Books for the Aviator in Your Life

Teterboro Airport has been in continuous use since 1916 and was once the busiest airport in the country. In 1925, the Fokker Company opened an American subsidiary, the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, and Teterboro-built Fokker trimotors dominated the industry for a decade. In the 1920s and 1930s, record-setting flights became a national obsession, and many of the flights originated or terminated at Teterboro Airport. In 1939, the Goodyear blimp Mayflower made daily sightseeing flights over the New York City world's fair. In 1952, television personality Arthur Godfrey buzzed the control tower while taking off in his DC-3. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey purchased the airport in 1949 and made major investments in airport infrastructure. Today the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum is located at the airport.

Interested in aviation as early as 1910, William Boeing waited until 1914 for his first airplane ride. In 1916, he founded the airplane company that put Seattle on the aviation map. Before Boeing, Seattle featured aircraft builders like Eugene Romano, G. T. Takasou, Tom Hamilton, and Herb Munter. Boeing emerged during World War I and, by the beginning of World War II, had become a world leader. In those years, lesser known individuals like Eddie Hubbard, Percy Barnes, Vern Gorst, the Becvar brothers, Elliott Merrill, Jim Galvin, and Lana Kurtzer influenced commercial aviation around Seattle. Drawing on photographs from around the area, Seattle's Commercial Aviation: 1908-1941 illustrates the early days beginning with dirigible flights, recognizes the arrival of commercial airmail and the airlines, salutes the local operators, and marks Seattle's emergence as the aviation gateway to Alaska.