From Aerobatics to Terror Bombing - Civil Aviation | Between 2 Wars | 1927 Part 2 of 2 - YouTube (1)

Lindbergh, Earhart, barnstorming and more - the 1920s saw major changes in the skies

as airplanes, once only the province of the military or the eccentric went mainstream.

This was the golden age of aviation.

Welcome to Between 2 Wars, a chronological summary of the interwar years

covering all facets of life - the uncertainty, hedonism and euphoria

and ultimately humanity's descent into the darkness of The Second World War. I'm Indy Nydell.

In our episode about the development of aviation shortly after The Great War

we left off with the normalization of aircraft in a non-military context,

and the founding of the first commercial airlines.

In the 1920s, the development of aviation truly takes off, resulting in the Golden Era of Aviation.

After the war, many nations were stuck with thousands of military airplanes

for which they no longer had any use.

In America for example the government was stuck with a bunch of Curtis JN-4 'Jenny' biplanes

originally used for training pilots.

These they cheaply sold or auctioned, allowing air force veterans

or other enthusiasts to buy their own plane for as little as $200.

This soon allowed the general public to be introduced to the art of aviation.

One phenomenon that came out of this civilian purchase of aircraft is barnstorming.

At first, this was mostly former military pilots who would fly from town to town.

It was a nomad lifestyle and they were often referred to as "gypsy-flyers".

It also allowed many without a military background to reach the skies,

and many famous barnstormers were women or men and women of color.

After a few flybys to create some hype with the locals, they would land on or near a barn somewhere -

hence the name barnstormers - to perform aerial stunts and have people pay to fly along for a while.

Towns came to a standstill wherever they showed up,

as the entire community rushed to the chosen barn to behold the flying acrobatics.

Many people in rural areas had never seen a real-life airplane flying before

especially in the late 1910s and early 1920s.

The pilots would show off their flying skills - and keep in mind:

they did not have to have any qualifications like pilot's licences

or take into account any safety regulations, as there were none.

Anyhow, they did all kinds of tricks, like loop-the-loops and nosedives or spins,

some took it a step further by wing-walking, playing tennis on them or even switching planes mid-air.

As the decade unfolded, more and more of them explored new ways to stand out from the crowd

Some tried stuff like.. like flying through a barn's open door

which often resulted in a dead pilot and many dollars of property damage.

In fact, 470 accidents were reported between 1921 and 1923, resulting in 221 deaths.

The Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America argued that

the high rate of accidents was because of a lack of federal control.

This, and a growth of the aviation industry in general contributed to new regulation in 1925 and 1926

For the first time, aircraft had to be inspected and approved for airworthiness

and airmen had to pass a written and a physical test before they would be allowed to take to the skies.

Also, the minimum height off the ground where pilots now would be allowed to perform their stunts

was higher than was practical for a viewing audience on the ground

which put a real damper on barnstorming.

Though the regulations did not entirely extinguish barnstorming, which would continue into the 40s,

it greatly impacted and restricted civil aviation, and barnstorming will soon be a dying art.

Some pilots though took their daredevil skills to the next level.

More even than barnstorming, aviation records and the heroes that set and broke them

familiarized the Americans with the potential of aviation.

Frenchman Josef Sadi-Lecointe was the first to sustain a speed over 200 mph over several hours in 1922,

and in 1923 he broke the ceiling record by flying at an altitude of 11.145 meters.

But though records in speed, altitude and range had been frequently broken in the 1910s

new records occurred less and less frequently as the 1920s and 1930s rolled along.

But when they were broken - it was spectacular!

While Sadi-Lecointe set the speed record at 205 mph in 1921

Italian Mario de Bernardi was over a 100 mph faster in 1928, flying 318.5 mph in his Macci M.52

But there were many other aerial firsts to be achieved.

In 1924 a team of American army air service pilots completed the first

aerial East-West circumnavigation of the Earth.

And in 1927, Charles Lindbergh set out to be the first to make a solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

He bought his own 'Jenny' in 1923, with which he went barnstorming in Texas, Nebraska and Minnesota

He and his partner Heston Benson traded plane rides for room and board at local inns and hotels

He would charge a local $5 for a 15 minute flight, while his partner Benson

performed wing-walks and encouraged the audience to buy rides from Lindbergh.

Lindbergh later wrote:

He enlisted in the US Air Force and passed his exams in March 1925, commissioned 2nd lieutenant

In 1926 he taught at a flight school in St. Louis area and flew airmail flights

That is when the had idea of competing for the Orteig prize

offered in 1919 for the first solo non-stop flight between Paris and New York of $25.000

Many pilots had already died trying.

Lindbergh carefully planned and calculated his flight

although the press did frame him "Lucky Lindy" afterwards.

With the help of some St. Louis businessman, he bought a custom designed Ryan NYP "New York to Paris" aircraft

a high-wing monoplane with a for the time gigantic tank containing 2.750 lbs of fuel.

After renaming the plane "The Spirit of St. Louis", he took off in the morning of May 20th 1927 form New York.

