Figure 1.--Here 11-year old Jacques Chapman is shown in his father's Arrow-Sport bi-plane about to do a solo flight during 1931--after 8 hours of instruction. Jacques' father was Walter 'Frog' Chapan, a car racer from Long Island, New York. Jacques apparently had a father like every boy dreams about and fortunstely not to many had. It is an interesting photogtraph because among other aspects, you can see the cockpit instrumentation. The plane was made by one of the many small manufcturers that appeared all over the country. Jacques was the youngest boy to fly solo and probably still is as the U.S. Commerce Department was in the process of issuing regulations requiring that all planes be licensed.

The development of commercial aviation in America out paced that of any other country and would have very significanty consequences after the outbreak of World War II. There was no organized programs to train glider pilots as was the case in Germany, but the interest of American boys in air planes combined with a developing commercial aviation industry meant that thousands of boys were able to turn their interest into a wide range of careers. Boys in many other countries were interested in air planes as well, but few had real opportunities to actually pursue that interest as a career. One major step was that the Federal Government helped to promote the industry through air mail contracts. In a large country like the United States, this essentially was a huge financial stimulus to a new developing industry. This was how men like Charles Lindbergh was able to get involved with aviation. The Federal air mail contracts is helped get aviation going at a time that many potential passengers were afraid to fly, often for good reason. The development of commercial pasanger aviation was another major boon to the American aviation industry. Europeans with excellent rail networks and relatively short distances had little need for domestic aviation. (This is still true today with American air traffic far greater than intr-Europeam aviation.) Thus commercial aviation while developing in Europe was far more limited than in America. America with substantial distances between cities by the 1930s was developing substantial commercial services and commercial air liners like the DC-2 and DC-3 were far more advanced than anything produced in Europe. In addition, quoite a number of small companies befan producing air planes for private individuals. This also occurred in Europe, but on a much smaller scale.

Created: 5:16 AM 9/14/2011
Last updated: 5:16 AM 9/14/2011