| Glenn Martin sat in the cockpit of his newly built Martin biplane vigorously jouncing up and down. The wings and tail were on saw horses which placed the new Model TT (Tandem Trainer) in a level flight attitude. The war in Europe was generating more business than which American Manufactures could cope and the overflow had reached the West Coast. Martin was eager for his share. Again and again he would jounce up and down, stopping briefly for his assembled workers to examine the fittings to see if anything had broken or come off. Such was the manner of aircraft structural engineering in 1915. Airplane engineering was more art than science and very much a hit and miss proposition. Most design success was from good guessing which had little to do with the arcane business of engineering technology. Watching the spectacle from the sidelines was a boyish looking recent graduate of an engineering school in Boston. “What are you doing?” Asked the astonished young man. “Why, I’m testing to see if the wings are strong enough!” Snapped Martin. “Isn’t that obvious?” Two weeks earlier, Martin had written Professor Jerome Hunsaker, chair of the newly created Aeronautical Department at MIT, asking him to recommend someone to replace his chief engineer Charlie Willard, who had left to open his own airplane factory back East. Annoyed that his newly hired chief engineer should have to ask such a question, Martin commenced to jounce even harder. Donald Willis Douglas, not wishing to incur the wrath of his first employer nodded knowingly and made a mental note to run a stress analysis of his own. Fast forwarding eighty-nine years. Here I sit in front of my computer vigorously jouncing up and down hoping that I can resuscitate a magazine that’s long gone and largely forgotten. The TAXI-STRiP was born during a time when Oklahoma’s aviation pioneers had a gleam in their eye stoked by an intense belief in aviation’s future. WWI was a decade old memory and the darkness of WWII lurked in the mind of only one man. Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Corp., had just built a beautiful hangar at North May Avenue and what is now Britton Road. Sam Coffman was building the Coffman Monoplane at his factory at 50th and North May. Oklahoma City’s Municipal Airport at 29th and South May, was promoting an ever expanding airline service to and from Oklahoma City. After church, families out for their Sunday drive lined the roads to the airports with their Model 'A's, Whippets and Stove Bolts. Picnic baskets were brimming with fried chicken, potato salad and sweaty Mason jars were full with cold iced tea. They had come out for no other purpose than to watch the airplanes take off and land. Wiley Post, Burl Tibbs, Keith Kahle, Jerry Sass, the Braniff brothers were names spoken of in reverent tones. The body blow of the Great Depression did little to thwart the enthusiasm of General Aviation nor the zeal of aviation enthusiasts. After all, General Aviation was where the excitement and innovation was occurring. The greatest and fastest airplanes were not the military planes, but were the civilian planes with their innovative pilots and builders who had no idea of their limitations, that sparked the public’s imagination. This was the golden age of aviation. By the late ‘30’s most sentient and politically aware Americans could see that another war was inevitable. Keith Kahle, the TAXI-STRIP’S long time editor and publisher went off to war...his magazine suspended for the duration. After the war he went on to fulfill one of his many dreams by founding Central Airlines. As it turns out, the suspension of the magazine outlasted WWII and outlasted Keith Kale. Starting up as a non-scheduled air charter service, Kahle's plane of choice was the cheap and plentiful surplus Cessna T-50 Bobcat. Central Airlines became a scheduled carrier in 1949 when they bought eleven new A-35 Bonanza’s from Beechcraft. (I know what you’re thinking... Yes, Bonanza’s were airliners in regular scheduled airline service. They flew throughout Oklahoma, Kansas and northern Texas.) Kahle had moved on to bigger and better things and the TAXI-STRIP was no more. In the 1960’s Kahle sold his interest in Central Airlines as a result of a merger with Frontier Airlines. I first saw a copy of the TAXI-STRiP about ten-years ago when I got involved in an effort to save the Curtiss-Wright/Wiley Post Hangar from certain oblivion. Ray Jacoby had come to several organizational “save the hangar” meetings that where held in Runways Cafe's ante room at