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CHAPTER 1 "The Impossible Dream" Man's first successful attempt to fly was from a balloon. A short history of balloon flight is concluded with a landing in a farm field near Dover, the Capital City, in 1907. This was followed by the first heavier-than-air flight with a Delaware-built airplane in 1910 by Robie Seidelinger. |
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CHAPTER 2 "World War I (1914 - 1918)" Delaware played a major role in World War I by making gunpowder for the military. However, what is little known is A. Felix du Pont and John Rascob founded an aviation school that trained pilots for the air service.There was no tuition provided the graduate would sign up for the Air Service prior to instruction. |
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CHAPTER 3 "Atlantic Aviation Corp." H.B. duPont took his first airplane ride as a youngster in a Curtiss Jenny. Although H.B. would rise to the top of the duPont-owned Empire, his love of aviation would go down in history. He flew his Buhl Airster from his private airfield, known as the duPont Airfield as early as 1924. From this point he expanded to what is now the largest general aviation facility in North America, Atlantic Aviation. |
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CHAPTER 4 "Government and Aviation" Government played a major role in regulating aviation when pilots died in attempts to complete death-defying stunts for the public. Two early pull-out maps show the airfields throughout Delaware in 1932 and 1947. |
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CHAPTER 5 "Bellanca" Giuseppe Mario Bellanca's complete life story is documented in this chapter. The majority of the photos in this chapter have never before been published. The true story of Bellanca, the WBII Columbia, and the Lindbergh connection is told. And for the first time, the move by Bellanca from Staten Island to Delaware in 1927 is documented. |
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CHAPTER 6 "All American Aviation" The contributions to aviation by All American Aviation are countless. From an idea in 1938, Richard C. du Pont started the first successful U.S. AirMail pickup system throughout the treacherous Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. This grew into what is now one of our largest air carrier operations, USAIR. Richard was also an idol and friend of Hawley Bowlus, the hands-on foreman who built Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and later the Bowlus/DuPont record-breaking Albatross Sailplane. |
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CHAPTER 7 "Three for Delaware" The winds of war in 1940 caused great concern for our nation's future safety. In an effort to protect our Coast, the CAA funded the development of three major airports in Delaware, one in each county. They were initially conceived as civil air terminals. However, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps took them over. After the war, the government returned two of them back to the counties for civilian use. The third, located in the capital city, became the permanent home of the giant C5 Galaxy stationed at Dover AFB. |
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CHAPTER 8 "Fields of Dreams" This chapter gives tribute to all the owners of the privately owned, public-use airfields in Delaware. The first was located in New Castle County, in 1922, to serve as an auxiliary airfield for airmail pilots on the Washington/New York run. Such notables as Clarence Chamberlin, Paul Mantz, Wes Smith, S. Short, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Erhardt, Nancy Love, Jacquelin Cochran, Elinor Smith, and many more used many of these early airfields. Their beginnings and ends are now history. |
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THIS BOOK IS NOT SOLD IN BOOK STORES! It can only be purchased through the printer/publisher! The price is $40.00, PLUS $5.00 for postage and packing ($12.00 Canada). To place your order, send a check or money order (sorry no credit cards accepted) to: Dover Litho Printing Co.1211 N. DuPont Highway Dover, DE 19901 Visit our web site at www.doverlitho.com |
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