Historic Frank Phillips Field - once home to the legendary, adventuous air fleet of 'Phillips 66' oil colossus Phillips Petrolum Co., based here, whose planes set countless records and firsts in the Golden Age of Aviation. On this day, blanketed with biplanes from around the nation, it's still active as Bartlesville's main airport.
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Biplane
Association
of
America
Annual Fly In
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From foreground, World War I's top fighter, the hulking German Fokker D-VII, and the legendary acrobatic Great Lakes appears in its red-white-and-blue 1970's revival version (manufactured in Wichita and Enid, Okla.) -- and a dozen more biplanes of every era -- on this row, alone!
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Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Summer 2008
One of the great gatherings of double winged birds.
Photography by R.H. & Steve Alexander
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BELOW LEFT: a 1920s Travel Air 4000 -- one of the most successful biplanes of all time. Rugged, fast and "luxurious", by comparison to its peers, with a two-seat passenger cockpit in front, it was THE benchmark biplane of the 1920s. Now in their 80s, a handfull still fly!
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...and BELOW RIGHT: a 1930s Beech Model 17 "Staggerwing," a legendary icon of speed and luxury throughout the 1930s.
These two aircraft were the most prized American biplanes of their respective eras, each design originating in Wichita, under the guidance of Walter Beech. I've had the privilege of going aloft in one of each. |
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The Travel Air was designed by Lloyd Stearman, with help from Travel Air partners Walter Beech and Clyde Cessna.
The sleek Stag' was designed by Ted Wells (who later designed the classic twin-radial, twin-tailed Model 18 "Twin Beech".) Despite a roomy cabin, seating 5, the original Stag' -- at around 200mph -- outran the military fighters of its time.
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Going aloft in "Waldo Wright's" 1930s New Standard open-cockpit biplane -- in 100-mph prop blast -- is a grin, from beginning to end, shared with pilot "Waldo" (Rob Locke) and photographer/pilot colleague Steve Alexander.
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