Talk:Lansdowne Airport

History to be incorporated

September 14, 1929: Options for the purchase of land for a new 500-acre private airport at either Austintown or along Belmont Avenue Extension are secured by the Ohio Air Transport Co., which has been operating at Lansdowne Airport. [1]

May 24, 1928: The city of Youngstown will file suit to appropriate land from George Welker adjacent to the Lansdowne Airport so that trees can be cut down and air mail service restored to Youngstown. The field has been leveled and all that remains to be done is the trees removed so that air mail planes can safely land at the city airport. [2]

April 18, 1929: D.W. Swan of Stout Air Lines, Cleveland, issues an apology for his criticism of the Lansdowne Airport delivered at a Youngstown Rotary Club luncheon. Swan said he had been misinformed about the condition of the airport when he declared it unsafe, even for air mail planes. [3]

August 31, 1929: Elinor Smith, 18, the holder of the women's world altitude record will fly to Lansdowne Airport after leaving the air races in Cleveland and is expected to put on an exhibition of flying in her Bellanca monoplane. She represents the Irving Parachute Co. of New York, of which Louis Campbell of Youngstown is chairman of the board. [4]

June 24, 1930: New Castle will be added to the Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh air mail line within a week, as soon as installation of the Adams airmail pick-up device is installed at the Bradford Airport on New Castle-Youngstown Road. Dr. Lytle S. Adams, inventor of the pick-up, which was developed at Lansdowne Airport, is in charge of the installation. [5]

August 2, 1965: A Girard pilot is injured and the amphibian airplane he was flying badly smashed when it crashes into trees near Lansdowne Airport as the pilot sought to avoid hitting nearby houses. Richard J. Mason, 40, was flying a Republic Seabee, a four-passenger plane with the pusher-type engine located behind and above the cabin. [6]

May 29, 1981: Although Amerijet Aircraft Co. is keen on purchasing a 60-acre site at Youngstown Municipal Airport for a proposed $50 million jet airplane assembly plant, Youngstown Mayor George Vukovich is pushing Lansdowne Airport. [7]

February 4, 1982: Airship Industries will "very likely" accept Youngstown Mayor George Vukovich's offer of the Lansdowne Airport as the site for a dirigible plant, says Malcolm Wren, board chairman of the British company. [8]

February 4, 1957: Common Pleas Judge John W. Ford rules that a taxpayer's suit seeking to oust Donald L. Scheetz as manager of the Youngstown Airport should go to trial. The suit claims Mayor Frank X. Kryzan used "persuasion, inducement, political influence and coercion" to get four men with higher Civil Service grades than Scheetz to drop out of running for the job. [9]

April 8, 1982: Maj. Malcolm Wren, board chairman of Wren's Skyships Ltd., says ground breaking for a blimp plant could take place within six months at Lansdowne Airport. The company is seeking to raise 55 million from investors. [10]

October 20, 1983: American Skyship Industries Inc. asks Youngstown City Council for more time to get its financing in order before breaking ground for a dirigible plant at Lansdowne Airport. [11]

September 19, 1980: Mayor George Vukovich says he will do "everything legally feasible" to lure a British airship company to Youngstown, hinting that the city might even give Lansdowne Airport land to the company if Youngstown stood to gain enough new jobs. [12]

November 23, 1980: An alliance of businessmen, bankers and educators is offering its help in persuading Airship Industries Ltd. to locate a factory at Lansdowne Airport. [13]

January 20, 1981: A young aircraft pilot is slightly injured and his newly acquired airplane is wrecked when the pilot hits the wrong button and kills the engine on an approach to Lansdowne Airport. Stephen Miller, 21, tried, with the engine off, to glide to the runway, but the landing gear struck a tall tree. [14]

March 28, 1982: Wren Skyships Ltd., the newly formed British company that plans to manufacture metal-clad rigid airships in Youngstown, expects to sign a takeover agreement for Lansdowne Airport April 8. [15]

