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| THE PRE-WWII YEARS
(1900-1940)
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| These Days in
Aviation History The Connecticut Aircraft Company was incorporated in 1913 by a group of New Haven businessmen specializing in dirigibles, although the business was general aircraft manufacture. The first U.S. Navy contract was won on June 1, 1915 for a 175-foot pressure airship, the DN-1. Then came World War I. The Connecticut Aircraft Company was suddenly very busy with contracts for the Army as well as the Navy. Twenty-one balloons and two B-class dirigibles were built for the Navy, and about 100 balloons were built for the Army. Unfortunately, as the war ended, so did the lucrative wartime contracts, and Connecticut Aircraft Company closed its doors in 1921. In the meantime, work was commencing on powered aircraft in many states. The faint stirrings of a Connecticut aviation industry began at New Britain in 1911. Nels J. Nelson built, flew, and sold several Curtiss-type airplanes between then and 1914, and several other engineers rushed to complete and popularize their own aircraft designs. But no one could surpass Nelson's construction, though they failed to acquire the government contracts that would have kept them afloat. |
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| Flying Fever Still, 'flying fever' had set in. A. Holland Forbes (yes, the Forbes, and a balloonist in his own right) organized the Aero Club of Connecticut and wrote the basic draft for the first aeronautical regulations in the United States. His proposal was passed by the Connecticut Legislature and signed into law by Governor Simeon Baldwin on June 8, 1911. Forbes was appointed Connecticut's first Commissioner of Aeronautics. Until this time, regulation of public transportation safety was virtually unheard of in America. The first bona fide air transportation in Connecticut began in 1922 on a field at Bethany. Harris Whittemore, Jr., upon completion of this wartime Air Service duty, took over the Eastern Malleable Iron Company, a family business. Himself a flyer, Whittemore bought the field at Bethany and named it Bethany Airport. Thus the "Bee Line" was born, and served as a local charter service. Then his big break came in 1925 with the Air Mail Act (Kelly Act), which allowed the U.S. Post Office Department to contract with civilian contractors to transport air mail. The Bethany Bee Line filed for the route from Newark to Hartford to Boston. But Eastern Air Transport, Inc. (Boston) had filed for the same route. An agreement was struck in which both companies would merge if either of them won the contract. The U.S. Post Office air mail contract (Contract Air Mail Route No. 1) was awarded to Colonial Air Lines on November 7, 1925 (Bee Line had been renamed Colonial Air Lines and reincorporated on May 8, 1924). Actual passenger service between New York City, Hartford, and Boston began in June 1928, and Colonial grew rapidly, establishing Colonial Western Airways and Canadian Colonial Airways. All three companies were held by Colonial Airways Corporation (AVCO), which in late 1929 became American Airways, now known as American Airlines. The AVCO Lycoming Stratford Division moved to the Sikorsky factory in Stratford in 1951, where they manufactured (at first) Wright Cyclone engines and later their own designs of turbine engines for helicopters and airplanes. AVCO Corporation moved to Greenwich in 1969. In the summer of 1925, the Pratt & Whitney Company was founded by Frederick B. Rentschler in Hartford. By the end of that year, the 9-cylinder Wasp, a superior air-cooled radial engine, had been designed. This highly successful aircraft engine was purchased by the Navy and swept (along with the larger Hornet) the aviation scene by 1928. Other Connecticut aircraft engine/parts manufacturers included Gustave Whitehead, Harriman Motor Company, and Trego Motors Corporation, as well as:
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| Neither Rain Nor Snow — Trumbull Delivers the Mail-The first air mail delivery took off from Trumbull Airport on May 19, 1938. Copyright © Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, CT |  |
| The Aero Club of New England was established in 1902. It is the oldest aeronautical club in existence in America and the second oldest in the world, and is affiliated as a chapter of the National Aeronautical Association, the United States national representative of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. The Aero Club of New England is a tax-exempt organization (as defined by Internal Revenue Service Code) and is dedicated to the celebration of aviation. You can visit them on the Web at: www.acone.org. |  |
| Eclipsing and Science over Southeastern
