A Short History of
Fort Smith Aircraft Company

By Chester Cy Martin

From a letter from Dad to SW American Newspaper, July 1, 1967

Southwest American

Fort Smith, Arkansas
Dear Sir:
Recently I stopped in Fort Smith on my return trip from a reunion of the 20th Aero Squadron, First Day Bombardment Group of World War I in Louisville, Kentucky to find Fort Smith celebrating its 150th anniversary, and your paper putting out a special edition. Your story on aviation did not do justice to the origin of your important and busy airport.

The first airmail flight in the United States was made in Fort Smith. Mail was picked up and franked in a pasture near the intersection of Midland Boulevard and Spradling Avenue. The mail was dropped onto the lawn of the Sixth Street Post Office. This flight was made in 1911 or 1912 in a Curtis Pusher with two chain driven propellers. The pilot, I believe was Lincoln Beachey. First Day Covers of this mail are very valuable.

Ollie L. Blan and Floyd Muncie, who had been flying officers in World War I, were pioneers in Fort Smith's Aviation History. Ollie Blan operated with an OX Waco from a six acre pasture near the old sorghum mill west of the present airport. Floyd Muncie with a Travelaire, operated from a mowed strip in Oklahoma near the west end of the Garrison Avenue Bridge. Blan and Muncie kept the small spark of aviation interest alive in the early '20s with tuition from rare flight students, short hops around the field, occasional charter flights and barnstorming.

Barnstorming was landing in some small pasture near a town where there was a fair or some sort of celebration in progress, showing off the plane, doing a few stunts and carrying a few passengers after the fear of getting both feet off the ground had been overcome.

Crop dusting by then was slowly emerging from its cocoon.

Ollie Blan and the assets at South Fort Smith were later moved across the Arkansas River in Oklahoma near the present stockyards when the Fort Smith Aircraft Company was organized with Bert Harper as president, Ollie Blan as operations manager and Cy Martin(myself) as service manager. With the Fort Smith Aircraft Company, Fort Smith air-minded people lifted off.

Student flight training, penny-a-pound flights on weekends and holidays, charter flights and sales begin to pick up. Parachute jumps were used to pep up the penny-a-pound sales where the passenger paid according to his weight.

Principals among those who kept interest in aviation stimulated in those days prior to the Big Depression were Bert Harper, Graham Williams, WWI Ace Wendell Robertson, Leigh Kelley, Frank Morehead, Buell Phillips, Red Ward, Jerry Noble, Monte Echols, Gene Dorough, Rud Ross, Ben Ames, Vint Miles Sr, Henry Ayers, Patsy Kelley (our only girl student), Harold Littlefield, Ted Bell, Charles Hayes, Vint Miles Jr, Scott Robinson Jr, Bill Blan, Boyd Wood Oily, George Lasley, Roy Shine, Dewey Holley and Joe Basso.

Private planes hangered at the field, whose rentals helped pay expenses, were Red Ward's four place J5 powered Stinson and a Siemens-Halske powered Waco; Bert Harper's Challenger powered Robin; Robert Echol's Gypsy Moth; Graham Williams's OX powered Commandaire' Jerry Nobles' Kinner powered Eagle and Rud Ross' Curtis-Wright Pusher.

All of the Pushers were powered with three-cylinder Szekeley engines. Roy Shine and Joe Bosso tied their planes down in nearby pastures. Roy Shine owned a Hisso powered JN4D and Joe, a Travelaire or whatever he could trade for while barnstorming.

The Fort Smith Aircraft Company was on the "Highway 66" of the Air. On our register were names like Will Rogers, Frank Hawks, Amelia Earhart (flying an Autogyro) Lady Heath, Reg Robbins, Bernt Balche, Rosco Turner, Richard Halliburton (and his famous Flying Carpet), Art Goebels, Jacqueline Cochrane, Phoebe Omlie, Tom Hatton, Ellis Fagan, Harvey McGinnis, Carol Cone and many others. Some of the notables of aviation were in a hurry and failed to sign our register -- simply filled their tanks, gave their ship a glance inspection and pushed on as far as they could before dark.

The first airborne bank robber was captured at this field by a "small posse" led by Sheriff John B. Williams. When the reward of $500.00 was divided evenly among us, we each received $2.50.

There were no cross-country aids to night flying in those days. One evening as we were closing up at dark, a Ford "Tri-motor", commonly called a "Tin Goose", flew in. The pilot had been forced off course by a storm and was low on gas. He had followed the river in to Fort Smith for a landing. His passengers and the mail were taken into town for the night, and when morning came and he had himself located, he flew on.

Here, I would like to add that Ollie Blan , Floyd Muncie and some of the Early Birds held Pilot Licenses signed by Orville Wright himself.

When 1929 fell upon us like a blanket, I went with what is now known as the Federal Aviation Agency. At that time it was the Department of Commerce, Airways Division and a part of the Coast Guard. It has been called by many other names since Its origin. I stayed in Air Navigation until retirement in 1962.

Footnote: Mr. Martin passed away quietly on December 30, 1990 in Fort Worth, Texas. He lived to be 98 years and 8 months old.

5-10-98