoise” in Biscayne Bay. He delayed the flight to repair holes left in the pontoons after the incident.

1923, August – Chalk and a mechanic announce a plan via Miami news outlets to fly across the country to Seattle. On the itinerary is a stop in St. Louis to enter an international air race representing Miami. They discuss plans to remove pontoons from their flying boat and install landing gear. There is no other information on this trip or race in either Miami or St. Louis newspapers. Perhaps they had problems installing landing gear?

1924 – Chalk's Flying Service picks up movie director Alan Crosland in Nassau for a flight to Miami. His company gains notice. The airline grows its business by flying big game anglers to Bimini.

1928 – A piece appears in the Miami Herald about Chalk and “aviation enthusiast” J.R. Lilly of Chicago discovering a toothpick in the engine of a plane that crashed and killed its pilot off Melbourne Beach. They thought the toothpick was used to determine fuel flow and was mistakenly left in the engine. The news is noteworthy for two reasons: One that Chalk was known to the press (as referred to then) as an aviation expert and two, that he operated a school, Chalk’s School of Aviation off County Causeway (MacArthur Causeway).

1920-1933 – Prohibition years. Some sources report Chalk made money smuggling large hauls of alcohol to the U.S. from the Bahamas. This is not verified. His obituary reported long-time business partner Dean Franklin said Chalk made money during Prohibition, but it was from flying bootleggers to the Bahamas and at times, revenue agents on the hunt for bootleggers. (No comment.)

1932 – Chalk married Georgia native, Lillie Mae, who ran his business with an iron hand until her death in 1964. Her maiden name did not appear in local obituaries. She was known as “the energetic figure who ran the world’s smallest international air depot.”

1936 – Chalk and Lillie Mae built the airline’s office by hand with coral rock at Watson Island.

1966 – Chalk “sold the airline to a friend” but remained active in operations until 1975. He claimed his airfield was the smallest port of entry in the United States.

1977 – Arthur Burns “Pappy” Chalk fell out of a tree while attempting to trim branches. He died May 26 at age 88 of complications (broken hip) from the fall. He and Lillie Mae did not have children together but she had a son from an earlier marriage. They also helped raise two of Chalk’s nephews.

Chalk owned and operated his airline without fatalities for 50 years. Chalk’s was later bought by Resorts International who flew passengers to its hotel in the Bahamas. The airline was moved to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport for security reasons after September 11, 2001. A fatal accident occurred in 2005 and its license was revoked in 2007.

Note: Yes, that was a Chalk's seaplane in the opening scenes of the 1970s TV series, Miami Vice.

 Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami Herald, Sept. 6, 1918

Miami News, Oct. 7, 1918

Miami Herald, Oct. 29, 1918

Miami Herald, July 8, 1920

Miami News Feb. 9, 1923

Miami News, Aug. 23, 1923

Miami Daily News and Metropolis, May 24, 1924

Miami Herald, March 1, 1928

Miami News, June v10, 1964

Miami Herald, May 27, 1977

Miami News, May 26, 1977

Florida State Archives

Wikipedia

Tags: Miami airlines history, Chalk's Flying Service, Aviation history, Arthur Burns "Pappy" Chalk, Miami history

Aeromarine Airways launches flying boat service in 1920s: breakfast in Miami, lunch in Nassau, dinner in Palm Beach?

 

Flying boat used by Aeromarine in 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Flying boats. Flying luxury boats. That’s how Miami reporters described the new passenger planes of Aeromarine Airways in 1922.  One headline in the Miami Herald teased readers with the idea of “breakfast in Miami, luncheon in Nassau …. and dinner in Palm Beach.” The idea could be transformed into reality by the airline.

Described as “a Pullman on wings,” the planes offered writing and card tables, a bathroom and individual seats and windows.  Music was played from a radio to a loudspeaker in the cabin, which carried only 11 passengers. The planes, powered by two 400-H Liberty engines, were flown by two pilots and guided by one “radio man.”

A reporter described ascent from the water into the air as a swift, smooth glide to an altitude of 100-500 feet. Forty minutes later they viewed the clear waters (and large fish) of Bimini. After a 2.5-hour flight the flying boat landed in waters off Nassau, 187 miles from Miami.

Aeromarine Sightseeing and Navigation Company merged with Florida West Indies Airways (among the first to fly U.S. international passenger flights) in 1920 or 1921 (reports vary) to form Aeromarine Airways with a Miami office at 28 North Bayshore Drive. 

