Warbird Information Exchange

Well I thought it was neat anyway, so humor me....

On Sunday morning I posted a photo on Facebook of Bob taking off in the Curtiss from Akron-Fulton Airport in Ohio

and mentioned that he was heading for Norwalk.

My friend Don immediately posted a comment asking if we knew about Paul Wilber, who in 1912 built and flew a Curtiss copy of his own in Norwalk. Don had a book about Wilber and said that his flying field was still there, although now just a farmers field. I had the leg from Norwalk to Toledo and before take-off I called Don, who went on Google Maps while we talked and gave me a description of how to find the 1912 flying field: follow the train tracks west out of Norwalk, and where they cross a north-south road half way to the next town the field on the southeast side of that intersection is Paul Wilber's old flying field. So I took off, followed the directions, and in a few minutes was descending to make a pass there. The sun was behind me and I could see that for the first time in about 98 years the shadow of a Curtiss Pusher copy was skimming across that field. It looked like it was planted in beans, and there was a house on the west end that had a restored antique pickup truck and tractor parked in the yard. I figured that that guy must know the history of the field, and I hoped he'd come running out the door to watch the Curtiss go by, but no luck, probably sitting on the can wondering what that noise was...

Here's Paul Wilber in his Curtiss copy in that field in 1912


from: http://earlyaviators.com/ewilber.htm

And I also discovered that Wilber's airplane is still in existance!
http://www.norwalkreflector.com/content ... walk-plane


Wind was light, weather was good, it was a good flight to Toledo Suburban Airport.




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http://www.biplanerides1.com/

I love this stuff.

And, as it works out, on Mapquest satellite, if you follow the tracks west out of town toward Monroeville, you run into a N/S road cleverly named "Halfway Road".

Ladies and Gents, Here is Mr Wilber's field:

Very cool happenstance and the field is still a field 100 years later and not a factory or something else!

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

That is the field alright, and here's more photos of Wilber's pusher in it, early version with front elevators, scanned from the book "The Adventures of Aviator Paul Wilber":






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http://www.biplanerides1.com/

Awesome story. I love it when simple details come together to re-create history like that. Now I want to find a copy of the book!

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Blue Skies,
Dan
http://www.flytoanothertime.com

Paul Wilbur's original airplane still exists. It was found and restored back in the early 1980's by Foster Lane and the crew at the Ohio History of Flight Museum in Columbus, Ohio (now closed). The last time I saw the airplane was two years ago at the storage facility at the Ohio Historical Society when I went to retrieve the Waco 9 and Waco 10 that were there in storage as well.

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President National Waco Club
Curator for the Waco Historical Society Air Museum
Writer for VINTAGE AIRPLANE, SKYWAYS, BARNSTORMERS.COM EFLYER