Week 50: Chandler's First Airport
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh shocked the world with his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Aviation, at one time the purview of only the military and daredevils, was becoming a public obsession. Soon towns all over the nation, including the city of Chandler wanted to be a part of the new flying craze.
Less than a year after Lindbergh’s famous flight, on Saturday, February 4, 1928, a Stinson Detroiter 6-passenger monoplane circled around Chandler. Inside the flying machine were Dr. Alexander J. Chandler, his second wife Charlotte Boyd Chandler, Dr. Chandler’s nephew-in-law and business partner Art Price, two guests of the San Marcos Hotel, and J Parker Van Zandt. Van Zandt was the founder of Scenic Airways, offering the first sightseeing flights to the Grand Canyon. He also founded the airport that would ultimately become Sky Harbor Airport.
As Van Zandt flew, the passengers were quite delighted and enthusiastic about the experience. As one passenger said, “Chandler looked even more beautiful from air than on the ground.” Van Zandt was proposing to build a permanent airport with hangars on 80 acres of Dr. Chandler’s land south of today’s 202 freeway between Arizona Avenue and Alma School Road. This new airport would provide regular air service for San Marcos guests to the Grand Canyon. The Chamber of Commerce was behind the ides, and constructed telephone lines to land for the use of passengers.
By the middle of March 1928, the airport had become a “Class A” community airport, open to all. To the community, this was much more than just a place for planes to alight or takeoff. It was seen as a way to literally put Chandler on thousands of airway maps as an “up-and coming” district that would attract noted visitors from across the nation. Indeed, Chandler was the first community of its size anywhere in the nation to live up to the government’s increasingly strict regulations for this type of airport.
The leaders of Chandler felt that the dedication of the new airport could serve as a nationwide advertising campaign for the small but vibrant community. On March 13, 1928, the dedication ceremonies included notables Governor George W. P. Hunt, Phoenix Mayor Frank A Jefferson, and many others VIPs. More than 2,500 people attended the dedication and planes flew in from San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales, El Paso, and San Antonio. After a few short speeches, attendees were treated to flying demonstrations and acrobatic stunts performed by Lieutenant O.P. Gothlin, army aviator from Rockwell Field in San Diego. The experienced pilots who examined the field pronounced it “one of the finest fields in all of Arizona.” A planed parachute jump was postponed due to high wind concerns, but several guests were treated to short flights over the City of Chandler.
The dedication ceremony drew national attention. Pathe News, a French newsreel company, showed footage of the Chandler Airport Dedication as part of their national news coverage during the middle of April 1928. The footage was shown in 400 theaters nationwide and was viewed by approximately 2,000,000 people.
By September of 1928, Southwest Air Service Inc. was using Chandler as a stop for planes flying from Flagstaff to Nogales, and soon it was also an air-mail stop on the southern transcontinental air-mail line. By November, Standard Airlines was making plans for Chandler to serve as a regular stop for flights between Los Angeles and Fort Worth.
By December of 1928, users started to demand improvements to the facility, despite being less than a year old. Some of these improvements included a longer and wider runway, better alignment with the prevailing winds, and fewer trees in close proximity. City leaders and Dr. Chandler determined that a whole new site would be easier to develop instead of upgrading the original airfield. One year to the day, March 13, 1929, a new Chandler Municipal Airport, located where Tumbleweed Park is today, was dedicated by Arizona’s new Governor, John C. Phillips.
Since those early days, air traffic has remained an important part of Chandler’s history.