Early Aviation on the Hill

Early Aviation on the Hill. Part of the “Memory Necklace”. Signal Hill was the early launch site of Earl Daugherty, pioneer aviator, airplane builder and world war one flying ace. Just a few years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, (on December 17, 1903), Daugherty was handcrafting primitive gliders and hauling them up Signal Hill to soar in ocean breezes. Both Daugherty and William Boeing attended the first National Air Meet in 1910, in nearby Dominguez Hills. The show must have inspired them because, Daugherty, 24, flying in a Curtiss-Type biplane, became the 87th American to qualify for a pilot license in 1911. Boeing eventually founded the most influential commercial airplane manufacturing company in U.S. History., Until the early 1920s, the main landing strip in the city was Long Beach’s crescent shaped beach. Soon the small coterie of pilots outgrew the beach, with its narrow landing strip and low tide landing/takeoff. In 1919, Daugherty built his own airstrip near American Avenue (now Long Beach Boulevard) and Bixby Avenue. He named it “Chateau Thierry” after a French battlefield from his service in the first World War., Daugherty went on to operate a passenger service and give flying lessons. In his first year of operation, he flew some 1,786 passengers on sightseeing tours with sweeping views from San Pedro to Huntington Beach. This was remarkable because flying was considered a daring feat in those days., Daugherty was a legendary stunt pilot. he and his fiancee, Katherine, even “got hitched” in an air wedding ceremony, the first of its kind. With a vision for Long Beach aviation, he used his influence as a local Army Air Corps flying ace and barnstorming legend to persuade the Long Beach City Council to plan for an airport. In 1923, the council set aside 150 acres near the Cherry and Spring Street intersection for the construction of the Long Beach airport, the first municipal airport in Southern California. (Just to the left of this viewshed)