Arizona Aviation History

[Jeff D. Welker]

Thanks to our mutual friend Scott Youmans, I've been a somewhat obsessed recently with researching old Arizona Highways magazines for interesting articles/photos on aviation in our wonderful state. I was fortunate to acquire the May 1947 issue that is entirely devoted to aviation. I've scanned some of the more interesting pages and wanted to share with the group. I'll make two or three separate posts to make sure all the attachments are easy to access. Here is the cover and inside cover pages. Interestingly, the cover photo was taken at Williams Air Force Base. The inside cover is an image of part of the WWII warbird storage at Kingman's airport. More to come...

[Jeff D. Welker]

Since I can't attach more than 3 jpg's per post, here is part one of an interesting article about Sky Harbor. Note this is before "Terminal 1" was constructed and the airport buildings, hangers, and actives were located on the north side of of RWY 8/26 with East Air Lane being the primary access road.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Here is part two of the Sky Harbor article.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Here is an article on the Kingman Airport and WWII warbird storage program.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Lastly, here is part one of a listing of all airports in Arizona in 1947. For those of our group that like to trace this history or explore old airfields, I think it is very cool that they provide latitude and longitude for each airport.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Here is part two of the Arizona airports list...

[Jeff D. Welker]

As I find more articles, I'll post them here. Hope someone finds this interesting or helpful.

[Anna M. Wood]

Very interesting Jeff...  Thank you for scanning and posting.   

[Jay Beckman]

Great stuff Jeff!

[Scott Youmans]

Along those lines, here's an aerial view of NAF Litchfield from the fifties I presume. Seeing the hundreds if not thousands of mothballed Navy aircraft there when I was a child was probably one of the greatest contributors to my obsession with aircraft. The number of aircraft visible in this photo is a drop in the bucket compared to what was there during the early sixties. There are probably a lot more out of view to the left in the photo.

[Jay Beckman]

Along those lines, here's an aerial view of NAF Litchfield from the fifties I presume. Seeing the hundreds if not thousands of mothballed Navy aircraft there when I was a child was probably one of the greatest contributors to my obsession with aircraft. The number of aircraft visible in this photo is a drop in the bucket compared to what was there during the early sixties. There are probably a lot more out of view to the left in the photo.

I can see at least one Privateer at center, an airship and what looks like a B-29 at lower right...
Might be Skyrays on the same pad as the Privateer?

They did mods on Privateers at Goodyear during the war, did they not?

[Scott Youmans]

I believe you are correct on all counts.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Along those lines, here's an aerial view of NAF Litchfield from the fifties I presume. Seeing the hundreds if not thousands of mothballed Navy aircraft there when I was a child was probably one of the greatest contributors to my obsession with aircraft. The number of aircraft visible in this photo is a drop in the bucket compared to what was there during the early sixties. There are probably a lot more out of view to the left in the photo.

I can see at least one Privateer at center, an airship and what looks like a B-29 at lower right...
Might be Skyrays on the same pad as the Privateer?

They did mods on Privateers at Goodyear during the war, did they not?

My maternal grandmother was a riveter at Goodyear during the war. I need to get my Mom to let me see some of her photos from that time. Great stuff.

[bilwor]

Pinal Air Park history on today's Arizona Daily Star website

"http://tucson.com/gallery/news/blogs/photo_blog/photos-marana-air-base-in-s-s-s/collection_56619a5e-0387-5081-b987-5e098e66d23d.html#0"