Boeing School of Aeronautics
{{Short description|School in Oakland, California (1926–1945)}}
{{Infobox school
| image = BoeingSchoolxx_(5729224654).jpg
| location = Oakland Municipal Airport
| city = Oakland
| county = United States
| state = California
| other_name = United Air Lines Training Center
| schooltype = Aviation
| established = September 16, 1929
| founder = Boeing Airplane Company
| closed = 1945
| oversight = Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce
| administrator = Theophilus Lee Jr.
| head_name = Director of flying
| head = George Myers
}}
The Boeing School of Aeronautics was a school that operated in Oakland, California from 1929 to 1945. It taught the design, maintenance, and flying of aircraft made by the Boeing Airplane Company. In its later years, the school was known as the United Air Lines Training Center.
History
= Founding =
The Boeing School of Aeronautics was started by Boeing Corporation to train personnel for its subsidiary Boeing Air Transport.{{Cite web |title=Mission and History |url=https://www.oaklandaviationmuseum.org/oam-mission-and-history |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Oakland Aviation Museum |language=en}} The school opened on September 16, 1929, at the Oakland Municipal Airport in Oakland, California, with nineteen staff and 100 students. At the time, this was the largest municipal airport in the United States. The school was licensed by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, which licensed aviation schools in that period.{{cite journal |last=Brent |first=Larry |date=July 1929 |title=Learn to Fly with Larry Brent |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NSgDAAAAMBAJ&q=aeronautical+chamber&pg=PA46 |journal=Popular Science |volume=115 |issue=1 |page=46 |via=Google Books}} File:Boeing School T-5 NX15542 (8125941747).jpg
Theophilus Lee Jr. was the school's manager and George Myers was its director of flying. The school taught with early Boeing aircraft, including the Boeing Model 81 and Model 100 pursuit fighter and the Boeing Model 203. Students would help design, develop, test fly, and maintain Boeing aircraft, providing sales and engineering feedback to the parent company. Several original aircraft were designed by students and teachers, such as the 1939 Thorp T-5, and T-6.{{cite book |author1=Ronald T. Reuther |title=Oakland Aviation |author2=William T. Larkins |page=63}}
By 1937, the school had expanded operations to 41 staff and 500 students.{{cite book|title=Aerospace Engineering Education During The First Century Of Flight|author1=Barnes Warnock McCormick |author2=Conrad F. Newberry |author3=Eric Jumper |page=858}}
= World War II =
In October 1938, General Henry H. Arnold of the U.S. Air Force invited representatives of the country's top three aviation schools to Washington, D.C., including Theophilus Lee Jr. of the Boeing School of Aeronautic Schools.{{cite book |last1=Lombardi |first1=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-YJZ3jMMk1MC&pg=PA848 |title=Aerospace Engineering Education During the First Century of Flight |date=2004 |publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |isbn=1563477106 |editor-last=McCormick |editor-first=Barnes Warnock |location=Reston, Virginia |page=848 |editor-last2=Newberry |editor-first2=Conrad F. |editor-last3=Jumper |editor-first3=Eric |via=Google Books}} Arnold asked that Lee, along with and Oliver Parks of Parks Air College and C. C. Moseley of the Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute, establish a startup called the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) to train cadets as aviation mechanics for the Air Force. Although the program had yet to receive funding from Congress, all three schools agreed to begin training, housing, and feeding cadets in preparation for the United States' entry into World War II.{{cite book |url=https://media.defense.gov/2010/Nov/05/2001329891/-1/-1/0/AFD-101105-019.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220184358/http://media.defense.gov/2010/Nov/05/2001329891/-1/-1/0/AFD-101105-019.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |title=The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume Six Men and Planes |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1984 |editor-last=Craven |editor-first=Wesley Frank |location=Chicago |page=455 |editor-last2=Cate |editor-first2=James Lea}}
The Boeing School expanded to fourteen buildings and 1,000 students at its peak in 1942. To meet wartime demand, the school suspended its commercial pilot training for United Airlines in August 1942.
= Post War =
By 1943, the Civilian Pilot Training Program contract had expired and Boeing absorbed the school operations into the parent company. The facilities remained under the name United Air Lines Training Center, which continued to train aviation mechanics under a U.S. Navy contract until its closing in 1945.
Legacy
The Oakland Aviation Museum is located in a former Boeing School building, built in 1939.
Notable alumni
- Peter M. Bowers – aeronautical engineer, airplane designer, journalist, and aviation historian{{Cite web |title=Bowers, Peter M. {{!}} Archives Public Interface |url=https://archives.museumofflight.org/agents/people/1167 |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Museum of Flight}}
- Frederick Howard Buller – aeronautical engineer{{Cite web |date=2020-10-22 |title=Frederick Howard Buller |url=https://cahf.ca/frederick-howard-buller/ |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame |language=en-CA}}
- Jack Eckerd – businessman and owner of Eckerd drugstore chain{{Cite news |last=Sullivan |first=Patricia |date=2004-05-20 |title=Drugstore Chain Owner Jack Eckerd Dies |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2004/05/20/drugstore-chain-owner-jack-eckerd-dies/c59fa514-11b9-4614-a9de-d5e75103f941/ |access-date=2023-07-03 |issn=0190-8286}}
- Ted R. Smith – aircraft designer {{cite journal|journal=AAHS Journal|date=Spring 1990|title=The Aero Commander 520|author=Nicholas M. Williams}}{{Cite web |last=Hirschman |first=Dave |date=2014-05-02 |title=Ted Smith's Dream |url=https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2014/february/pilot/aerostar |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association}}
- John Thorp – aeronautical engineer{{cite journal|journal=Sport Aviation|date=March 1972|title=John W. Thorp Designer And Builder}}{{Cite web |last=Laboda |first=Amy |date=2008-07-19 |title=Designer Spotlight: John Thorp |url=https://www.kitplanes.com/designer-spotlight-john-thorp/ |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=KITPLANES |language=en-US}}
- Ray Vasquez – singer, musician, and actor
- Lee Ya-Ching – a Chinese film actress and pioneering aviator{{Cite web |last=Maksel |first=Rebecca |date=July 23, 2008 |title=China's First Lady of Flight |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/chinas-first-lady-of-flight-1725176/ |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}
- Ed Yost – Father of the modern hot-air balloon{{Cite news |last=Hevesi |first=Dennis |date=2007-06-04 |title=Ed Yost, 87, Father of Modern Hot-Air Ballooning, Dies |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/us/04yost.html |access-date=2023-07-03 |issn=0362-4331}}
Notable faculty
- Allan F. Bonnalie – World War I aviator
- John Thorp – aeronautical engineer
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
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External sources
- [https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/insignia-boeing-school-of-aeronautics/nasm_A19710699521 Insignia, Boeing School of Aeronautics, Smithsonian Institution]
- [https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/pin-lapel-boeing-school-aeronautics/nasm_A19710693087 Lapel Pin, Boeing School of Aeronautics, Smithsonian Institution]
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=lUJDAAAAIAAJ Boeing School of Aeronautics (book)]
- Lusk, H.F. "[https://oaklandairfield.org/images/pilots/Hilton%20Lusk/1929Boeingarticle.pdf This School of Aeronautics Is Different]", U.S. Air Services, September 1929
Category:Aviation history of the United States
Category:Aviation schools in the United States
Category:Companies based in California
Category:Companies based in Oakland, California