The new company acquired the old FWIA Key West to Havana mail route. Mail routes were contracted with and paid for by the United States Postal Service, providing most of the capital for the early passenger airline industry.  Aeromarine Airways’ maiden flight took place from Miami to Bimini in late 1920 or early 1921 (accounts vary) on the Christopher. 

The company's  fleet of 27 aircraft, manufactured in Keyport NJ, bore names of historic explorers or their ships (think Nina, Columbus, Santa Maria and Balboa). Aeromarine had flown much of the eastern seaboard area before the Florida initiative.

Flights were a hit with many in Florida, including a few in the movie/entertainment industry. The Miami News reported a film crew producing a movie for Paramount Studios took a trip from Miami to Nassau for the project. Another story featured an onboard party for a famous French dancer. It was probably the first time a chef whipped up and served a fancy inflight meal (excluding dirigible flights) for guests.

Cost? About $30-$80 a ticket depending on one way or roundtrip fare and whether to the Bahamas, Key West or to Havana. 

Company President Charles F. Redden and his colleagues proposed big plans for Aeromarine. They hoped for service between New York and Miami (only 20 hours!) and Miami and Havana. Redden visualized Miami as a “mammoth” transportation hub not unlike some in Europe. The company planned to build a flying boat with four engines for 26 passengers and a cabin twice the size as was in service. Not all came to fruition, but they did tout new technology that was deployed to enhance safety: a large signal kite equipped with a radio aerial that could expand the area to call for help in an emergency.

Though Aeromarine could boast about a stellar safety record before Florida, an accident occurred in the Florida Straits January 13, 1923. The Columbus experienced engine failure and crashed into the seas with 10 to 12-foot waves flooding the hull. Four people died; a ferry, the H.M. Flagler, rescued four or five including two pilots.

The accident, however, did not spell the end of Aeromarine Airways by 1924. The freeze or cancellation of their valuable mail route contracts did.  The name was not forgotten. Aeromarine West Indies was incorporated in Florida in  2007.

 Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami Herald, Dec. 2, 1920

Miami News, Dec. 14, 1922

The Herald, Dec. 31, 1922

Miami News, Jan. 15, 1923

Miami News, Jan. 30, 1923

Miami News, Jan. 31, 1923

Miami News, Feb. 12, 1923

Miami News, April 19, 1923

Miami News, Nov. 13, 1924

Miami Herald, Dec. 20, 1924

Miami News, June 22, 1925

Wikipedia

 Tags: Aviation history, Transportation history, Miami history, flying boats

Merle Fogg: Fort Lauderdale's first aviator a man of several firsts

Merle Fogg
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 

By Jane Feehan  

Fort Lauderdale’s first airport, Merle Fogg Field, opened on an abandoned golf course May 1, 1929 – a year after its namesake died in an air crash in West Palm Beach.

Several firsts are credited to Merle Fogg (1898-1928), Fort Lauderdale’s first aviator. He was the first licensed pilot in Maine, the first to fly a plane from Maine to Florida, the first to land a plane on Andros Island and on New Providence Island (Nassau).

With his airplane, Fogg helped create a snapshot of Broward County during good and bad times.  His flights over the county provided a picture of possibilities during the land boom days of the early 1920s. After the hurricane of 1926, Fogg flew reporters over its aftermath, giving them an opportunity to capture the extent of  the storm’s destruction.

On the day of the fatal crash, Fogg had invited 22-year-old Thomas Lochrie, son of Fort Lauderdale pioneer and president of Broward Bank and Trust Co.,  John Lochrie, on a ride to Miami to photograph the Shrine convention. When he returned to the hangar, student pilot C.S. Nelson invited them for a ride. Nelson was at the controls when the plane went into a tailspin and crashed. He survived with minor injuries; Fogg and Lochrie were killed.

A year later, the city of Fort Lauderdale converted Southside Golf Course into Merle Fogg Field. Fogg had long hoped the city would open an air field. The Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Station opened at the site during World War II and today, Merle Fogg Field is the site of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. 

Merle Fogg is buried in Bangor, Maine.

Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Weidling, Philip J. , Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966).

