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Labeled as simply a "landing strip" by 1986 by the United States Geological Survey, Arrow Airport had a period a great activity.At one time, the airfield was heavily considered as a possible site for Lincoln's main municipal airport.

Published by the US Department of Commerce in the early 20th century, the Airway Bulletin documented nearly every airfield in the country complete with maps, expected weather conditions, and landing instructions.

Located between present-day Interstate 80 and the Burlington Northern Railroad, this map shows Arrow Airport's orientation relative to the rest of Lincoln in 1964.

Various models of Arrow aircraft in front of hangars, c.1929

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At the beginning of the 20th century, Lincoln boasted a number of airfields around the city. At the moment, it is unknown how much "competition" existed between each of them; however, most of the airfields did have an immediate connection with their own airplane manufacturing businesses in the city. Arrow Airfield is a very good example.While no historical marker exists today, this location and the grassy fields that used to surround it served an important role in driving Lincoln aviation innovation.

Arrow Aircraft Airfield: 1928-1986

Discover the important and frequently hidden history aviation in Lincoln 

Aviation History in Lincoln, Nebraska

Aviation in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been active at this site since 1928, when city commissioners approved the purchase of a small tract of land on which a small, Art Deco-style brick terminal housing the Lincoln Municipal Airport was completed in 1929. Today, nearly 100 years later, the airport (now Lincoln Airport Authority) boast commercial airline traffic to at least three major cities across the United States, as well as numerous fruitful partnerships with the United States military.

Lincoln Airport

Charles Taylor, a former Lincoln resident, assisted the Wright Brothers in their design and construction of the engine that powered the Brothers' first flight. Taylor later went onto serve as the mechanic for the first transcontinental flight in 1911.

Now known as the Nebraska Innovation Campus, this area once hosted some of the earliest experimentation of flight in the history of Lincoln.Experimentation in flying came from all directions in Nebraska during the 1890s and early 1900s. The Baysdorfer brothers of Omaha, prolific innovators in their own right, created the Comet: a lighter-than-air airship considered to the be the first Nebraska-built one of its kind. In 1910, the Baysdorfers constructed the first Nebraska-built airplane in Omaha.

Early Flight In Nebraska

After airmail came to Nebraska in 1923 - and the entire system stretched across the nation - the airplane manufacturing industry became increasingly formalized. At the same time, the federal government increasingly regulated the industry to ensure the safety and standards of plane manufacturing and aviation piloting.The Kelly Airmail Act of 1925 authorized private companies to bid for airmail routes and used their privately owned planes to deliver mail for the US Post Office around the country.In 1926, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Air Commerce Act into law after growing calls for better safety and practical regulations on the burgeoning yet struggling American aviation industry. As a result, a federal campaign to create and complete safer, well-lit airways, along with other air-minded safety ambitions, began.Around this time, the Arrow Aircraft Corporation in Havelock, NE (later annexed by the city of Lincoln), completed its first airplane. The following year, Arrow produced its iconic Arrow Sport.With the support of new investors, Arrow thrived heading into the 1930s. Orders came in from home and abroad.Those orders were halted when a supply chain disaster occurred. A fire at an engine plant created a shortage of engines for planed production. The economic devastation of the Great Depression further doomed production of Arrow aircrafts. The company went out of business in the 1940s.

Hundreds of airline passengers walk past a bright red airplane everyday in the Lincoln Airport. Nearly a century old, the aircraft symbolizes an extraordinarily brief yet productive period of one of Lincoln's most prolific aircraft manufacturer.The Arrow Aircraft Corporation was established during the heyday of Lincoln aviation production.After producing its first airplanes in 1926 and 1927 (most notably, the Arrow Sport), the Arrow Aircraft Corporation thrived.That is, until an unfortunate combination of the Great Depression and supply chain disasters forced a halt to production of the Arrow Sport in 1932. The entire Arrow Aircraft Corporation ceased operations in the early 1940s.

