TEXAS AVIATION
&
AVIATORS

Lt. Clyde Cosper

Early Aviation was Exciting and Dangerous 4-1-23

Those Crazy Flying Machines by Michael Barr

The Cowboy Who Became the Father of British Aviation by Clay Coppedge

Wrong Way Corrigan by Clay Coppedge

Airborne after 52 years on the road by Mike Cox
To showcase Cowtown as the commercial capital of West Texas and potential air travel hub, civic leaders -- including colorful Fort Worth Star-Telegram publisher Amon Carter -- organized the aeronautical equivalent of a whistle-stop tour of West Texas in 1928.

Elm Mott's Eccentric Airman by Michael Barr
W. D. Custead

First (official) flight over Texas by Clay Coppedge

The Makers by Mike Cox
R.C. and L.C. Maker, brothers who helped win the war without ever firing a turret gun, dropping a bomb or evading anti-aircraft fire.

Pine Springs - Airmen Memorial Marker

Neil Poem by David Knape

Combat Over Texas by Dan Heaton
America’s First Combat Sortie Took Place April 20, 1915, in Brownsville, Texas.
Aviation pioneers Byron Q. Jones & Thomas D. Milling

1943 Secret Storm by Wanda Orton
Col. Joe Duckworth made the first flight into the eye of a hurricane.

Dirigible Over Texas, U.S.S. Shenandoah by Mike Cox
The big blimp's over Texas, and Charles Emory Rosenthal

The Misadventures of Wrong-Way Corrigan by Maggie Van Ostrand
Famed Douglas Corrigan tried for years to get permission to fly from New York to Dublin. "No," said aviation officials, "it's not safe..., we give you permission to fly from New York to California." Corrigan finally took off in heavy fog.... 28 hours later, he arrived in Dublin. Corrigan claimed it was a "navigational error." Whatever it was, he got to his dream destination and didn't even mind it when newspapers dubbed him "Wrong-Way Corrigan"...

Slats Rodgers by Clay Coppedge
A key part of the Slats Rodgers story is that he was the first man in Texas to receive a pilot’s license and the first one to have his pilot’s license revoked. Not only is that what they call an ironic twist to the story, it seems to sum up the man and his checkered career pretty well. He also built the first airplane in Texas in 1911, nine years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight...

Landing a B-17 by Bob Bowman
A day in the 1940s when the pilot of a B-17 plane ran out of gas and decided to land on a dirt road at the McQueen farm at Keltys, a sawmill town near Lufkin...

Vin Fiz Flyer by Clay Coppedge
One of the first great aviation events in Texas was the arrival of a flying contraption known as the Vin Fiz Flyer, which landed in Fort Worth on Oct. 17, 1911 as part of what became the first Atlantic-to Pacific airplane flight.

Agricultural Aircraft and Leland Snow by Ken Rudine
In 1951 a Texan named Leland Snow in Harlingen began designing an airplane for the purpose of aerial applications on crops...

Pyote Air Force Station, AKA "Rattlesnake Bomber Base"

Lindberghs Land at Spearman - Historical Marker

First to Fly by C. F. Eckhardt
So far as is known, the first man-carrying, heavier-than-air craft—the first airplane—flew not at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903, nor in East Texas the year before. Nor did it fly in California in the 1880s, though apparently a steam-powered monoplane was flown there then. It flew in Gillespie County, Texas—in 1866. Enter Jacob Brodbeck—genius...

Pope's Flying Machine by Mike Cox
Readers of the March 2, 1895 edition of the weekly Eagle Pass Guide surely paused over this short back-page headline: “New Flying Machine.”...

Pan-Am and the Valley by Mike Cox
The March 8, 1929 opening of Brownsville Airport, Charles “Lucky” Lindbergh , the beginning of international air mail service in the U.S., the “Lost Mail Flight,” Amelia Earhart, Ford tri-motor plane .....

Lindbergh by Mike Cox
Had it played out differently, what happened in Real County in 1924 could have changed aviation history...

Patrolling the Mexican Border by Air
Government and Private Enterprise Working Together
Cruse Aviation in the late 40s and early 50s
by John Troesser, Photos courtesy Cruse Aviation

Air Pioneer by Bob Bowman
In 1921 she became the only black pilot in the world. A year later she became the first black woman to fly over American soil.

Braniff International by Archie P. McDonald
"Long before American Airlines moved to Dallas or Continental dominated Houston, Braniff flew the skies over Texas."

The Ezekiel Airship by Bob Bowman
In late 1902, at least a year before the Wright brothers soared into the sky, an airplane designed by Rev. Burrell Cannon was flown 160 feet at Pittsburg.

The First Air Flight by Bob Bowman

1st Lt. Loye James Lauraine, Jr. by Murray Montgomery
"He was young, only 26 years old..... 1st Lt. Loye James Lauraine, Jr. made the ultimate sacrifice during World War II. He was a hero and was posthumously awarded this nation's second highest honor, the Distinguished Service Cross. ....." (1 photo)

Flying Tigers by Archie P. McDonald

Ira Eaker: From Covered Wagon to Jet-Age Air Power, Four Stars by Bill Bradfield
"During dark days of World War II when the bitter war was far from won, it was a Texas tenant farmer's son who took command of the U.S. Eighth Air Force in England, playing a key role in making the Normandy invasion possible. ..... "

Cornelia Clark Fort

Lt. Clyde "Sparky" Cosper by John Troesser
B-17 Pilot, 367th Bomber Group, Hometown: Dodd City, Texas
"A B-17 crashed near the town of Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, England on November 13, 1943. The only thing that prevented the plane from landing directly on the town, was the Herculean effort of the man at the controls....." (4 vintage photos)

Merrion Higginbotham, Thunderbolt and Mustang Pilot

Robert "Bobby" Stephens, WWII P-47 Thunderbolt Pilot, Gilmer, Texas

Two Pilots, Three Air Forces, One Hometown:
Lt. Col. Alvin Mueller & Lieutenant Dick Campbell by John Troesser

Wiley Post - famous aviator

Marfa Army Air Field

Still Boring Holes in the Sky by Ken Rudine
B-17 and B-24 bombers

A Mushed Landing in Leona