City of Flight: The History of Aviation in St. Louis by James J. Horgan

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 707 City of Flight: The History ofAviation in St. Louis. By James J. Horgan. Gerald, Mo.: Patrice Press, 1984. Pp. xi + 500; illustrations, notes, glossary, bibliography, index. $24.95 + $2.00 handling (Box 42, Ger­ ald, Missouri 63037). According to James Horgan, St. Louis became a center of flight for three reasons: first, its geographic location near the center of the United States in an area where balloon flights—a major activity in early aeronautics—could be made without having to cross mountain ranges or large bodies of water; next, the determined leadership of several aeronautical partisans in the city; and finally, the enthusiastic support of the city’s people, who turned out by the tens of thousands for major aeronautical events and who voted for extra taxes to pay for airports and airport improvements. But, since so much of early flight was keyed to ballooning, perhaps a fourth factor should be mentioned—the Laclede Gas Light Company, which was able to supply thousands of cubic feet of buoyant coal gas for the dozens of balloons and balloonists who came for several major balloon races between 1907 and the late 1920s. Horgan’s narrative includes copious details of balloon dimensions, flying distances, elapsed time, and cash awards. By the late 1930s, when St. Louis individuals were well known for their sponsorship of Lindbergh’s epic transatlantic flight, aircraft had replaced balloons at air shows, but the enthusiasm and crowds were still there. This seg­ ment of Horgan’s study, focusing on balloon contests and air races, represents the bulk of the book, twelve chapters. There is one chapter on aviation facilities between 1836 and 1965, and three on aviation industries, covering roughly the same period. These four chapters are particularly interesting; they chronicle the rise of airports as the city’s principal passenger facility and the evo­ lution of what is now known as the aerospace industry, since the corporate headquarters of McDonnell Douglas, one of the world’s premier aerospace giants, is lodged in St. Louis. A “Publisher’s After­ word” of some thirty pages brings the story up to 1984, the book’s publication date. From the foregoing summary, it is evident that there is good in­ formation in City of Flight. The difficulty is overcoming the book’s genesis and organization in order to abstract useful material. Written as Horgan’s doctoral dissertation at St. Louis University, the manu­ script was completed in 1965 and rested in the university’s library until the 1980s when the owner/publisher of Patrice Press decided to publish it. The press received some financial support from a local aviation firm and released the book in 1984. All this is commendable, but the author and publisher did little to update the book after a hiatus of some twenty years. Although Horgan’s work in archival files is admirable, it is regrettable that he did nothing to revise his bibli­ ography, which is missing such basic studies as Tom Crouch’s on early aeronautics, R. E. G. Davies’s on airlines in America, andJohn B. Rae’s 708 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE on the aerospace industry, to name but a few. The index is full of St. Louis natives but omits generic topics such as “airlines” and “jets.” The book’s organization, with reams of air-show details sandwiched between two shorter sections on airfields and manufacturing, seems to undercut a sense of continuity. Although the extensive material on early ballooning and air meets is carefully researched and informative, the post—World War II era does not receive the same thorough attention, and there is no doc­ umentation for the “Publisher’s Afterword.” There are few studies of aviation and its relation to the urban environment. This book rep­ resents a start but is not necessarily the best model to follow. Roger E. Bilstein Dr. Bilstein teaches courses in aerospace history at the University of Houston— Clear Lake and is the author of several books and articles on the subject, including Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts (Baltimore, 1984; updated paperback, 1987). Chariots for Apollo: The Making of the Lunar Module. By Charles R...