AVIATION—100 YEARS AGO

AWHILE BACK, I BEGAN A CELEBRATION OF aviation’s Golden Age starting in the Roaring Twenties. See “Chronicle of Aviation,” SimanaitisSays, April 25, 2021; and “Aviation Highlights—A Century Ago,” April 5, 2022. What with one thing and another, then my aviation source book lay undisturbed on the shelf.

Partial responsible for this historical hiatus, I believe, was my time-gobbling hobby of GMax airplane construction, as described recently in “My Pearse Project,” October 8, 2026. In fact, I have a new/old aeroplane fresh on the to-do list, but it’ll be a while before its GMax completion (and SimanaitisSays appearance).

In the meantime, why not unshelf Chronicles and see what was happening back in 1926? Plenty, including an ominous abuse of the Treaty of Versailles, a famed aviator’s knowledge of military strategy being ignored, and another pilot finding a gig in an emerging industry.

The quotes following identify tidbits gleaned from Chronicle of Flight; my musings appear unadorned.

Training Military Pilots. Russia, January 1. “Germany and the USSR sign a top-secret agreement to open a military flight center at Lipetsk, 240 miles from Moscow, to enable the Germans to train military pilots in defiance of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.”

The Zeppelin-Staaken E-4/20 was another controversial aspect of the treaty.

Deutsche Luft Hansa Formed. Berlin, April 6. “Three months to the day after its creation from the merger of two competing German airline consortia, Deutscher Aero Lloyd and Junkers Liftverkehr, German national airline Deutsche Luft Hansa today made its first commercial flight.”

“Hansa” comes from the Hanseatic League which dominated maritime trade in the Baltic Sea area for hundreds of years, and is well regarded in Germany to this day, so says Wikipedia.

Bill Mitchell Resigns, Recommends Air Defense. Washington, D.C., February 1. “Secretary of War Dwight Davis accepts the resignation of ex-air chief Billy Mitchell from the U.S. Army Air Service.”

Washington, D.C., February 5. “Appearing as a civilian, Billy Mitchell urges the House Committee on Military Affairs to base a nation’s defense on airplanes rather than ships.”

Note, it wasn’t until 1949 when President Harry S Truman—with Congressional approval—changed the name to Department of Defense. Today’s pseudo-renaming/return to original came sans such legislative approval (as have so many other Trump/Hegseth signalings). [Ed.: A touchy word, that.]

Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, was to confirm, belatedly, Billy Mitchell’s wisdom. And “North American B-25 Mitchell—War Hero and Movie Star,” August 20, 2022, honors his memory.

See also “North to Alaska—By Aero,” another of my GMax projects. The canine passenger is historically correct.

Delivering the Mail—by Air. Saint Louis, Missouri, April 10. “Charles Lindberg becomes chief pilot for Robertson Aircraft Corp, flying a Saint Louis to Chicago mail route.”

USA, April 10. “Airmail delivery has become big business in the United States. The last Contract Air Mail, or CAM route, has just been sold.… CAM-1, covering the lucrative New York City to Boston route, was sold to William Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, and Juan Trippe, an ambitious young businessman.”

See also “Transpacific Air Locales,” May 31, 2015, for more on this “ambitious young businessman.” He’s also a major character in “The Aviator—Revisited, Recalled, With Mathematical Whimsy,” May 22, 2026.

“Western Air Express purchased the CAM-4 route linking Los Angeles, California, to Salt Lake City, Utah, with money provided by Harry Chandler, publisher of the Los Angeles Times.”

Minnesota, October 1. “Northwest Airways begins regular air mail flights between Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, using two rented open-cockpit biplanes.”

December 31. “Some of the CAM operators also carry passengers. However, should there be enough mail along the route to displace passengers, they must be prepared to leave the flight.”

See also “U.S. Airmail Tidbits,” June 29, 2023. And “Early Air Mail Snafus,” November 17, 2023.

Gee, no wonder I didn’t have time to dust off my Chronicles of Flight. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026