Louisville and Kentucky currently both have naval vessels in active service named after them. The USS Louisville is an attack submarine (SSN) and the USS Kentucky is a boomer (Nuclear missile carrying submarine or SSBN) My long term building plans include adding a model of each to the collection.
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.
A neat article about the air nurse program during WWII. It was run out of Bowman field in Louisville.
Here is an excellent example of citizen journalism in the digital age. Sounds like the Mayor has some explaining to do.
This is neat and IMHO is the wave of the future. I am glad to see this happening in Louisville.
Recently went to the new music venue in downtown Louisville, the Mercury Ballroom. There we got to see Birdy, a British 17 year old female solo vocalist and Christina Perri. I am not the target demographic for this act, but I have to say it was a very enjoyable evening. Birdy is a fine young singer with an engaging voice and talent. Christina Perri was fantastic. She has an amazing voice. It came thru live even better than in digital format. It was crisp and clear with a great range. She was very high energy throughout the show. The venue had a good sounds system and acoustics and this went very well with Ms. Perri’s powerful voice. I would definately go and see her again.
Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, posted one of my photos from the Tea Party protest at the IRS in Louisville.
MMCL member Rich Guetig had an article in a recent issue of FineScale Modeler. I neglected to post this when it came out. The article is also online here.
Our monthly club meeting was a build meeting this month.
Build night
and
More building
