Augusta has always been a unique town with a unique history, from having the distinction of being the place where the first federal officer was killed to being the birthplace of the Masters Tournament, but also it is one of two places where the United States military first took to flight.
In fact, Augusta has long been a town with an interest in defying gravity and soaring through the air. Future President Woodrow drew on a sheet of paper a list of the members of his “Lightfoot Baseball Club,” and on the page were drawings of hot air balloons he must have seen in 1870.
The tale has always been that the Wright Brothers established a training school at what is present day Daniel Field. However, that claim is not accurate.
Augusta was chosen as the site for the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps Winter Aviation School in 1911, but the location was Sand Bar Ferry Road at Oak Street. The location was the site of Barnes Farm, and only a historic marker remains on the site of the airfield.
According to the Georgia Historical Commission, Wilbur Wright came to Augusta in November of 1912 to visit the school and meet the cadets learning how to pilot the new and improved Wright Flyer.
The aviation school would be hastily moved one year later to Texas as U.S. officials worried that the civil war in Mexico could spill over the border.
According to local pilot and aviation expert Larry Garner, the first flight at night and the first flight during a rainstorm happened in Augusta.
Daniel Field airport, as we know it today, came about in 1927 when the city bought 300 acres to build a park, a golf course and a polo field. Mayor Raleigh Daniel had dreams of creating an airport that would be the hub of the South, according to Garner, but it seems that Daniel Field was carved out almost as an afterthought.
Daniel Field was much bigger in those times, with most of the hangar buildings being placed where Daniel Village Shopping Center sits today.
According to Garner, aviation legend Amelia Earhart briefly visited Augusta in 1931 during a trip cross-country.
Unfortunately, Earhart’s visit was cut short due to poor weather, and she replied to a letter from a Mrs. Weinges of Augusta, lamenting the fact her visit was cut short.
“I am remiss in not answering your friendly note which followed me to Macon (the next leg of her flight)…I only hope the next time we find ourselves together I may be free of any responsibility toward a clock. I was delayed in my return by poor flying weather out of Atlanta but otherwise the trip home was very eventful,” Earhart wrote.
Christie’s Auction House has appraised that signed letter at between $7,000 and $10,000.
During World War II, Augusta returned to pilot training and for a brief time, the famous Doolittle’s Raiders trained in Augusta.
“They put sandbags on the B-25s and made the runway the exact same length as it would be on an aircraft carrier,” Garner said.
Doolittle’s Raiders would gain fame for their daring bombing missions on Tokyo, Japan. In fact, President Truman’s military advisers, in 1945, chose not to drop the nuclear bomb on Tokyo and chose Hiroshima instead because there was little left of Tokyo to bomb.
In 1994, Augusta was visited by a Cold War relic when an Antonov AN-141, one of the largest aircraft in the world, landed at Bush Field carrying paper cargo from Finland. Garner says he and his colleagues were awed by the sheer size of the 402 tonne aircraft, and they were aghast at the plane’s shoddy maintenance.
“The thing leaked all over. It required 25-gallons of hydraulic fluid, and comments were made as to how poorly it was maintained,” Garner said.
Another giant plane landed in Augusta in 1986 and made headlines.
The pilot of a Piedmont Airlines-operated 737 jet mistook the beacon from Daniel Field as that of Bush Field. By the time that the captain realized his mistake, it was too late.
Passengers of the flight were quoted in the media at the time saying the landing was unusually hard and the smell of burning rubber choked into the cabin as the captain tried his best to guide the plane to a safe stop.
“It’s a miracle that he was able to put that plane down and no one was injured or killed. They had to keep the jet engines running to burn off fuel and get the plane airborne again,” Garner said.
The U.S. Army base at Ft. Gordon (soon to be Ft. Eisenhower) continues to train pilots, and occasionally you might see a giant C-5 or C-131 flying what appears to be perilously close to the ground. But never fear, the pilots are just honing their bombing skills, that’s all.
…And that is something you may not have known.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