His venture had attracted some real attention by then, as many saw him as an all-American pioneer of aviation.

The nation held its breath for the duration of the flight, and after 33 hours and 30 minutes

of dizziness and sleep deprivation Charles Lindbergh made it to Paris.

He instantly became a figure of mythical proportions, but more importantly showed the world

what could be expected of aviation, causing investors to sink loads of money

into the aviation industry and boosting the credibility of civil aviation.

For the first time, people began to seriously imagine intercontinental air travel, even for the average Joe.

It wasn't just Lindbergh though, who triggered people's imaginations

and changed public perception of air travel.

After his success, many women aspired to be the first female to cross the Atlantic.

Some of them just went as a passenger of a male pilot, but what mattered to them - and the public -

was just to be the first woman to cross by plane, which caused enormous excitement in and of itself.

Some tried and died, some had to be rescued; the 5th to try was the famous British aviatrix Elsie Mackay

She even tried to make the crossing in February, for which people called her insane

as planes were not very well suited for icy circumstances at the time.

Several days after her departure parts of her plane washed ashore on the Irish coast.

In the spring of 1928, no woman had still ever crossed the Atlantic by plane.

A 55 years old wealthy woman named Amy Guest decided: she fly or be flown.

She bought a plane in secret and planned to enter trip in front of the British Parliament in London.

After her family got wind of her plans though, they've persuaded her to not do it

but instead have someone else take her place.

It was a woman called Amelia Earhart, a young pilot who had flown since 1921.

She had set the female altitude world record already in 1922, flying 14.000 ft high.

In April 1928 she joined pilot Wilmer Stultz and co-pilot Louis Gordon

They departed from Newfoundland with their Fokker F.VIIb/3m on June 17th

20 hours and 40 minutes later they landed in South Wales in the UK,

Earhart became the first woman to ever cross the Atlantic in an airplane.

While she didn't fly the plane herself, she would later be the first woman

to actually make a solo flight across the Atlantic in 1932.

And then she would disappear in 1937, attempting a trip circumnavigating the Earth.

With Lindbergh and Earhart as well as many others the new modern era

of civil and commercial aviation began - and the sky was the limit!

Lindbergh himself would go on to promote aviation as a reliable form of transport,

touring with "The Spirit of St. Louis" through North and South America.

Actually one of the first ways in which aviation impacted public life was in the postal service.

By 1925, 14 million letters and packages were sent yearly in the US.

The 1925 Air Mail Act lay the foundation for the establishment of commercial airmail services

setting airmail rates and authorizing the government to sell airmail contracts to private enterprises.

The 1926 law went further: it established official airways

and required the government to build civil airports and develop navigational aids.

In 1927, the Department of Commerce constructed hundreds of light beacons,

95 emergency landing fields and 17 radio stations to provide pilots with weather information.

Still, airmail was heavily subsidized by the government, and was not lucrative on its own.

Under Postmaster General Harry S. New though air service began to enter a... more mature state.

He had airmail carriers also double as passenger transports:

that way they would make more money, making longer flights financially viable,

which led to the establishment of the first American passenger airlines.

The Ford trimotor 580 was used by almost all the US airlines.

These planes, introduced in 1928, could carry 14 or 15 passengers

together with their baggage - and packages and mail.

Western Air Express experimented to see if airlines could profit from passenger fares alone

and 5.000 passengers were flown from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a year.

But the company could not make ends meet without the airmail subsidies.

It was not until 1930 that the system was reorganized, and passenger aviation

began to be available to the masses at a reasonable price - and even then

for a long time to come - in fact, not until after WWII -

commercial air travel was neither cheaper, nor faster, nor safer, nor more comfortable than rail travel.

Planes had to fly around high mountains, it was dangerous to fly at night,

they had to stop often for fuel or maintenance.

Additionally it was very uncomfortable to fly in the badly isolated, loud, unpressurized planes.

But sure there were already people travelling by air, albeit next to some postal sacks,

and the first airfields began equipping their ports with passenger terminals and waiting rooms.

Besides, thanks to people like Lindbergh and Earhart, the potential was fully recognized everywhere.

The number of airline passengers in the US was less than 6.000 in 1926,

but grew to some 173.000 three years later.

The 1920s was when aviation became mainstream.

It was a time of development, innovation, investment, experimentation... and dreams.

Harry Guggenheim, son of a multimillionaire, established a foundation

to train aeronautical engineers in universities.

This delivered new technology like that which allowed James Doolittle to fly without visual bearings,

but only navigating with instruments, like a very accurate barometer,

artificial horizon, gyroscope and a radio direction beacon.

Similarly, the NACA - the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics - which will later become NASA

was the American government sponsor of the aviation industry's technology.

They invented an NACA cowling in 1927, which was basically a hood for the airplane's cylinder heads

but it reduced drag by as much as 60% and really streamlined aircraft,

which improved fuel efficiency and speed.

The cowling and other inventions like retractable landing gear

allowed aviation to become ever more commercially viable.

It soon allowed first successful airline plane, the DC-3, to be launched in 1935.

I have been talking a lot about America in this episode, I know,