After the invention of the airplane in the first decade of the last century, airfields began to spring
\nup everywhere. Although most were eventually called airports, airfields or landing fields is a
\nmore accurate term for many of the early ones, as they started out as open land. Early airplanes
\nlanded slowly enough that they did not require runways.
\nAfter the end of World War I, Army airplanes were sold off for pennies on the dollar, making
\nthem available to the general public. During the Roaring Twenties, pilots earned a living doing
\nstunts and giving rides to a fascinated public. Charles Lindbergh\u2019s 1927 solo flight from New
\nYork to Paris in the \u201cSpirit of Saint Louis\u201d was a great boon to aviation.
\nIn the early 1920s, the first airport in our county was operated by the California Coast Artillery at
\nCamp McQuaid, Capitola. It was bounded by Park Avenue, Monterey Avenue and today\u2019s
\nHighway One. It was acquired by the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and leased to Russell &
\nEster Rice as the Santa Cruz-Capitola Airport.
\nIn Watsonville, there were at least four landing fields in the rural area before Watsonville’s first
\nairport opened in 1931 near the junction of Highway One and Salinas Road in Monterey County.
\nAbout the same time, airports were constructed in Bonny Doon and the San Lorenzo Valley.
\nOn April 15 th 1929, the Rio Del Mar firm of Monroe, Lyon and Miller made a proposal before
\nthe Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, to donate land in Rio Del Mar for a county airport, and
\nthat Maddux Airlines would provide mail and passenger service to that airport if it met all of the
\nqualifications for landing and leaving. The same proposal was presented to the Watsonville
\nChamber.
\nAviation fever was in the air. On August 25 th , a once-in-a-lifetime event occurred. Perry Pond,
\nwho lived in Rio Del Mar and flew out of the Capitola Airport, flew with his wife to San
\nFrancisco with the sole purpose of seeing the Graf Zeppelin on its way to Los Angeles. They
\nfollowed the huge airship from the Farallones to Oakland and then to Santa Cruz. The Graf
\nZeppelin was the biggest airship in the world, measuring 776 feet long, more than two football
\nfields. It was chartered by William Randolph Hearst for an around the world flight. Local people
\nraced to Davenport to watch the zeppelin cruise by at 50 miles per hour.
\nBy September of 1930 work had begun on an airport in Rio Del Mar. The plan for a county-wide
\nairport did not materialize so Mr. M. R. Davis and two other pilots leased 80 acres from
\nPeninsula Properties, (Monroe, Lyon and Miller), and spent considerable money to open the
\nproject to commercial airplanes. They planned to have an air taxi service between the bay area
\nand Rio Del Mar. The airport ran parallel with the ocean cliffs at the intersection of Cliff and
\nBay View Drives.
\nBy November of the following year there were four planes and four hangars on site. The largest
\nplane was a dual control \u201cBird\u201d OXX-6. There was also a \u201cScout\u201d Le Rhone, a \u201cJenny\u201d OXX-5,
\nand the smallest was a tiny \u201cHeath Parasol\u201d equipped with a converted four-cylinder motorcycle<\/p>\n\n\n\n
engine. A small hiccup occurred at the end of the year when a farmer who leased an adjoining
\nproperty plowed up part of the airfield by mistake. It was repaired and placed back in service.
\nAn Aviation Dance was held at the Hotel Palomar on October 1, 1932, as a benefit for the Rio
\nDel Mar Airport. The airport was now two years old and had five hangars housing seven
\nairplanes. By the middle of 1933 there were seven hangars. The managers were Sylvan Thrash
\nand M. R. Davis. The airport proved to be popular during weekends when pilots would fly their
\nfamilies in for a stay at the country club. Watching or participating in stunt flying also proved
\npopular with the guests.
\nNot everything was fun and games at the airport. In July of 1933, two unskilled pilots from
\nMonterey purchased one of the planes at the Rio Del Mar Airport. When they tried to fly it to
\nMonterey, they rose to an altitude of about 30 feet, but as they turned toward the bay, the landing
\ngear and wing clipped the brush at the edge of the cliff and the plane spun around and crashed.
\nThe plane was demolished but the men were only slightly injured.
\nJust before Halloween 1933, all seven hangers were robbed of oil, fuel and any equipment that
\ncould be easily disposed of.
\nAlso, in May of 1934, Orville Holt was taking a plane to show a prospective buyer. As he took
\noff and headed toward Watsonville, part of the engine broke off and dropped through the
\nfuselage. Holt headed toward the bay and glided to safety on the beach below.
\nIn May of 1936, a man and woman from Oakland took off and struck the brush and trees at the
\nwest end of the runway. The plane turned over twice and crashed into a ravine halfway down the
\ncliff. Miraculously, no one was badly hurt, and the plane was mostly intact.
\nBy November 1933, the airport had three graded runways, seven hangars and eight active pilots.
\nBy spring of 1934 the road to the airport was improved and the parking area was enlarged along
\nwith runway improvements. At the same time, the Santa Cruz-Capitola Airport began major
\nimprovements. Mr. Thrash moved his hangar from Rio Del Mar to Capitola.
\nIn 1936 the fate of the airport was sealed. Lots on the palisades overlooking the beach near the
\nairport were sold and several homes were under construction. In 1937, the airport was
\nsubdivided, and the lots were quickly sold.
\nBut that\u2019s not all. Douglass Corrigan flew out of Rio Del Mar and managed the airport at some
\npoint. Historian Carolyn Swift\u2019s mother and great-great-grandmother, Carrie Trueworthy, flew
\nwith Corrigan over Watsonville. Corrigan had also worked on building Lindbergh\u2019s \u201cSpirit of
\nSaint Louis\u201d at Ryan Aviation.
\nIn 1933, Corrigan bought a used airplane and spent the next five years customizing it for a trans-
\nAtlantic flight. He requested permission for the flight many times but was denied, as his plane
\nwas not considered fit for the flight. He was however, given permission for a transcontinental
\nflight from Long Beach, California, to New York City. After arrival, he filed a flight plan to
\nreturn to Long Beach, but after taking off through the clouds, he continued east and landed in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ireland. When he was questioned, he said, \u201cI got mixed up in the clouds, and I must have flown
\nthe wrong way.\u201d Wrong-way\u201d Corrigan became an instant celebrity.
\nIt\u2019s a stretch, but Corrigan owned the plane while he was at the Rio Del Mar Airport. So, the first
\nstage of his journey was from Rio Del Mar to Southern California, and although there was some
\ndelay, from there to New York, and then Ireland, connecting the dots would make Rio Del Mar
\nAirport an international airport one year after it closed.
\nMany thanks to Carolyn Swift for her assistance with this and other history stories. If you like
\nreading these stories, please become a member of the Aptos History Museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After the invention of the airplane in the first decade of the last century, airfields began to spring up everywhere. Although most were eventually called airports, airfields or landing fields is a more accurate term for many of the early ones, as they started out as open land. Early airplanes landed slowly enough that they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aptoshistory.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}