Logan's memory lived on when they named Baltimore's new
airport after him.
LOGAN FIELD
Baltimore's first Municipal Airport
© 1997, Clayton Davis
This is a story about an airport everyone has forgotten, even most people in Baltimore where it happened to be. This was the first airport in Baltimore's history where you could purchase a round-trip ticket to Miami. Yet, ask anyone, "Where was it?"
Here's how it happened. The time was right after World War I. Yes, way back then, in this city with deep historic roots, Baltimore, Maryland.
Pat Logan spun to his death in a JN-4 biplane. There was no smoke or explosion, just that sickening, crumpling thud.
His World War I flying buddies ran to the spot. They found Logan and his airplane the "Red Devil" with its nose buried in a cornfield. He was rushed by Army car to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Logan died on the operating table.
Logan's memory lived on when they named Baltimore's new
airport after him.
It was a splendid day that July when a small red airplane appeared on the horizon. The hum of an airplane engine was seldom heard. Back then, flying was limited to World War One veterans and an occasional stunt pilot. Newspapers regularly carried a listing giving the dates when some brave pilot would be flying over the city.
The 4th of July was one of the few paid holidays in Baltimore. It was a time for trips to picnic groves and amusement parks. An aerial circus was planned for a field in Dundalk the week of July 4, 1920. It would be the Maryland Flying Club's first big meet. People would see marvelous aerial stunts.
The Baltimore American newspaper of July 5, 1920 carried the announcement in a front-page ad for Riverview Park, the big amusement park at Point Breeze, the site later taken by the Western Electric plant. For an additional price, Riverview visitors would be placed on a special pier to watch the events at the Dundalk Flying Field across the river.
Lt. Patrick Henry Logan, "the world's greatest stunt pilot" would fly his plane here and do some amazing things, such as flying upside down for five minutes. It was Logan in his "Red Devil" biplane, just a dot on the horizon the afternoon of July 5. Onward he came and soon climbed his airplane to a height of 2,000 feet.
The next day's paper reported, "All eyes were on him," as Logan began his first stunt. It was a tailspin, a dreaded maneuver that could kill both the pilot and airplane. But Logan was an experienced stunt pilot. Nothing to worry about.
The engine was throttled back to idle. Spectators heard only silence, except for the whistling of wind. It made an eerie sound through the wire braces between the wings.
Logan held the control stick all the way back and pushed in the rudder, the way he had done many times before. Down he came, the airplane falling lazily, spinning like a maple leaf. One wing was fully stalled, the other making just enough lift to twist the little red airplane round and round.
The crowd gasped, fascinated by the falling airplane. Not everyone had seen an airplane up close and personal. Hardly anyone had ever ridden in those strange contraptions. And here was one, falling, twisting and turning before their very eyes. They watched horrified.
Normally, at about 500 feet above the ground, where he should have leveled off, Logan didn't. The stick would have been shoved forward, but today something had gone dreadfully wrong. The elevator controls didn't work.
Suddenly, everyone's worst fears were realized. Logan's airplane kept falling and disappeared behind a grove of trees. The crowd heard a loud thud. Aviation had lost a hero.
This was a sad ending to the first public display by a group of enthusiastic World War One aviators who had organized the American Flying Club, later called the Maryland Flying Club.
Following World War One, pilots from the army and navy coming home to Baltimore needed an airport. Until then, there were not enough local aviators to justify the creation of a regular field. Their first public event had ended in disaster with the death of Pat Logan.
General Felix Agnus, president of the Park Board, had been approached by the military veterans who asked for an airfield in one of the city parks. In those days airplanes required very little space.
General Agnus was the owner of The Baltimore American newspaper. He wanted to find them a field, but knew the city parks would be too dangerous to the public. General Agnus consulted with Mayor William F. Broening who was enthusiastic at the prospects.
The Maryland Flying Club had found the perfect location near Dundalk. It was just right, a large, level field which that had been a truck farm. The property, however, belonged to the Bethlehem Steel Company. Now it contained the blood of Pat Logan, the aviation hero.
W. Frank Roberts, then manager of this great plant, himself an aviation enthusiast, had no objection to the use of the property for flying purposes. They first called it the Dundalk Flying Field. It was approximately 100 acres and lay between Belclare Road, Dundalk Avenue, and Sollers Point Road.
A formal lease agreement was signed and the airfield officially dedicated November 15, 1920. It was renamed Logan Field in memory of Lieutenant Patrick Henry Logan, whose plane crashed and killed this popular flyer a few months prior to the official opening. At last, Baltimore had its first Municipal Airport.
The deal almost didn't happen. Bethlehem Steel had changed its mind and decided it might need the land after all. The city, however, came up with $2,000 a year rent. The state of Maryland provided $500 in operating expenses. After all, Baltimore did not want to be caught short without a major-league airport, which Logan Field then qualified as. More money for improvements arrived and lights were installed for night flying. Before long, such fliers as Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh were visiting Logan Field.