Arrow Aircraft Factory: 1929-1940s

Dr. Charles E. “Doc” Carothers, obituary from Lincoln Journal Star, Friday, 03 January 1986, p. 7. 1)     At 58, Carothers “was performing aerial maneuvers for a feature being filmed by KMTV (Channel 3) of Omaha when his one-seat experimental plane crashed as it approached the runway at Pesters Airport, 112th and Holdrege streets.”2)     “Carothers, who was known throughout the nation for his competitive aerobatics, was described as a cautious pilot by KMTV reporter John Haxby, who had been working on the story with Carothers for more than a year.” 3)     “Carothers had just done a series of stunts over the runway at the private airstrip, Haxby said, then appeared to lose power and crashed into the runway at a 45-degree angle.” 4)     “The fuel-injected single-engine plane, which Carothers built and called the Cam Machine, was destroyed.” 5)     “Carothers had said in earlier newspaper interviews that he did not consider himself a stunt pilot, did not take chances and did not feel that his avocation was risky.” 6)     “The November crash was not his first one. He suffered minor injuries in 1975 when the engine of his Pitts Special quit and the craft was hit by another plane during an air show in Clarksdale, Miss.” 7)     “In 1983, Carothers was flying an experimental stunt plane when the hand-made propeller broke. He shut the engine down and glided to a landing on a grassy field near Eagle, suffering only minor injuries.” 8)     “On Nov. 7 he suffered severe head and internal injuries but had been removed from the intensive care unit at Lincoln General. His condition was upgraded from critical to serious about three weeks after the accident.” 9)     “One of his physicians, Timothy R. Lieske, said Friday that Carothers died as the result of injuries from the crash and that until he had discussed the situation with Carothers’ family he would make no further comment.” 10) “Carothers, who had been flying longer than he had been filling teeth, learned to fly when he was a college freshman and two military pilots took him up in an Army trainer and taught him aerobatics, according to newspaper clippings. He also was an advocate of transcendental meditation, which he said relaxed him before air-show competition.”11) “Funeral services were pending Friday at Butherus-Maser &amp; Love Mortuary.” Dr. Charles E. “Doc” Carothers, AP Report of crash, 08 November 19851)     https://apnews.com/article/5f459e7798db13a5186ca2b881a7afa92)     LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) _ A homebuilt airplane crashed while the pilot was doing stunts for a television feature film, and he was in critical condition Friday at Lincoln General Hospital.3)     Authorities were trying to determine what caused the plane piloted by dentist Charles Carothers, 58, of Lincoln to crash on a private airstrip Thursday, said Lancaster County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Woodruff.4)     Carothers was performing stunts for photographer John Haxby of KMTV in Omaha when his one-seat, single-wing airplane crashed.5)     Carothers had turned his engine off for the stunt, Haxby said. ″It looked like he couldn’t get the engine started again,″ he said. Haxby said Carothers tried to make the runway without power but the aircraft crashed.6)     ″The plane hit on the nose and wing and spun around.... We call it a cartwheel,″ Haxby said.7)     Carothers was pinned in the wreck for an hour and 15 minutes before firefighters could remove him.8)     Huxby said Carothers is a cautious pilot and and wasn’t doing any extraordinary stunts.9)     ″The stuff he was doing tonight, he’s been doing all over the country,″ the photographer said.10) Woodruff said he couldn’t observe anything wrong in Haxby’s videotape of the crash.11) A tape of the radio contact between Haxby and Carothers was too garbled to determine anything, Woodruff said.https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/06/06/Daredevil-dentists-dual-lifeNEWLNDrills-in-the-office-thrills-in-the-air/2792392184000/

At the confluence of 112th and Holdrege streets on the eastern outskirts of Lincoln, a small airport sits near a unique aviation-themed neighborhood.Facing southward from Holdrege Street, onlookers notice Sky Ranch Acres to their right. On the left, onlookers see Pester Airport. Here, some residents find that their personal planes are just as useful as their cars. Indeed, these residents can taxi their planes from the grassy 1,700-foot Pester Airport runway, through the aviation-themed streets (Cessna Lane, Piper Way, Beechcraft Road, etc.) into their basement-level hangars. In fact, some residents commute across the city in their planes. As one resident put it, "I just jump in the plane and fly across the city. It’s about a four-minute trip in a plane. And it takes 20 to 25 minutes drive.”Many pilots have taken off in their planes from Pester Airport. But perhaps none more famous that Dr. Charles Carothers: a local dentist who doubled as an aerial acrobat. Read on to learn about this fascinating and tragic story.

