Redwood City Airport History:
Early Fliers Are Named
In Aviation Review
SPANGLER
By RAY SPANGLER
Funny thing happened to me at, a Kiwanis
Club meeting recently. The scheduled speaker
didn't show up.
* if *
I had been invited to hear him, and as time
went on my host became more and more nervous in absence of the speaker, and suddenly
turned to me and asked me if I could substitute.
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Since I have been making a fairly standard
speech about this Free Press and Fair Trial issue, I agreed.
* *  if ^
It soon became apparent; however, that nothing could be less appropriate than that particular subject since the meeting was devoted to the
old time days in the aviation industry.
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The chairman asked a show of hands of those
who had flown acrdss the United States. How
many had flown to Europe? How many were
aviators in their own right?
When it came time for me to make a few
remarks to cover the embarrassment of my
host I recalled the time that the historical association gathered at the old terminal building at
San Francisco Airport and some of the old
touches cut up there.
it  if  if
In connection with this, JLlearned that Charles
Anderson^Ampex: &gineer^is._ undertaking to
write a history of the Redwood City„ ;airport,
which was one of the early ones.
it it a
One of the very good sources of information
about the old airport is Will D; Parker* who
wrote recently from Sedona, Arizona:
it it  *
"I did not iearn to fly at Redwood but went to
California from Colorado to take my Aero Club
license from the school. Then they hired me as
an instructor.
* *  *
"The Christofferson School was first located
at Seal Beach near the Cliff House in San Francisco. Then they moved to the Alameda marsh
and eventually to Redwood City. After Silas
Christofferson was killed the name of the school
was changed to the Redwood School of Aviation.
*' it   it-
"Frank Bryant was always chief instructor —
and a good one. At one time he was given an
award by the Aviation Section of the Signal
Corps for having taught more people to fly than
anyotheroneman.
it  it  it
"I married Eleanor Ruth Read, who was born
in Redwood City at Five Points — in an.old
home that has long since been removed and
destroyed. Her father, John J. Read was one of
the first realtors on the Peninsula..."
* *  if
Parker enclosed the list of Early Bird pilots
at Redwood City who learned to fly at the Redwood School of Aviation.
* * *
He recalled that Bob Fowler of San Jose, who
died recently, sent his tractor bi-plane to the
Smithsonian Institution sometime ago. That is
the plane he flew in Panama.
it   it   it
Mr. Paul Garber of the Smithsonian could tell
us all about that. The Wright engine that followed Fowler, till his death was the original
four cylinder job he flew across the United
States.
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Harry Christofferson is still alive and Parker
still corresponds with Mrs. Frank Bryant who
lives in Morro Bay.
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Parker recalled a Gus Jameson who was killed in Redwood City after the war. He was riding as a reluctant passenger with Cliff Prodge
who was flying a Bristol Fighter and needed
ballast in the back seat. Gus used to go with a
girl named Angel Shaw who was a reporter on
the Redwood City Standard. Parker has lost
track of her, but he would like to know where
she is.
* it  it
Incidentally, hejays, Mr. Guy Slaughter who
lived in Oakland used to take the ferry and train
to Redwood City to observe all the Aero Club of
America license tests. He was regarded as a
grand man dedicated to aviation who spent
much of his time this way without any remuneration.
it   it   it
Happy Bryant died several years ago in Arizona.
He was a product of the Christofferson school
and soloed first on May 19,1914.
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One of his students was the son of a Finnish
born tannery worker, Victor Gustave Johnson,
never known otherwise than Speed Johnson.
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Speed had been a classmate of Paul Mantz,
another Redwood City boy whose father was a
school principal. Speed was 17, had a job at
Young's Drug Store, but just couldn't resist the
flying machines. He went to work at the Redwood City Airport as soon as there was a job
open, and it was Speed Johnson who gave Paul
Mantz, the late famous movie stunt flyer, his
first ride in an airplane at the old Redwood City
airport.
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On June 25, Silas Christofferson broke the
American altitude record when he flew over Mt.
Whitney. His machine went 15,837 feet into the
air.
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When Christofferson was killed, Redwood City
closed up in mourning. Flags were half staffed,
and everyone in town mourned the passing of
this great pioneer in aviation.