Fort Lauderdale News, May 7, 1978

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale's first aviator, Merle Fogg, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, film researcher, History of Fort Lauderdale

Celebrated Graf Zeppelin lands in Miami with big plans

Graf Zeppelin arriving at Opa-Locka naval base
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The German-built airship, the Graf Zeppelin, achieved world-wide celebrity status in 1928. It made the first commercial-passenger dirigible flight across the Atlantic, landing Oct. 15 that year in Lakehurst, New Jersey. It was also the largest one built up to that time—800 feet— and its commander, Dr. Hugo Eckener (1868-1954) was considered a leading expert in dirigible flight. In 1929 he successfully flew the airship around the world, chalking up another first.

Enthusiasm for commercial dirigible flight surged across the U.S. after the Graf Zeppelin’s trans-oceanic trip in 1928. The U.S. military was already using rigid-construction (frame) airships to support search and coastal operations but visions of passengers and goods traveling across the Atlantic fueled dreams of expanded commerce. According to news accounts, Miami officials, excited by the prospects of such travel, set aside hundreds of acres and spent $40,000 for a dirigible docking port at the Opa-Locka Naval Reserve Base, dedicating it Jan. 13, 1930. Some news sources claimed it was the only such port in the world municipally owned.

Miami officials were eager to see the Graf Zeppelin up close after the commander accepted their invitation to visit Miami. Dr. Eckener scheduled a trip from Friedrichshafen, Germany to Miami in 1933 before heading to Goodyear headquarters in Akron. Floridians were also caught up in airship fever. Seaboard Air Line advertised discounted two-day, round-trip rail service from Bartow, Winter Haven, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood to see the famous zeppelin in Opa-Locka.

On Oct. 23, 1933, the Graf Zeppelin, with its 98-foot gondola, coasted 1,000 feet over Miami. It was escorted by a plane to the Opa-Locka naval air station, where beefed-up security was deployed to guard the dirigible against possible violence. Protests were predicted (but did not occur) against the new German regime headed by Hitler who grabbed power in January 1933.

Commander Hugo Eckener was accompanied by a representative from the German Air Ministry, an editor from a French aeronautical magazine, Hearst reporter, Lady Grace-Drummond-Hay and a few private citizen passengers. Miami Mayor E.G. Sewell, Miami commissioners, Opa-Locka officials, and other notables, soon whisked the visitors to the McAllister Hotel and then to a luncheon at the Old Heidelberg restaurant.

Eckener told hosts about his plans to expand Graf Zeppelin’s trans-oceanic service: a route from Seville, Spain to Rio de Janeiro with a stop in Miami during the winter, and a summer route to Lakehurst or Washington, D.C. The commander thought the service could begin in two years. Dr. Eckener also hoped for service from the U.S. to Egypt via Europe.

The Graf Zeppelin, its crew and passengers departed Opa-Locka for Akron about 16 hours later. It proved to be a short visit with a long list of possibilities that did not come to fruition. Later, Eckener thought traveling across the Atlantic on a more southern route would be easier. The airship continued to operate but under clouds of pending war in Europe. Its nine-year successful run came to an end the day after the Hindenburg disaster May 6, 1937 in New Jersey when 36 died in its fire. In 1940, parts from the grounded Graf Zeppelin were taken for use in German war-bound winged aircraft.

Dr. Eckener, no fan of the Nazis (nor they of him) criticized the regime for cutting costs in operating dirigibles; he endorsed the use of helium rather than the explosive hydrogen in landings. Helium, a by-product of mined mineral gas, was controlled by the U.S. starting in 1925; regulation drove up its costs. The German government opted for use of the cheaper hydrogen. Some experts later surmised a spark ignited hydrogen, causing the devasting Hindenburg fire that occurred just 200 feet above ground. The Hindenburg disaster spelled doom for dirigible flight. Airplane travel was about to take over, further diminishing prospects for such ships as the Graf Zeppelin.

The L-27 Graf Zeppelin, the one that stopped in Miami, proved to be the most successful of zeppelins. It made 590 flights, racked up more than a million miles and carried more than 34,000 passengers without a single injury. It also conducted one scientific mission to the North Pole.

Between 1912-1930, there were 13 airship flights (NOT the Graf Zeppelin) involving 275 fatalities. There were more fatal accidents both before and after that time span; a comprehensive list is difficult to find. In spite of safety concerns, the glamour of dirigible flying was never matched by the more efficient common carrier airplanes, the flying buses that replaced them.

