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Glancing BackWith Stephen Smalley3lf? lEmbryiStbMe JRlgittg #riumlINC;'CINCINNATI. OHIO(rtfta (Errltfirs tip! fyfed*/4* 4/ dfijfidp *#/ JArf **lt;/ dmrms^mud? Jtiv lt;£*4 d Mufew*/,... tm*9*r JU0 | , .....„ ,/tty Jfk0- G , 1 :N .A’ ■lt; 'jfMtk, A*' I'V. ■■lt; a •*■•y** -a«At|y» • -' •.-■ • . 1G.” n ’' G'v : '•• • S * .-.-j. - -:.:• \~*'l -“ ~~~PipliiTO'* of Lawrence M. Srhmidlapp July. IfZiCourtesy Mrs. Charles Paulvun Sunday July 29, 1928 a precedent was set in Cincinnati. On that day the hrst graduation exercises of a flying school held in the city took place at 3 p.m. .it the Embrv-Riddle Flying School at Lunken Airport. There were fifteen graduates, the commencement address was given by “Jiggs” Huffman who had been the chief instructor of the school. His philosophy.contained, such aphorisms as ' Birds don’t fly in fog. don’t think you are smarter than they” and ‘Try to be the oldest fiver, not the best one.”From that class came several graduates of importance to aviation. Among them was Larry Schmidlapp, whose Queen City Flying Service has been discussed in previous articles. Two other graduates of importance from that class were Elmer and Melville Schmidt, two brothers destined to be extremely important to Lunken Airport and to aviation just as the boys of Queen City Fly i ng Service were. •At the time of graduation Elmer was working with French-Bauer Company and Mel” was with Embry-Riddle. The year 1929 was a bad one as anyone w ho lived through the depression will agree. Elmer and Mel were both laid-off at the same time and decided to pool their limited cash resources and great abilities They purchased a Waco 10 with an OX 5 engine and began barn-anrming Their new plane met with an accident and they took it to All Bover’s ily mg field at Ross. Kentucky, where they repaired it. Their repair job was so giNKi tnai they were mxmi swamped with repair jobs and after four years of this experience they derided to go into the business on a larger scale Elmer was to be in charge of managing the company and Mel in charge of the mechanics of the venture itiev ieased Watson Airport at Blue Ash, Ohio and called themselves the E M S Flying Service.They purchased a Taylor Cub for instruction purposes and for short cross country hops. They planned to operate a flying school and. to do aerial photography. They became the sole Cincinnati distributors of the Taylor Cub airplanes, the plane was powered with a Continental A 40 - 2 motor and was capable of a high speed of 85 mph and cruising speed of 70 mph. It could take oil on a 120 foot run and could climb 450 feet in the first minute.While the brothers were at Watson they had a famous visitor cme day. A small monoplane coupe flew out of the west and landed at their field. The gentleman who slipped out. of the Plane September '25, 1934 was Charles Lind-icrgh. Mrs. Lindbergh also alighted and there was a round of greeting between the Lindberghs and the crew at the Port. The plane was refueled and lit teen minutes later flew off in a northeasterly direction.After one year at Watson. Elmer and Mel decided to move their plant to Lunken Airport. The Aeronca factory and hangar had been vacated, so in January. 1935 they moved in. They changed the name of their enterprise' to the Cincinnati Aircraft Service and. here they developed, one of the midwest’s largest plane repair shops. Working on airplane engines and other parts of planes calls for a mdst exacting type of skill and of all the excellent mechanics .f Lunken over the years Mel Schmidt and Don Griffith seem to stand out as the perlectionists.t incinnati Aircraft had many famous visitors. Among them was AmeliaEar hart who is pictured below with Elmer.
Newspaper Details
Forest Hills Journal
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Wed, Feb 05, 1975
Page 16
Full Page
Clipped by
Alexandra C.
USA 08 Nov 2024
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