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The innovations of Dr. Karl Arnstein (1887-1974), an aerospace industry pioneer, form the foundation for lighter-than-air technology in use today. His mathematical proof and application of modern stress analysis allowed the construction of larger, stronger rigid airships. Born in Prague, he led airship design at the Luftschiffbau-Zeppelin Company in Germany. Dr. Arnstein immigrated to Akron, Ohio, in 1924 to serve as vice-president of engineering at Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation. With his team of twelve German immigrant engineers, Arnstein oversaw development of the Navy’s dirigibles Akron and Macon. He received 35 U.S. aviation related patents, from designs for hollow metal girders to an aerodynamic airship hanger, the Airdock in Akron. From 1940 until retirement in 1957, Dr. Arnstein headed engineering at Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, a leading aerospace contractor, which produced more than 200 Navy blimps, 4,000 Corsair fighter planes, plus airplane and missile parts.
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Tuberculosis, or TB, is a contagious disease that was responsible for the deaths of one out of every seven people in the U.S. in the early 20th century. The Licking County Tuberculosis Sanatorium, known as the TB San, was constructed in 1931-1932 at a cost of $250,000. The facility kept TB patients separate from the general population, controlling the spread of disease. The location provided patients with rest, fresh air, food, and exercise, the main treatments for TB in the 19th through mid-20th centuries. (Continued on other side)
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The first airport in central Ohio, Norton Field was named for World War I pilot and star Ohio State University athlete Fred William Norton, a Columbus native. On July 2, 1918, Capt. Norton led the 27th “Eagle” Pursuit Squadron in one of the earliest significant American air engagements of World War I. He died from wounds after his Nieuport 28 was shot down in northern France less than three weeks later. Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker attended the dedication ceremonies for Norton Field on June 30, 1923, as Columbus received its first air mail delivery. Norton Field became the headquarters for the 308th Observation Squadron, made up of local reservists, many of whom were members of the Aero Club of Columbus that had lobbied for the establishment of the airport by the War Department.
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In 1908, West Milton native Charles Furnas worked as a machinist in Dayton doing odd jobs for the Wright Brothers, the inventors of the first practical airplane. At that time the U.S. Army had agreed to purchase an aircraft from the Wright Brothers provided it would carry a pilot and a passenger. Furnas worked with the brothers to adapt their plane. On May 14, 1908, he flew first with Wilbur and then with Orville, becoming the world’s first airplane passenger. (continued on other side)
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Lewis Albert Jackson (December 29, 1912-January 8, 1994) was an African American aviator remembered for training Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. As a teenager in Indiana, he began flight lessons and soloed in 1932, flying his own Waco 10. Jackson spent 1932-1937 barnstorming to save money for college while earning his Transport Pilot’s License. He re-rated to a Commercial License with Instructor Rating in 1939, and then completed advanced acrobatic training at Coffey School of Aeronautics. In late 1940, he was appointed Director of Training in the Army Air Force 66th Flight Training Detachment at Tuskegee Institute. After the war he moved to Ohio and served as an FAA Flight Examiner from 1947 to 1960. The Lewis A. Jackson Greene County Regional Airport was posthumously renamed to honor this true aviation pioneer.
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On this site once stood the Ohio Penitentiary, which was built in 1834 and operated through 1984. Incarcerated here in July 1863 was Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, a cavalry commander known as the “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy,” and about 70 of his officers. Morgan’s Raiders brought the Civil War to the North with a spectacular raid through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio in the summer of 1863. The raid ended with Morgan’s capture in far eastern Ohio. (continued on other side)
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Ernest “Ernie” C. Hall, a pioneer of early flight who is widely recognized for his long career in aviation, was born near Warren, Ohio in 1890. A friend of the Wright brother, Hall built his first powered airplane in 1909 and flew in 1911. He began his career as a civilian flight instructor in 1913, opening a flying school in Pennsylvania in 1915. During World War I, he transferred to Call Field in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he trained over 500 military pilots for combat. In 1922, Hall relocated his flight school to Warren, Ohio, where he taught unitl his death in 1972. His 1911 monoplanes have been displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C. and the National Museum of U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
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A newer use for the airplanes after World War I was mail delivery. Airplanes moved mail faster than trains, but flying only during daylight hours slowed delivery and flying at night was dangerous. The Army Air Service constructed an experimental lighted beacon route for night flying between Columbus and Dayton in 1923. With proof that such a system could work, the U.S. Postal Service developed what later enthusiasts call a “highway of light” to guide air mail pilots on the transcontinental routes between New York to San Francisco and across the nation. (Continued on other side)
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