Copyright © 2021, 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Oct. 11, 1928

Miami News, Oct. 16, 1928

Miami News, Jan. 13, 1930

Miami News, April 4, 1933

Miami News, Sept. 28, 1933

Miami News, Oct. 21, 1933

Miami News, Oct 23, 1933

Airships.net

Tags: Miami history, Opa-Locka, dirigibles, Graf Zeppelin, Jane Feehan, dirigibles, air travel, aviation history 

Why Fort Lauderdale was the last major city in Florida to get northern air service

By Jane Feehan

Once a nine-hole golf course, then the Merle L. Fogg Air Field in the 1920s and the Naval Air Station in the 1940s, today’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport ranks as one of the top 25 busiest airports in the United States. Its growth parallels that of South Florida from a winter season vacation destination to one of the most desirable places in the country to live and play year round.

Significant commercial activity came to the field after Broward County commissioners leased the airport back from the Navy in a series of temporary agreements commencing in 1948. A ten-year lease was signed between the two parties in 1949 but the county assumed formal ownership in 1953 and operated it as the Broward County Airport (some sources named it Broward County International Airport).

Non-stop flight service from the North to South Florida began in the 1950s, but the routes were to Miami. Routes were denied Broward County Airport because it was considered too close to its sister city.

Travelers took Greyhound limousine service from the Miami airport to Fort Lauderdale and other cities. But the 1,200-acre Broward airport, one third the size of Miami’s, had a lot going for it. It was the only airport adjacent to U.S. Highway 1, a major traffic artery, and it sat four miles south of downtown Fort Lauderdale.* 

Also, it was poised to serve the fastest growing city in the state; the number of Fort Lauderdale residents doubled from 1950 to 1955, which outpaced Miami’s growth. By the late 1950s, this ocean side city was the last major city in Florida to obtain air service from the North.

The first major carrier to fly to Fort Lauderdale was Northeast Airlines. Service began in December, 1958 with one flight a day from Idlewild (now JFK) that left at 10 a.m. and arrived four hours and 35 minutes later. Return service left Fort Lauderdale at 4:30 p.m.  Soon after, flights were scheduled from Washington, D.C., Boston and Philadelphia.

 

Prior to 1958, the airport handled 400 landings and take offs a day but traffic consisted of cubs, Convairs, private and executive planes. To modernize the facility and accommodate northern service with larger aircraft and ancillary traffic, Broward County Airport (renamed Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 1959) lengthened its four air strips from 5,000 to about 6,000 feet, and paved taxi ways, aprons and access roads (yes, it was that primitive).  The new $340,000 terminal featured a self-service baggage area, "which eliminated the need for tipping," and a U.S. customs section with a check out station similar to those in supermarkets. Modern indeed.

National, Delta, Eastern, and Northwest Orient airlines followed with service to Fort Lauderdale during the next two years. Also operating were the smaller Mackey International Airlines, Bahamas Airways, and Aerovias Q servicing Cuba and its Isle of Pines.  

Customers lined up for Fort Lauderdale winter hotel packages that started at about $68 per person, double occupancy, for six nights, seven days.  Little wonder air traffic to this city grew 178 percent from 1958 to 1959. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

  

*At one time in the 1960s, Broward County considered proposals for an airport at U.S. 27 and State Road 84, but that’s another story.

Sources:

Miami News, April 25, 1950

The New York Times, Jan. 18, 1959

The New York Times, Nov. 6, 1960

Broward.org

USATravel

Tags: Fort Lauderdale airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Florida aviation history, Fort Lauderdale history 

Mackey Airlines, its colorful founder ... and Fort Lauderdale

Mackey 1972 destinations -
 Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s Mackey Airlines played a leading role in the South Florida aviation scene from 1946 when it was established as Mackey Air Transport, a charter airline, to 1967 when it merged with Eastern Airlines.  

Founder Joseph Creighton Mackey started up four airlines, including Mackey International operating 1969-1981. His life and career resembles a film script.

Convair CV-240 -
one type flown by Mackey Air

Mackey (1909-1982) was known as a circus barnstormer or aerial stuntman before he served in the USAF during World War II, reaching rank of colonel. Before the U.S. entered the fighting, Mackey was recruited as a ferry pilot for the Canadian war effort. In 1941 he was pilot and sole survivor of an air crash in Newfoundland. Three died on their way to England Feb. 21, including 49-year-old Dr. Sir Frederick Grant Banting who co-discovered insulin as a treatment for diabetes.

