A Field of Firsts: A Chronological Journey through College Park Airport's Legacy
- fieldoffirsts
- Jun 23
- 8 min read
When you think of aviation--and specifically military aviation history--do you think of College Park Airport (CPA)? Well, if you don’t, then you should! This airport has its own rich history spanning all the way back to 1909 and was the home for many “firsts” in aviation, hence its nickname, “The Field of Firsts”.
The beginning of College Park Airport
After their time testing their Flyer at Kitty Hawk, NC, the Wright Brothers moved their flying operations inland, to Fort Myers, VA. After two summers showing their airplane design to the government, they realized that they needed more space for flying. So, in 1909, Orville and Wilbur Wright sent a man they knew, named Lt. Frank Lahm, to scout out a better area.
At the end of the summer of 1909, Lt. Lahm ventured into the skies above Virginia and Maryland in a hot air balloon until he found the perfect spot. The area was 260 acres of vacant land only 24 miles from Washington DC running along the B&O Railroad, which was ideal to receive supplies efficiently up from DC. After setting up a few runways and hangars, this area quickly became the world’s first airfield and airport known today as our very own College Park Airport. The airport is still open today and is known to be the oldest continually run and operated airport in the world.
The first American female passenger
By October 27, 1909--that same year--another aviation “first” had been accomplished at CPA: it was the first time a woman had ridden in a “heavier-than-air flying machine” in the United States. The Wright brothers had both taken women passengers while in Europe but had yet to do so in the States. Once Mrs. Sarah Van Deman received permission from her husband to do so, Wilbur took her up in the sky and performed multiple intricate maneuvers. Once on they had landed, Mrs. Van Deman was pleased with her flight saying, “Oh, this was simply splendid.”
CPA’s history of “firsts” doesn’t stop there. The Wright brother’s needed this new space to train the first military pilots, Lt. Lahm and 1st Lt. Frederick E. Humphreys, as part of their Wright Military Flyer purchase contract with the government. These pilots would have been some of the first people to ever fly an airplane other than the Wright brothers themselves.
The Wright Military Flyer flown here in October 1909 had two seats for this purpose: one seat would be for the teacher, usually Wilbur, and the other for the student. Flight lessons with Wilbur would begin at 7am sharp and would occur 6 days out of the week. After only a month, however, these operations were put on hold due to a crash that ruined their only airplane, and a lack of government funding. Training of government military officers would not start again until 1911, when Congress would mark funding for the purchase of more airplanes. Once they had additional funding, the US Army Signal Corps could begin training more pilots and begin developing military aviation into what it is today.
Weapons on airplanes: testing the bombsight and machine gun
One of the ways military aviation developed here at College Park Airport was in October of 1911, when Cpl. Riley Scott decided to bring his bombsight (a small telescope-like device that measured ground speed) and test it on one of the Wright B's used in the US Army's Aviation School.
This was the first time a bombsight had ever been tested on an airplane. Before this, bomb tests had been conducted using hot air balloons, zeppelins, and dirigibles which tended to be unreliable and dangerous for the civilians below. The bombsight proved so successful that Scott decided to enter a French bomb-dropping competition where he won almost all the prizes.
As some military officials explored the potential of airplanes for combat, attention shifted to integrating weaponry into these revolutionary machines. One example of this was Col. Isaac Newton Lewis’ design: a lightweight machine gun modeled after the ones invented by Samuel N. McClean. He had created a 25lb prototype that could fire 750 rounds per minute. The first test of this gun was to show how flexible it was. To do so, Lewis brought his prototype to CPA and strapped it to the right seat and right foot bar of an Army Wright B. airplane. A successful shot had yet to be taken mid-flight but, once in the air, Capt. Charles Chandler, with his pilot Lt. Roy Kirtland, aimed the Lewis prototype and managed to hit several grounded targets on June 7, 1912. Although this was the first time anyone had done this, many of the senior officers rejected the idea of putting this machine gun on airplanes, saying it was no better than the U.S. M1909 Benet-Mercie Machine Rifle.
The progress made at CPA didn’t stop with the development of new aerial weaponry. In 1912, another milestone was reached when Lt. Henry “Hap” Arnold conducted the first military flight to surpass one mile in altitude. Previously, a Wright brothers’ team member, named Walter Brookins, set the record when he reached 5,900 ft two years earlier, while Arnold’s flight was well over a mile, at 6,540 ft.
As aviation advanced, so did its risk. Early aviation fatalities were an unfortunate reality in the growing aviation field. Although the first aviation-related military fatality occurred while the Wright brothers were still training out of Fort Meyers, VA, the first enlisted military aviation death happened here at CPA when Corporal Frank Scott and Lt. Lewis Rockwell crashed. Scott was accompanying Rockwell on a flight to compete his “Military Aviator” rating when, during the landing, Rockwell had misjudged his timing, stopped the engine 30 ft off the ground, and didn’t have enough time to pull up, resulting in a crash witnessed by over 300 people. Scott was pronounced dead on scene while Rockwell passed after being taken to Walter Reed hospital.