May 31, 1981: Airships Industries Ltd., the British firm eyeing Lansdowne Airport as a possible site for an airship manufacturing plant, is expected to make a decision within the next two months. [16]

August 30, 1981: Skyship 500, built by Airship Industries Ltd. in Cardington, England, is a month from its maiden voyage. The ship is similar to ones the British company has proposed building in a plant at Lansdowne Airport. [17]

January 21, 1982: Youngstown is sweetening its courtship of Airship Industries Ltd., a British manufacturer of dirigibles, offering the company Lansdowne Airport as a site for the plant for 1. [18]

January 24, 1982: The British company Airship Industries Inc. is said to favor Youngstown's Lansdowne Airport as the site of a dirigible plant. [19]

September 2, 1929: Many Youngstowners see their first parachute jump as jumpers parachute from the Irving Air Chute Co.'s demonstration airplane, "Happy Landings," during two days of demonstrations at the Lansdowne Airport. [20]

September 1, 1980: A British aerospace company that builds blimps and dirigibles will send a high-ranking official to Youngstown to look over Lansdowne Airport as a possible site for a manufacturing plant that would have a potential employment of 1,100. [21]

September 5, 1965: A private plane crashes at Lansdowne Airport killing two Farrell, Pa., men, John Bubrick, 45, and his passenger Henry L. Culver. [22]

September 20, 1980: The managing director of Airship Industries Ltd. will pay a second visit to Youngstown in about two weeks to further explore Lansdowne Airport's potential as a location for the British company's first U.S. manufacturing plant. [23]

Additional information

After Lansdowne and before Youngstown Municipal Airport was Bernard Airport. It was located on U.S. Route 422 east of Youngstown at the intersection of Rt 422 and McCartney roads adjacent to Campbell, Ohio. The Bernard property was owned by Jim Bernard a lumber dealer in Youngstown and was operated by The National Air College in 1928 and 29 until the Great Depression when it was closed. The National Air College President was Lieut. C.J. Schuemacher. His staff and advisors were, E.E.Basham, B.F. Anthony, Leiut.R.D.Reading and Leiut. H.S. Manchester.

- In the 1930s Harold H. Hinkle opened the operation under the name Hinkle Flying Service. The operation was mostly flight instruction and mechanical repair service and passenger rides. With WWII approaching, Mr. Hinkle bought eight Porterfield trainers and at that time Hinkle had large Stinson aircraft for passenges and a Waco UPF-7. Some Flying clubs operated from Bernard also.

- In 1941 the main hangar burned destroying seven aircraft, one of which was Stinson SR-9, NC17156, and another was a nearly new Stinson Detroiter which was grounded, permanantly, when it was found to be hauling whiskey from Canada during prohibition. I got my first airplane ride in NC17156. The pilot was Mr. Mike Kardos who later became chief pilot of United Airlines.

- Hinkle flying Service had a contract with Youngstown College to teach future Air corps pilots to fly. Many pilots who learned to fly at Bernard went on to become military and airline pilots.

- The fire only slowed the operation and before long the hangar was back in tip top shape.

- The hangar was rebuilt and the beams straightened. The operation continued through the 40s. I started working at the airport after the manager, Ralph H. Payne hired me at .35 cents per hour in 1944. My job was line boy and general helper. Tom Sweeney and Peter Smith taught me to build wing ribs and do other important things and on November 7th, 1944, three days after my 16th birthday, I soloed in Porterfield NC34712 under Joseph F. Burns, a Hungarian immigrant who was an excellent instructor. In 1950 the operation closed and Bernard Airport became a flea market. Several years ago, the old hangar, once more, burned and was torn down and that ended an era in Youngstown aviation history.

- Now, at age 81, I'm still a licenced commercial pilot and manage an aviation service at Wiley Post Airport in Bethany, Oklahoma - Don P. Simons C-335827 - QB22023