San Francisco Bay Area aviation: from novelty to industry, 1849-1934

This thesis studies the development of aviation in the cities around San Francisco Bay as it progressed from an uncertain novelty in 1849 to a full-fledged transportation industry, complete with Federal regulation and subsidies, by 1934. The genesis of the study lies in a suggestion by Gary Kurutz of the California State Library that a void exists in knowledge of early Bay Area aviation history and the sites of its significant events. Consulting Kenneth Johnson's, "Aerial California: An Account of Early Flight in Northern & Southern California 1849-World War I," the best available overall coverage[of] the subject, I concluded that not only does the void exist, but it is also larger than I expected. Moreover, my research unearthed additional inadequately covered areas. First is the civic competition in the development of the Oakland Airport and Mills Field, now Oakland and San Francisco International Airports. The second is the unabashed solicitation by local cities of a partnership with the War and Navy Departments resulting in construction of the major military fields around the perimeter of the Bay. Roger Lotchin's "Fortress California" corroborates my independently-derived concept of deliberate courtship of the Federal government construction and contracts by California cities seeking revenue and business stimulation. A third area, related to the second is the contributions made by military aviators and organizations to the development of Bay Area aviation. Geography played a large part in the timing of significant steps in the development of an aviation industry in California and in the eventual form taken by the industry itself in 1934. The isolation of California's gold fields spawned the earliest efforts to produce commercially viable aircraft. It created logistics and communications problems for Bay Area pioneers affecting and motivating the extraordinary contributions of aerodynamicist John Montgomery and engine design genius E . J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Car Company. The same isolation attracted the efforts of the Post Office Department to forge the long air mail link from New York to San Francisco. And once the effects of Federal contracts became appreciated, Bay Area citizens and their local government molded an aviation partnership with the Military and Commerce Departments, and the expanding airline that is still firmly in place today.