Connecticut New England has long been a center for scientific research and a mecca for academicians and educators. The year was 1925, January 24-25. The skies over Connecticut were cloudy, but this did not daunt scientists who, carried in 25 aircraft, rode above the cloud cover to view a total eclipse of the sun. Among them was the airship Los Angeles, which carried Naval Observatory scientists over Block Island (RI) to view this spectacle of nature. The Los Angeles, which was built by Zeppelin Co. (Germany) in 1924, earned its fame as the U.S. Navy's ZR-3, but was originally designated LZ-126 (i.e., it was the 126th ship designed by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin). The Los Angeles took 81 hours in its initial flight to the U.S., October 12-15, 1924, commanded by Zeppelin pioneer Dr. Hugo Eckener. In 1932, the airship was retired. |
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| Connecticut and the Growth in
Transportation In 1923, John A. Macdonald, newly appointed Commissioner of the Highway Department, put an increased emphasis on improving Connecticut's transportation system. In addition to improving and expanding existing state highway boundaries, attention was paid to roadside stabilization and beautification, giving rise to The Landscape Bureau, later known as the Bureau of Roadside Development. Modern highways were appearing; the old trolley rail systems were becoming a thing of the past. These years were also ones of change for aviation in Connecticut. The federal government, following Connecticut's 1911 lead, passed the Air Commerce Act of 1926, which established the Department of Congress Federal Aeronautics Branch (the Bureau of Air Commerce). Pilots and aircraft would now require certification, and the Branch worked to promote and develop more facilities for navigation, flight safety and training, and shared information. In 1938, Congress passed the Civil Aeronautics Act, and the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) took control of the airways two years later in 1940. Until then, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the State Police were in charge of enforcing Connecticut's aviation statutes. In 1927, the state legislature created the Department of Aeronautics to help carry out the initiatives of the new regulatory Commission of Aviation. This was the status quo until 1969, when the Department of Transportation was formed and began assuming those tasks. The Commission of Aviation was dissolved in the early 1970s, and Groton-New London (Trumbull) Airport was the first state airport established in 1929. Commissioned by the U.S. Department of Navy during World War II, the state resumed ownership of Groton-New London Airport in 1948. |
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  Early aerial photo of Trumbull Airport. Copyright © 1984 by Carol W. Kimball, The Poquonnock Bridge Story. |
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Ghost Stories!  You can see it from Groton-New London Airport,
standing in the Sound with its red-and-white brick veneer — New
London Ledge Lighthouse. Built in 1905, the lighthouse still
speaks with it's own unseen residents — so some say, at night, in
the dark, in the quiet. John 'Ernie' Randolph still walks there,
they say, mourning the events of the 1930s, when his wife ran off
with a captain of the Block Island Ferry who, on one of his daily
stops, picked up more than the mail. Ernie, distraught, slit his
own throat and jumped from the Ledge Light's summit to the rocks
below. The Coast Guard took over the lighthouse in 1939,
maintained it until 1987, and referred to it as "Ernie's domain."
Lighthouse keepers still report the eerie opening and closing of
the heavy lighthouse doors, the self-swabbing of the decks, and
the fog signal that has a habit of turning itself on and
off. |
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| Did
You Know 1792 — The first turnpike road company is incorporated, which runs from New London to Norwich. 1795 — The first U.S. insurance company is incorporated as the Mutual Assurance Company of the City of Norwich. 1796 — The Norwich Bulletin gets its start as the Courier. In 1860, the Courier merged with the Morning Bulletin, changing its name. The Norwich Bulletin's presses are still running to this day. 1895 — The first hamburgers in U.S. history were served in New Haven, Connecticut, at Louis' Lunch sandwich shop. Louis Lassen ran a small lunch wagon that sold steak sandwiches to local factory workers. But Louis was a thrifty guy. He didn't want to waste the excess beef from his daily lunch rush. So Louis ground it up, grilled it, and served it between two slices of bread. Voila! America's first hamburgers were born. 1868 — Connecticut allocates land at Groton to the U.S. Navy for a naval station. In future years, Groton becomes one of the most important U.S. naval centers and sub bases. 1900 — The first U.S. Navy submarine, the Holland, was constructed in Groton, Connecticut, by Electric Boat Company. 1901 — Hate those speeding tickets? The first U.S. state law regulating automobile speeds was passed in Connecticut in 1901. 1934 — Dr. Edwin H. Land of Bridgeport, Connecticut, develops the first Polaroid camera. |
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HOME • FLIGHTS • A SHORT FLIGHT THROUGH HISTORY
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