In 1943, Colonel Mackey served as commander of the First Foreign Transport Group that flew for the Fireball Express, touted then as the world’s longest, fastest air freight line. Mackey and crew operated four-engine giant C-54 transport planes from Miami to India. The  Fireball Express crew told Miami News reporters that they made the 28,000-mile round trip in “as quickly as six days, 10 hours and 15 minutes.” One year after the freight line started, it logged nearly 7,000,000 miles with only two fatalities.

After the war, Mackey returned to Fort Lauderdale where he had lived on Sunset Drive since 1937. He launched Mackey Air Transport in 1946 (it transitioned to Mackey Airlines in 1953) with routes from Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach to the Caribbean and Cuba.  His Fort Lauderdale-based air carrier became one of only three in the U.S., including Pan Am, to earn a government certification as an International Airline.

After Eastern Airlines bought Mackey routes in 1967 for $19 million, the colonel started up Mackey International Airlines (1969). Its Fort Lauderdale headquarters was bombed in 1977 by a Cuban exile group who objected to Mackey’s vice president meeting with the Cuban government to re-establish air routes. As a result, the airline withdrew from negotiations. Mackey International Airlines closed its doors in 1981.

Joseph Mackey was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame six months before he died at his Flamingo Road home near Davie in 1982. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For a post about Fort Lauderdale's first aviator, Merle Fogg,  see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/12/merle-fogg-fort-lauderdales-first.html

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 15, 1982

Miami News, Nov. 12, 1944

Miami News, Feb. 25, 1941

http://www.historynet.com/erroll-boyd-world-war-i-combat-pilot-and-aviation-daredevil.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Arx_Fortis/Mackey#cite_note-0

       

Tags: Fort Lauderdale aviators, Fort Lauderdale history, Florida airlines, Joseph Creighton Mackey, Mackey Airlines, film researcher

Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum: a salute to the missing of Flight 19 and ...

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 6, 1945; newspaper displayed at Naval Air Station
 Thirteen more airmen were lost in a search for
the missing squadron

Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum

4000 West Perimeter Rd., Fort Lauderdale, 33315

www.nasflmuseum.com

Open Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 11:30 am to 3:30 pm - CALL FIRST
Staffed by volunteers - call first

(754) 300-9259 or (954) 359-4400 

By Jane Feehan

There’s a slice of World War II military history sitting near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that draws visitors from around the world. They pay homage to those who trained here, including President George H. W. Bush, and to the 27 men of the Lost Squadron or mysterious Flight 19 and its rescue plane.

The Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum houses the Link Trainer Building #8, which was added to the National Register of Historical Places May 20, 1998. Navy vet Allan McElhiney, who served on the US Asheville in Port Everglades during World War II, founded the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Historical Association in 1979. The group saved the landmark building, so called after the Link Trainer, a flight simulator widely used in WWII. 

Broward County Property Appraiser at the time, Lori Parrish, took interest in the NAS and was instrumental in finding a Department of Transportation grant to move Building #8, the remaining building of the WWII campus, in 1999, to its present location off Perimeter Road. The move saved the structure from demolition, paving the way for creation of the museum.

The building was one of more than 200 constructed at the site to serve as a training center, part of

Work order for building #8

the Navy Air Operational Training Command, specializing in TBM/TBF Avenger aircraft. U.S. Navy and marine personnel as well as some of the British Royal Navy graduated from the facility. Nearly 1,700 pilots and thousands of air crewmen passed through this NAS, one of 257 across the nation at that time.

Broward County turned over the old Merle Fogg Airport to the military shortly after Pearl Harbor (1941). The training facility was built in early 1942 for about $6 million. It was expected to be used for five years. The NAS was decommissioned in 1946 and turned back over to the county in 1947.

 

Nineteen year-old Ensign George H.W. Bush trained at the NAS in 1943. His instructor was Thomas “Tex” Ellison, uncle of Jim Naugle, Fort Lauderdale’s mayor 1991-2009. A recreation of Bush’s room is featured in the museum.