The field was initially a great success. Canvas hangars were built, and by 1922 the field was hosting an annual series of air meets. There would often be captured German World War I Fokkers, British and French models, plus the latest American biplanes. In the flying-crazy 1920s, Logan Field was the place to be.
On May 6, 1929 the Post Office began airmail service to Logan Field. At 7 a.m., the first plane arrived from New York, via Philadelphia. In the first month, the Baltimore Post Office took in 661 pounds, nine ounces of air-destined letters.
At the Logan air meet in 1929, 30,000 people cheered a new air speed mark of 258 miles per hour.
Baltimore Airways inaugurated the first daily scheduled flights between Baltimore Logan Field and New York, October 28, 1929. On May 1st, 1930, this company announced it would use six planes to provide service between Baltimore, Washington, New York, Camden and Atlantic City. It charged $25 from Baltimore to New York and $40 for round-trip. Later, there was a biweekly flight to Miami, Florida. The Pennsylvania-Central Airlines Corporation, inaugurated service in 1937, and American Airlines began passenger flights at Logan Field in December 1936.
In May 1929 the Curtiss-Caproni Corporation started building a plant at Harbor Field just across the road from Logan Field. It would cost $1,000,000, and was to employ 1,500 workers. Completed in 1930, it never operated as the Curtiss-Caproni Corporation, because of the Great Depression. General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation leased the plant. Beginning in late 1931, the company built 5 flying boats for the Coast Guard and 12 army observation planes. After a few years they gave up the lease. Pan-American Airways started using the facility for servicing their airplanes, and for that line's office.
By 1932 Logan Field had three crossing runways. Two were 2000 feet and one was 3000 feet.
Pat Romano, age 91, operated Logan Flying Service from 1936 until the airport closed in 1942. He had come here to work for the General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation as an aircraft machinist.
Mr. Romano said, "I worked for Tony Fokker at Teterboro for nine years. He sold out in 1929, before the Great Depression. Two years later, in 1931, I moved down here."
Mr. Romano was a skilled aircraft machinist, working for Tony Fokker at Teterboro, New Jersey, participating in such projects as the famed Fokker Tri-Motor airplane.
Pat Romano added, "I started working for Tony Fokker in 1924. Fokker sold it to General Motors. They called it General Aviation. I worked for North American there until 1931, when I was called to Baltimore by General Aviation. We made five flying boats for the Coast Guard."
Mr. Romano returned to New Jersey before starting the Logan Flying Service in 1936.
"I was laid off from General Aviation in 1934. Went back home, up in New Jersey. Got a job in Patterson with Wright Aeronautical. Then a telegram asked me to come down here to work for North American. But instead, I came to work for Crown, Cork and Seal. They were paying more money. That was in 1935."
He became an entrepreneur through an investment he made in a Piper E-2 cub.
"The way I got that E-2, the fellow who owned it was the Chief Mechanic on the China Clipper. When he was transferred to Seattle to service the China Clipper, he had this airplane and seven students. He sold me the airplane for $750 and that's how I got in the business. I bought that Piper E-2 Cub, NC-12630, in 1936."
The airplane was making money when Romano bought it.
"I got seven students, a big box of tools, an extra engine, and a prop. Best part about it. There was a man in the hangar who took care of my airplane."
Pat Romano was holding down a full-time job as a machinist at the time.
"I was working at Crown, Cork and Seal. I had been working for North American and they moved to the West Coast. But I didn't want to go out there. I had the airplane here."
It was making him good, steady money too.
Romano said, "I was getting $5 an hour for the airplane."
Did he learn to fly in his own airplane?
"Well, yes. You might say that. I had been flying some up in Teterboro, but couldn't log it. I didn't have a license. Took me only a couple hours to get my license down here, in my E-2 Cub."
Pat Romano's Logan Flying Service shared the field with the Maryland Air National Guard, the 104th Squadron, 29th Division. Maryland National Guard had the first flying unit in the National Guard. It was formed June 29, 1921.
The 104th Observation Squadron was the first Air National Guard unit to be equipped with its own airplanes. The Unit received 13 JN-4D-2 Jennies between July and October 1921. These aircraft were kept in the four canvas hangars at Logan Field.
Most of those first Maryland Air Guard aircraft were in an advanced state of wear. Some had no seat in the rear for the observer. In the air, the Jennies growled, groaned, whistled, and creaked. But despite all those shortcomings, they were considered good ships, powered by good engines.
The Squadron averaged 2,000 flying hours annually for two decades, all without a fatality. The 104th was continuously based at Logan Field until 1941.
Pat Romano said, "I had Logan Flying Service until 1942, when the government closed me down on account of the war. Logan Field never did operate again."
Housing shortage after World War II made the site valuable for veterans' homes. Before long, the north runway had become an athletic field for St. Rita's Catholic Church. The rest of it became Logan Village, a shopping center still there.
It is a sad story about old airports. This is an entire period in history that has been pretty much plowed under and forgotten. There are no real villains in all this, but an awful lot of interesting aviation history has been thoughtlessly trashed.
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