Women in aviation: Bernetta Miller
Amidst these challenges, 1912 also marked a groundbreaking achievement for women in aviation. Bernetta Miller became the first woman to fly at CPA. As the fifth licensed female pilot in the United States, Miller had earned her license in September of that year. Just a month later, she was selected to exhibit a new French plane, the Bleriot XI, at CPA. This plane was very different than what American aviators were used to, it had only 1 wing (known as a monoplane). Up until this point, all American planes were biplanes, meaning they had two wings. The U.S. was skeptical as to the safety and reliability of a monoplane and they believed that if a woman could successfully fly it, then a man could as well. Even though this reasoning was sexist, Miller chose to fly it to inspire more women to become pilots. She is quoted as saying, “I am not flying to achieve fame as a fancy flyer or an exhibition flyer, but to show women that the airplane is practical...”
Airmail begins
After World War 1, the U.S. had an abundance of retired Curtiss JN-4 planes. In order to get rid of these, they began selling the planes to the public for only $500 each. Not only did this offer the opportunity for civilian pilots to purchase a plane, but it also sparked the idea of “airmail” in the minds of those working for the US Postal Service. Airmail tests had been conducted only twice before it was a regularly scheduled event, once in 1911 from Garden City, NY to Mineola, NY. and the second in 1918 going from Potomac Fields, DC to Long Island, NY. When the US Postal Service decided to go forward with airmail, they hired four retired Army pilots to conduct the first regularly scheduled flights; Max Miller, Eddie Gardner, Bob Shank, and Maurice Newton. The route was a two-part journey between College Park and New York City, stopping midway to switch pilots and refuel the plane. College Park Airport remained the main hub of the airmail until the transcontinental airmail route was created in 1921.
An early helicopter
During the 1920s, College Park Airport was the site for some the first machine powered vertical flight tests. These were conducted by German immigrant Emile Berliner, who had previously successfull invented a gramophone and discs, the predecessor to records and record players. Berliner was interested in making an aircraft that could hover over land and water and that could lift from the ground vertically instead of taking off like planes do. Using the fuselage of a Nieuport 23 and a 220-horspower radial engine, he and his son Henry achieved a flight of 10ft above the ground, marking the first successful helicopter flight.
Over the next two years, the Berliners went through several different variations of, what they called a “gyrocopter” until they settled on a final version that was able to hover 15ft and achieved a forward moving speed of 40pmh. This helicopter prototype had three wings that were mounted with counter rotating propellers, a tail-mounted propeller, rotor shafts, and small wings for adjusting roll. They tried to sell their new aircraft to the U.S. Navy, but they were turned down due to safety concerns: it had no gear box and no way to slow the engine to make a landing. This same aircraft can be seen on display at the College Park Aviation Museum along with footage showing their flight tests for multiple models of their helicopter.
Blind flight and instrument landing
Prior to the 1920s, pilots could not fly safely or confidently at low visibility--at night or in poor weather, when they had to use maps and landmarks as their only forms of “navigational instruments”. However, this changed when President Calvin Coolidge signed the Air Commerce Act on May 20, 1926. This act established federal control over civil aviation and authorized the Secretary of Commerce to regulate air operations, develop infrastructure, and promote the development and research of navigation tools. These responsibilities over civilian aviation would later evolve into the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As part of the push to regulate and grow civilian aviation, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) was tasked with developing and testing navigational instruments, so pilots no longer had to rely on visible landmarks. In 1926, the NBS constructed a 70ft wooden tower supporting two antennas with a 500-watt radio transmitter at College Park Airport to test radio navigational aids in airplanes.
The testing done by NBS continued into 1927. They developed the “vibrating reed”, an instrument where directional radio signals were transformed into a visual indicator instrument. This system used three transmitting radio beacons to direct the aircraft onto the path of the runway and line up the aircraft for landing. It wasn’t 100% accurate and it took a few years to develop, as pilots and ground radio operators were required to adjust, during testing, the frequencies of all three beacons to ensure they were balanced and worked together without interference.
Testing "blind" or radio navigation at College Park Airport continued as the NBS began attempting blind landings (landings that used no visual cues, only navigation tools). For these tests, the pilot’s cockpit would be covered with a collapsible hood to obstruct their view, as their co-pilot, the “check pilot,” would have a clear view of the ground and surroundings in case of emergencies. The first blind landing at College Park Airport was on September 5, 1931 with Marshall Bogg as the pilot and James Kenny as the check pilot.
Gus McLeod and the flight to the North Pole
One of the most recent “firsts” for CPA has little to do with the airport or with aviation innovation--but is still a notable “first”! On April 5, 2001, a pilot named Gus McLeod took to the skies in order to become the first pilot to fly an open-cockpit plane, a 1939 Boeing PT-17 Stearman, to the North Pole. He flight began smoothly but he soon ran into trouble: once he hit Canada, he encountered snowstorms with below 24° crosswind temperatures, his plane blew an oil gasket that took 6 days to replace, and the total freezing of his navigational instruments required him to use the sun as a clock and compass. Once he reached the North Pole, he had to make an emergency landing on an ice sheet, which resulted in him having to leave the plane and return home. When he went back to retrieve the plane weeks later, it had drifted over 70 miles away from where it had originally landed! Once back in the U.S., Gus McLeod fixed up his plane and flew its final flight to College Park Airport to donate it to the College Park Aviation Museum’s collections. Having his plane displayed at this museum is still something very near and dear to McLeod’s heart, not only because he did some training here, but because this is the airport where he flew out of when taking his wife on her first flight.
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