| Flying the crowded skies of the contemporary air transport system can be a nerve-shattering experience. After being crammed into uncomfortable seats, suffering through interminable delays, eating tasteless food, and searching for lost luggage, travelers find it easy to look back on the interwar years as a "golden age" of aviation. Aviators were heroes then. Although few remember Maitland, Macready, Williams, or Hegenberger, the names of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart have survived. They stand for all the forgotten fliers, recalling a time of adventure and romance. |
| It was never that simple, of course. There was nothing romantic about a Ford trimotor, at least for passengers who sat inside a badly vibrating cabin, ears stuffed with cotton against the noise, clutching airsickness bags as the 100-MPH airplane bounced all over the sky. Flying also could be dangerous in the absence of accurate weather forecasting, radio aids to navigation, and strict safety regulations. In short, nostalgia for the past should not be allowed to obscure the hard work and struggle that were the hallmarks of American aviation during the interwar years. |
| Aeronautical development in the United States came slowly following the Great War, contrary to the expectations of those who saw the armistice as heralding the dawn of a new aerial age. Technological progress had been rapid during the war years, as the frail observation planes of 1914 gave way to the speedy and deadly Sopwith Camels, Spads, and Fokker D-VIIs of 1918. The time had come, many believed, to exploit the peaceful uses of the airplane. Aviation, one industry group proclaimed, had freed man from "the old belief in his limitations, from the cramped power of one who is a creature of the earth and subject to it. Now, neither earth's mountains, nor deserts, nor storms are obstacles to his passage. Not only the world but the sky has been given to man's dominion."1 |
| Reality fell far short of the dreams of aviation enthusiasts. The election of 1920 brought to office a Republican administration pledged to economy. Determined to balance the budget, and not perceiving any threats to national security, President Warren G. Harding directed his subordinates to slash military spending. The air components of the Army and Navy soon felt the cut of the budgetary axe. The Army Re-organization Act of 1920 fixed |
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