Aviators From The Past

Aside from being home to the EAA and its annual celebration of all things flight-related, Wisconsin has also been the home to several aviation pioneers, each of whom had meaningful impacts on the early days of modern flight. Some are well-known names, such as Billy Mitchell, while others are less recognizable-A.P. Warner, John Schweister and Lester Maitland, to name a few.

The Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame exists to call attention to these aviation pioneers. Founded in 1985, the organization exists "to collect and preserve the history of aviation in Wisconsin," according to its mission statement. Rose Dorcey is the president of the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame, and her husband John is secretary/treasurer.

The Dorceys are extremely active in their quest to educate and enlighten. In addition to the Hall of Fame, they also publish that organization's quarterly newsletter detailing the latest news in Wisconsin's aviation community, "Forward… in Aviation." Both are also frequent contributors to ANN.

They also travel throughout the region, holding forums on different areas of Wisconsin's aviation-related past. They held two such meetings during AirVenture 2005, "An Interview with Billy Mitchell" and "Snapshots of Wisconsin Aviation History."

In "Snapshots," the Dorceys detailed the contributions of six early players in Wisconsin's flying past, including the purchaser of the first "aeroplane" sold in Wisconsin, A.P. Warner. In 1909, Warner traveled from Beloit to St. Louis to see his Curtiss airplane fly, before it was broken up and sent to him in shipping crates-without any instructions on how to put it together.

"Warner got so excited when he saw his plane flying, people in the crowd saw him jumping in the air and shouting "that's my airplane!" said Rose Dorcey.

Wausau's John Schwister couldn't afford to buy an airplane like Warner had, so he instead opted to build his own. The "Minnesota-Badger" first flew in June of 1911, and later that year he flew a twenty-seven mile cross country flight and climbed to 2,000 feet above the ground-heady numbers for the day.

And then there's the case of Milwaukee native Lester Maitland, who in 1927, one month after Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, flew from Oakland (CA) to Hawaii, a distance 2,416 miles, almost all of which were over water. John noted that Lindbergh, who flew a Great Circle route over Greenland on his way to France, was only over water for approximately one-third of that time.

"Everyone knows Charles Lindbergh," said John Dorcey. "Who remembers Lester Maitland?"

FMI: www.aviationhalloffamewisconsin.com