March 2010 marks air show, open house at Maxwell-Gunter

  • Published
  • By Carl Bergquist
  • Air University Public Affairs
"Thunder on the River - 100 years of Flight" is the theme for the upcoming Maxwell-Gunter open house and air show scheduled for March 27 and 28, 2010.

"This is the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers opening a flying school at Maxwell, and that makes the open house special for us," said Lt. Col. Joseph Abel, 2010 Open House director.

Senior Master Sgt. Terrence Henderson, 2010 Open House production supervisor, said the Maxwell-Gunter event "fits right into" a state-wide effort to honor the 100 years of flight.

"This is just one of many programs throughout Alabama that will commemorate the Wright Brothers' school," he said. "Many state agencies and organizations are also planning events for this historic anniversary."

Fred Schramm, Air University staff historian, said the Wright Brothers setting up the first civilian flying school in the Montgomery area proved very important to Maxwell-Gunter.

"I think the reason Maxwell is here today is because the Wright Brothers came," he said. "After the Wrights departed, the location became a depot, then was named Maxwell Field and became home to the Air Corps Tactical School."

Jerome Ennels, in a 1991 article for the Dispatch, said when three square miles of an old cotton plantation [Frank Kohn Plantation] were offered, Wilbur Wright immediately accepted the offer, as the Montgomery area had the suitable weather needed for the school. The Montgomery Commercial Club offered to build the airfield and hanger and provide transportation to the site.

"Wilbur telegraphed Orville in Dayton (Ohio) and said, 'Pack up a machine and send it to Montgomery,'" Mr. Ennels said. "On July 19, 1910, the flight of the Wright Flyer at 40 miles per hour and reaching 50 feet in altitude marked the opening of the first national civilian flying school at a site that would later become Maxwell."

He said on May 28, 1910, the school closed, and the aircraft was sent to Indianapolis, Ind. Activity at the site ceased for eight years until World War I brought flying back to the Kohn Plantation. On Nov. 8, 1922, the site was officially named Maxwell Air Fore Base.

Colonel Abel said the open house will be held Saturday and Sunday with a special-children's day held Friday.

He also said the event committee is hoping to bring a Wright Flyer reproduction to Maxwell-Gunter for the open house.

"We are going to need a lot of volunteers, probably between 350 and 500, to man booths, help with parking, perform security and other tasks for the show," he said. "Some of this help will come from Officer Training School and permanent base members, but others will be needed, and we will notify everyone at a later date as to how to volunteer for the open house."