"Heroes of the Sky" celebrates first 40 years of flight

Throughout the 1800s, tinkerers and enthusiasts combined their imaginations with practical research to create hot-air balloons, gliders, airships, and even experimental engine-driven planes. This set the stage for the earliest days of the airplane at the beginning of the 20th century.

In America, the most well-known pioneers of early flight were, of course, the Wright brothers. Orville and Wilbur brought with them not only an appreciation for the limits of the physical world and the progress made to date, but also an extraordinary ability to imagine and work through the possibilities available within those limits. Their first successful powered flights took place in December, 1903, although at the time these received virtually no publicity. By 1905, their plane was a refined, fully controllable aircraft, capable of staying aloft as long as the tank had fuel and the pilot had stamina.

To show the public just what airplanes were capable of doing, and simply to stay in business during the early years, manufacturers staged traveling air shows and meets. Courageous "birdmen" performed daring aerial feats as they barnstormed around the country at circuses, carnivals, county fairs, and other public events. Sometimes, these shows did more harm than good for the aviation business, as the media--ever searching for dramatic story angles--tended to further the notion mat airplanes were hazardous and that the pilots were dare-devils and fools.

On the eve of World War I, human flight still was considered a novelty. Airplane design had changed very little prior to the Great War. Planes had few instruments for safety and navigation, and flying continued to involve life-or-death risks. No larger infrastructure was yet in place for airplane landing, storage, maintenance, or continuing research and development.

During me war, however, the airplane industry was transformed dramatically. Spurred by national pride and a sense of urgency, the government stepped in to boost development, forging a permanent link with aviation.

After World War I, while Hollywood embraced the idea of light through both films and celebrity endorsements, it was the barnstormers who led the charge. Unlike pre-war exhibition fliers--who tended to perform where large crowds could be gathered--now the "aerial gypsies" gave demonstrations or riders for any audiences anywhere. In fact, Charles Lindbergh began his career as a barnstormer. Of course, no flight was more celebrated than Lindbergh's solo, nonstop trip from New York to Paris in 1927, which galvanized the nation and caused a celebration unlike anything ever witnessed in American public life.

At the same time the industry was coming into its own. Airplanes were proving themselves useful in dozens of ways. While the U.S. Air Mail commenced in 1918, it was the transfer of this service to commercial careers in 1925 that spurred the serious development of the fledgling airlines as well as encouraging new safer airplane designs, infrastructure developments, and related industries. The Air Commerce Act of 1926 established the authority of the Federal government to regulate routes, rates, and safety standards. By the end of the 1920s, aviation was an increasingly accepted mode of modern transportation with enough momentum to weather the hard times of the Great Depression.

By the 1930s, the Federal government was responsible for air traffic control issuing weather forecasts, and investigating accidents Record-breaking feats by individual aviators continued to make the news--particularly for speed and distance. Commercial airlines prospered even during the Depression, as more and more people were getting used to the idea of traveling by plane. The Douglas DC-3 was the first in a new generation of trend-setting passenger crafts. It carried 21 passengers and promised modern standards in comfort.

On the eve of World War II, aviation no longer was a dream. People not only believed it was possible, many of them actually had tried it. In the course of its evolution since the Wright brothers' first flight, aviation evolved into a viable and successful industry as well as a powerful cultural symbol. In a mere 40 years, this once novel, almost unimaginable invention had become an ordinary part of culture, something most Americans soon would come to take for granted.

The exhibition "Heroes of the Sky," featuring more than two dozen historic airplanes, celebrates the first 40 years of flight, Having opened in September, 2003, it is on permanent view at the Henry Ford Museum. Dearborn, Mich.

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