The museum also serves as memorial to the men who went missing on the mysterious Flight 19. On Dec. 5, 1945, at 2 p.m., five TBM Avengers carrying 14 crew set out on a routine training mission over the Atlantic near Bimini. Ninety minutes later, flight leader Lt. Charles C. Taylor made the first of several radio transmissions to the NAS reporting that he and the other four planes were lost. When nothing more was heard from the flight several hours later, a PBM Mariner flying boat with 13 on board was sent to look for Flight 19. It too, was lost. A five-day search in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico failed to yield any clues to the disappearance of the 27 men, igniting the Bermuda Triangle controversy. The navy closed its investigation into Flight 19 citing loss of fuel in bad weather. Since then, the incident remains a tantalizing mystery.

Replicas of the missing planes are on exhibit as well as more than one hundred handmade 

Replicas of the Lost Squadron plus its missing
rescue plane

models of different aircraft. Also displayed:  a Link Trainer, uniforms of the period, documents, books, photographs, personal memorabilia, and paintings by late artist Bob Jenny. Outside the museum sits two torpedoes, a 3-inch gun from a WWI ship and Hedgehog.

A Link Trainer (flight simulator)

In 1992, before the museum was established, President George H.W. Bush visited Building #15 (since destroyed) where he lived as an ensign and signed several Bob Jenny paintings, one a 27-foot mural now at the Link Trainer Building #8.

WWII vets and a few relatives of the lost crewmen of Flight 19 visit the NASFL Museum as well as donate diaries, artifacts and other memorabilia to be placed on display or archived. Visitors also include those who appreciate the role played by the NASFL during WWII and in Broward County’s history.  Many who trained at NASFL returned after the war to make Fort Lauderdale their home, contributing to the explosive growth of the city in the 1950s.

The NASFL played an important part not only in the city’s history but also in the readiness of the nation during WWII. The navy was hesitant in giving the training station up in 1947 and in fact, ordered it re-activated the same year. The order was soon rescinded. The navy said they had been reluctant to turn the NASFL back over to Broward County “because of the uncertainty of future military requirements together with the important position the Fort Lauderdale station occupies in the navy’s mobilization and readiness plans.”

Today, the NASFL Museum retains an “important position” in recognition of the area’s contribution to the war effort and serves as a salute to those who gave their lives in that conflict. 

Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, April 20, 1943

Miami News, April 30, 1947

Miami News, Dec. 8, 1948

Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Dec. 19, 1985

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale during WWII, Flight 19, Link Trainer, Fort Lauderdale history, About Fort Lauderdale

Flying Clipper service: Only six days from Miami to Buenos Aires

Pan Am flight routes 1936

By Jane Feehan

For those who bemoan flights today over the Atlantic to reach Europe or parts of South America in mere hours, note this:  the world was abuzz in the 1930s about Pan American Airlines Flying Clipper ships that took six days instead of eight to reach Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After test flights from California to Hawaii, Pan Am initiated air mail and passenger service Oct. 31, 1935 from Miami to Buenos Aires on Sikorsky S-42 “flying boats.” It was a trip with a route 3,200 miles east and 3,000 miles south of Miami.  The schedule would have dismayed today’s flyer.

Sikorsky S-42 (Library of Congress)

The plane would leave from Dinner Key in Miami at 8 a.m., arriving in Port Au Prince, Haiti for lunch. From there the Flying Clipper would fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in time for dinner followed by an overnight stay. The next morning the plane would travel to St. Thomas, St. Johns, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Trinidad.  The third day would be a flight from Trinidad, across the Guyanas (southeast of Venezuela) to the mouth of the Amazon. On the fourth day, the clipper would go around the “hump of Brazil” to Recife, the eastern most point of South America, only 1,600 miles from the African Coast. Flight on the fifth day was from Recife to Rio de Janeiro. On the sixth and final day, passengers could expect to reach Buenos Aires after crossing Uruguay.

Pan Am’s Flying Clipper fleet also included the Martin M-130, built in Baltimore, MD. The airline captured headlines during those years for their first class, white glove service to Ireland and Europe. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president to fly abroad in 1943 on another Pan Am plane, the Dixie Clipper.  Flying Clippers were pressed into military service by 1942, ending a colorful chapter of flying history. They really moved their tails …

Sources:

Miami News, Oct 27, 1935

Bramson, Seth H.  Miami, the Magic City. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing (2007).

Photos from public domain

Tags: Miami airlines history, Miami history, flying clippers, Sikorsky S-42,  Pan Am