Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Trailblazing aviator Elinor Smith died in Palo Alto, California, at the age of 98. She was born Elinor Regina Patricia Ward in 1911 in New York City. (She became Elinor Smith after her father, whose wide-ranging show business pursuits included singing and comedy, changed his name to Tom Smith.) Elinor Smith grew up in the... Continue Reading →
Mary Feik, whose career encompassed a wide range of aviation achievements, was born in Cleveland. Her interest in airborne transportation first took shape when she was only seven. A stunt pilot flying a Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplane visited the Cleveland area at that time and took Feik for a ride in the aircraft. The experience... Continue Reading →
Geraldyn “Jerrie” M. Cobb, a well-established female trailblazer of the skies, was born in Norman, Oklahoma. Her father was a pilot and, with his encouragement, she developed a strong interest in aviation at an early age. By the time she was 12, Cobb was learning how to fly in her father’s 1936 Waco Aircraft Company... Continue Reading →
Photo of Ellen Paneok courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program. Aviation pioneer Ellen Evak Paneok died in Anchorage, Alaska, at the age of 48. She had been born in 1959. (Accounts vary on whether her birthplace was in Alaska or Virginia.) Her parents were Bernice Evak Burgandine, who was of Inupiat... Continue Reading →
This post and others throughout African-American History Month will highlight notable African-Americans in transportation. African-American aviation pioneer James Herman Banning died during an air show at the U.S. Navy base in San Diego County, California. He was only 32. “The heroic young flyer was killed when a Travelair two-seater plane, in which he was a... Continue Reading →
Nonstop flights took place between mainland China and Taiwan. These were the first such flights between the nations since 1949 when Communists gained control of the mainland and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) while the government of the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan. The first flights to take to the skies for... Continue Reading →
A train station was opened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to provide direct service to General Mitchell International Airport in that metropolitan area. The groundbreaking for the Milwaukee Airport Railroad Station had taken place during the summer of 2004. Those cutting the ceremonial ribbon for the formal debut of the facility on January 18, 2005, were Wisconsin... Continue Reading →
Brazilian aviation pioneer Ada Rogato died in São Paulo at the age of 66. Rogato had been born in that Brazilian city in 1920. She was the daughter of immigrants from Italy. Rogato developed a strong interest in flying at an early age and, with money that she made through such jobs as selling embroideries... Continue Reading →
Retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General José M. Portela, who was born in San Juan in 1949, has established several noteworthy aviation records. He was the first native of Puerto Rico to become a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. In 1972, he became the youngest person to serve as commander of a... Continue Reading →
Aviation pioneer Elwood Richard Quesada was born in Washington, D.C., in 1904 to a Spanish father and Irish-American mother. Quesada’s longtime aviation career began in 1924 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flying cadet. The subsequent highlights of his career included being promoted to lieutenant general in the U.S. Air... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 