Wiely Post Airport. He showed me copies of the old magazine which had stories about the hangar and airport. Ray was a friend of Wiley Post and a mechanic for Braniff Airlines back when they were flying Lockheed Vegas. More than just a curiosity, I was captivated by the magazine's simple beauty, its optimism and its historicity. I was really taken by the publication. For the past decade that old magazine has been asking, no demanding, that some day I give it my attention so that its voice could once again be heard. It seems fitting, to republish the TAXI-STRIP as we reconstruct the Curtiss-Wright/Wiley Post Hangar. Both of which are too good to be forgotten. Editorial content and the personal neediness sucked me in to the magazine’s character; its character being one of community and bond among aviators and aviation enthusiasts. It was about our tribe...the tribe of aviators. Admittedly, Kahle's writing style would be considered quaint if not down right hokey by today’s slick writing standards. Will Rogers’ fashionably humorous, back-down-on- the-ranch populist style of the 1920’s and ‘30’s, could not be easily emulated. Only Garrison Kylor of our time has reached the high perch set by Will Rogers. Keith Kahle was no Will Rogers. Yet the magazine did have all the charm of a “Tailspin Tommy” movie, with the swagger of "everything is possible" in America. Nature’s way is for us to want to associate with our own ilk, so we form organized groups and exclusive clubs that support our own interests. Consequently, we have the EAA, AAA, CAF, QB’s, AOPA, OX-5s, 99s, Short Wing Pipers, Long Wing Pipers, Milk Stool Pipers, and never the twain shall meet. That is unless we are forced into close proximity at an OPA dinner or at an air show. I’m not saying this is all bad, because we do need support from others who do similar flying, or who fly the same type airplanes. But what I am seeing is a factionalization of our tribe that is no longer tolerable. We are becoming more and more cliquish and standoffish. Not just among ourselves, but outsiders need not apply. When Astronaut Tom Stafford dedicated the new site for the Curtiss-Wright/Wiley Post Hangar at Wiley Post Airport last Oct. 4th, he did so in the name of Wiley Post’s spirit of flying and to our community of aviators. General Stafford’s challenge to us, is to rekindle the spirit of Wiley Post, to pay homage to all those great aviators on whose shoulders we stand. In doing so we will strengthen our tribe against those forces who haven’t a clue about who we are and why we fly. In selecting the format of the new TAXI-STRIP, I've borrowed the masthead of the original just to remind us of how long the journey has been from then to now. The page size and fonts are from the original magazine as well. The magazine is designed to bring you news about us, with its prime focus on aviation in Central Oklahoma. We shall have items that are of interest to all fliers, yet on a more personal level than the national and regional magazines can provide. In each issue we'll reprint some of the articles and stories from past issues. I find them to be fascinating--I hope you will as well. Our goal in republishing the TAXI-STRIP, is to help regain the sense of community that we once shared. But for the TAXI-STRIP to be successful, I am depending on you to provide news and information. It might be that you have traded airplanes or added a new rating to your certificate. Or maybe there is some one new in your family that has just made their grand entrance into the world. All matters great and small are the flesh of this magazine. Poetry or Prose. Who knows? You may be the next Earnest Ghan or Richard Bach. If you like to write about aviation, let us see what you can do. Send us your stories and photos. To me, this is all about one thing...flying. It matters not a whit if you are a paragliderist, a balloonist, an aerobatist, a chaser of the $100 hamburger, or if you prefer conventional gear, tricycle gear, a Tomahawk or an AT-6, an aerostat to an SR-28...it is not a matter of the conveyance, but it is definitely a matter of the heart. To that purpose I dedicate this magazine. |
| Martin TT |
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Wiley Post Airpark circa 1950
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| A complete index of Central & Frontier Airline sites can be found at: http:// FAL-1.tripod.com |
| 1935 OKLAHOMA AIR TOUR |
click on hangar for home page
Keith Kahle
The November Chronicles
"...an Autumn of Airplanes all Called November"
