The Fort in Flight: Bud Mars and the City’s Aviation History

Fort Smith

by  () April 29, 2010 4:22 pm 449 views 

 

 
In celebration of the centennial of the Fort Smith Museum of History, the museum’s latest exhibit will open in the Boyd Gallery on May 21, 2010, the one hundredth anniversary of the first flight in Arkansas.
 
On May 21, 1910, aviator James C. “Bud” Mars executed the first flight in the state at League Park in Fort Smith, Arkansas. League Park was located at the site of the present Terry Motel adjacent to what was Electric Park, now Kay Rodgers Park. Crowds gathered to observe history made as Mars executed two flights in a Curtiss Biplane at an altitude of seventy-five feet.
 
The following year history was made again as Fort Smith became the site of the second airmail flight in the United States. On November 11, 1911, a Curtiss Pusher piloted by Lincoln Beachey flew four miles from League Park to the post office on South Sixth Street. Souvenir postcards printed for the occasion may be viewed in the exhibit.
 
Alexander Field, the first airport, was established in 1926 west of Fort Smith at the location of the present Fort Smith Stockyards. Leigh Kelley owned the land in the Moffett Bottoms. Ollie Blan and Clarence Ownesby, Jr. purchased a plane and formed Ozark Airlines, Inc. flying out of Alexander Field. 
 
In 1936 and 1937, Leigh Kelley, Rudd Ross and Tom Harper formed the Airport Advisory Committee with the intention of establishing a municipal airport in the city. The first airport hanger was constructed in 1941 by the WPA. Braniff and Mid Continent began service in 1945. Central Airlines began service in 1954 after a runway extension. Central later became Frontier Airlines. 
 
Included in the exhibit are the region’s female pilots, Betsy Kelly Weeks, Helon Hestand Arlitt and Louise McPhetridge Thaden, charter members of the “Ninety-Nines,” an organization of female pilots formed in 1929 with Amelia Earhart as president.
 
In October 1953, the 184th Reconnaissance Squadron of the United States Air National Guard known as “Ricks Riders” was established in Fort Smith. Later the squadron became the 188th  
Fighter Wing known as the “Flying Razorbacks.” Long an important part of the city’s economy, the 188th now flies A-10 Warthogs and recently deployed to Afghanistan. View photographs following the history of the different aircraft the flown by the 188th Fighter Wing through the years.       
 
From the first flight to the first commercial flights to private, stunt and corporate planes, Fort Smith’s rich aviation history is depicted in the exhibit with photographs, correspondence and artifacts. View a 1916 Curtiss OX-5 engine from the collection of the Arkansas Air Museum in Fayetteville. Photographs and memorabilia on loan from the Fort Smith Air Museum, the Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahoma City, the Fort Smith Regional Airport, the 188th Fighter Wing and from private collections will be included in the exhibit. This exhibit is sponsored in part by TAC Air. 
 
The Fort in Flight: Bud Mars and the City’s Aviation History will open on May 21, 2010 with an opening reception at 5:00 pm and a presentation by Wayne Haver at 6:00 pm. Mr. Haver is a long time pilot and expert on Fort Smith aviation history as well as President of the Fort Smith Air Museum, a Fort Smith Regional Airport Commissioner and Southside High School Principal. A presentation by Doug Kelley, longtime Fort Smith pilot and author will be announced at a later date. Residents, pilots and lovers of flight are invited to share photographs, memorabilia and stories by contacting the museum.