A Kentucky hero

4 combat paratroop jumps in WWII was a rarity.  A Kentucky soldier who achieved that feat recently passed away.

Advertisements

Book review: Images of Aviation Bowman Field

Book review: Images of Aviation Bowman Field
Author: Charles W. Arrington
Arcadia Publishing
128 pgs, numerous B & W photos
ISBN: 978-1-4671-2699-1

Those of us who live in Louisville, KY think of Bowman Field as the general aviation airport for Louisville.  The one in the heart of town with the beautiful 1930s terminal.  However, as Charles “Charlie” Arrington knows there is much more to Bowman Field than that.  Charlie comes by this love of history naturally, and he spent his career as a history teacher.  Charlie, a former longtime MMCL member, has an encyclopedic knowledge of Louisville’s aviation history.

This book is clearly a labor of love.  It starts with this history of Bowman Field as nothing more than a farm field on the far outskirts of Louisville in the around 1920.  The first aircraft recorded to have landed at the new airfield was a Canadian built JN-4 Canuck.  Bowman Field grew along with the rapid expansion of aviation technology and before long there were hangers, paved runways and regular airline service to destinations all over the US.  This is all documented thru an amazing collection of period photographs.  This is one of my favorite periods in aviation history, and it is really neat to see all the different 1920s and 1930s aircraft which passed thru Louisville.  Charles Lindberg and the Spirit of St. Louis was one such aircraft, and, of course, Charlie has the photos to document the occasion.

The next big event in the history of Bowman Field is the outbreak of WWII.  Like many civilian airfields, Bowman Field became a training base.  Bowman specialized in training glider pilots and was the home base of the airborne nurses program.  This period saw a rapid expansion of the field’s facilities.  As you would think, much of this wartime effort was well documented in photos and Charlie has gathered the best ones and included them in this book.

It is in the postwar period that Louisville’s current commercial airport was established.  Staniford Field became the commercial airport, which relegated Bowman Field to the status of a general aviation airport.  While this was a change, it didn’t mean that history wasn’t happening at Bowman, and again this postwar development is well recorded in many black and white photos.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough.  It is fascinating, and has enough great photos to provide hours of interesting browsing.  I purchased my autographed copy directly from the author for $20.

February MMCL meeting

My local IPMS chapter, MMCL held its February meeting last Thursday.  Sorry about taking so long to get this it.  The meeting was great.  If you have an IPMS chapter near you, I urge you to attend and join.  Also, join IPMS/USA.  This meeting we had a guest speaker who works for the Department of the Army, identifying and recovering remains of MIA soldiers.  It was an amazing talk.

 

Also, we had some great models brought in by the members.  Here are a few shots.

Louisville- Top 10 beer destination

So this articles says.  I can’t believe 12 additional breweries will open here next year.

Sportsmanship

Proud of U of L. 

More kit news

Valom has announced they will be releasing their F-101C kit with KY Air National Guard markings. (H/T Jim Bates)

WWII air nurses

A neat article about the air nurse program during WWII.  It was run out of Bowman field in Louisville.

The law in Kentucky

This isn’t as unusual as it sounds.

Citizen journalism

Here is an excellent example of citizen journalism in the digital age.  Sounds like the Mayor has some explaining to do.

Cool things in Louisville

This is neat and IMHO is the wave of the future.  I am glad to see this happening in Louisville.