Pester Airport, Sky Ranch Acres, and Dr. Charles Carothers

After the financial debacles at the Nebraska Aviation Corporation, creditors tapped a local Buick salesman, Ray Page, to take control of the company. Page subsequently renamed it Lincoln Standard Aircraft Company with offices at 2409 'O' Street in Lincoln. Some of the individuals helped Ray Page at the Lincoln Standard Aircraft Company include: <ul><li>Chief engineer, Otto Timm</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Built and designed planes since 1910</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Came to Lincoln in 1921 to do design work for Lincoln Aircraft</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Piloted the plane in which Bud Gurney and Charles Lindbergh took their first airplane ride in April 1922</li></ul><ul><li>Test pilot, salesman, and stunt pilot: Eyer Sloniger</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Studied at UNL and began barnstorming part-time after training in France during WWI and at Kelly Field in Texas</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Had a close call with the Dole race in 1927</li></ul><ul><li>Plant manager: Encil Chambers</li><li class="ql-indent-1">World War I veteran Encil Chambers broke the world record for a high-altitude parachute jump in 1921 when he leaped from 26,800 feet over Kansas City</li></ul>In 1927, Ray Page expanded the administration of Lincoln Standard to include Victor Roos of Omaha, formerly an executive with Swallow Aircraft Corporation in Wichita, KSA series of planes manufactured by Lincoln Standard became quite popular<ul><li>The Swallow-turned-Lincoln Page 3 (LP-3)</li><li>Page Trainer (PT) </li><li>Lincoln Sport: billed as the “world’s smallest practical airplane” (RG2801-1-53a&amp;b) </li></ul>As a result, Page and his partners molded Lincoln Standard Aircraft into a truly global airplane produces, selling aircrafts as far as Tucson, Arizona, and Honduras in Central America. In the middle of Lincoln Standard's success, Ray Page sold the schooling portion of the company to E.J. Sias. Originally called the Lincoln Auto and Airplane School, it was later renamed the Lincoln Airplane and Flying School or, more formally, the Lincoln Aeoronautical Institute. Like the Arrow Aircraft Company, the economic devastation of the Great Depression sunk sales. The company was forced to merge with American Eagle of KC in 1931. The Lincoln-based plant was closed soon thereafter. \\\\\\Nebraska Aircraft Corporation – a main competitor of Harding, Zook, and Bahl – was created by three businessmen in 1919. In an effort to create powerful yet reliant planes, the owners purchase a large stockpile of WWI-surplus airplanes and engines. The first of these airplanes was manufactured in the Industrial Arts Building on the old Nebraska State Fairgrounds. By 1921, the businessmen fell behind on their loan payments. Rumor suggests that one of the founders fled to Mexico with the company's assets. Consequently, creditors tapped a local salesman, Ray Page, to take control of the company in 1922 - renaming it Lincoln Standard Aircraft Company. In addition to producing planes, Lincoln Standard also provided flying lessons. Its most famous student was Charles Lindbergh, who enrolled at the school in 1922 and first learned to fly, parachute, and barnstorm in Lincoln. Later in the decade, the schooling branch of Lincoln Standard was purchased by E.J. Sias, who re-named it the Lincoln Airplane and Flying School while Lincoln Standard remained under the supervision of Page. On March 30, 1930, the Lincoln Airplane and Flying School was officially approved by the US Department of Commerce: Aeronautics Branch. The Lincoln Airplane and Flying School operated out of two locations: the recently constructed municipal airport housed the flight training program, while mechanics training took place at the company’s headquarters in downtown Lincoln at 2409 ‘O’ Street). The school briefly provided flight instruction to army cadets in 1939, before the Army Air Corps, “deterred by a particularly harsh Nebraska winter,” opted to move the training program to Lakeland, Florida, the following fall. The facility closed in 1945, but the mantle of flight instruction in Lincoln was quickly taken up by other aviation-minded entrepreneurs. Page sold Lincoln Standard in 1929 to a group of Omaha investors. Unfortunately, the Great Depression compounded the increase in government flying regulations prompted the company to move operations out of Lincoln to Kansas City.

The Lincoln Standard Aircraft Company and the Lincoln Airplane and Flying School were two pillars of aviation development in Lincoln. But these institutions were really only made possible after other companies faltered. Founded soon after World War I, the Nebraska Aircraft Company was one of the first major aircraft corporations in Lincoln. Owners A.G. Hebb, L.A. Winship, and E.C. Hammond bought an entire stock of WWI-surplus airplanes and some engines in an effort to create a powerful yet reliable airplane. The first of these airplanes was manufactured in the Industrial Arts Building on the old Nebraska State Fairgrounds. By 1921, the businessmen fell behind on their loan payments. One rumor suggests that one of the founders fled to Mexico with the company's assets.Left to pick up the pieces, creditors turned to a local Buick salesman Ray Page to take over the company. Less than a decade later, Page and his colleagues turned the Lincoln Standard Aircraft Company into a truly national and international manufacturer of iconic airplanes.

Aviation History in Lincoln, Nebraska

Arrow Aircraft Airfield: 1928-1986

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Backstory and Context

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Additional Information