Welcome to The Beacon Forum

[Bookman]

To everyone;
I just want to say hello to all you golden age enthusiasts out there who want to share/discuss/debate the many aspects of aviation's greatest period. I'd also like to say thanks to Tom C for hosting this forum.

So, what are we going to do here? Well, for starters, I'd like to see folks share thoughts, insights and most importantly, resources that can be explored by everyone.

I'm an avid aviation historian with a penchant for flight simulation as an outlet for my interests. While I have striven to create a web resource that offers a wide variety of unusual and interesting material, I have also hoped that my site would help to foster a greater appreciation for the period among flight simmers -- and designers in particular.

As for this forum, I'd like it to become a place for folks to discuss ideas (especially areas that you'd like to see more research conducted) as well as a place to just shoot the breeze about anything related to aviation between 1919 and 1939.

The many other forums that are hosted here on TOH offer outlets for folks to explore aviation in all its many aspects. So, I'd like to keep this forum exclusively GA oriented.

As a trained historian, my primary interest is research and then sharing what I've discovered with others. I hope you folks want to do the same.

So, let's get started....

[Dan]

Tom/Kevin - This is very exciting news!! Having somewhat of an inquisitive mind - especially regarding the aircraft industry, this announcement is very welcome - even more so within the flight simulator environment.

Naturally, flying in flight simulator (FS9/GW3) one is always coming up with questions that need answers - historically speaking and often it is a tedious process trying to search for the information. Like just the other day Keith Giveans showed some old Delta seaplane hangers in his backyard - which brought up the need for more information on Delta Airlines.

Living in Atlanta, I frequently run to FedEX at night and pass by Delta's Headquarter buildings at the airport and always notice two old 'original' hangers located just behind the buildings - often times Delta's original Ship 41 is housed there and is somewhat silhouetted in the dim light - actually a very nostalgic view - if one just imagines that great era of passenger flight. There it sits - looking somewhat gostly in its hanger behind those big old doors and a full array of those old square, somewhat tarnished windows. Ah - the history of it all . . .

So, this site will be a great resource for information and most importantly avenues of where one can find information. Naturally, my first question regards Delta and were one might get information/photos of the hanger site and the Atlanta airport. The only ones I have ever seen are of the field in the early '20's nothing later and of any great detail. I will also reply to Keiths post, as apparently he has a contact at Delta - didn't know they had their own historian.

Looking forward to the development of this site . . .

Dan

_{…it’s great being a kid again – without the glue!} ;D

[cptroyce]

Bookman- I posted this at GW as well..how does on t/o from water in a seaplane in FS2004??

Regards,
Royce

[Keith]

dans said:

... Like just the other day Keith Giveans showed some old Delta seaplane hangers in his backyard - which brought up the need for more information on Delta Airlines...

Well, I now have the full but somewhat "unofficial" story behind my "backyard seaplane base."

It appears that the seaplane base was used during WWII as a Delta seaplane base, however upon further investigation Delta had no additional info on it. They (at the historical department) found that odd, and I did send them the digital photos and they did confirm it was a seaplane base at the time but for some reason their files only showed the name but they had no record of fights and activity there.

After that I also found another "unnamed" airfield which was also a seaplane base and at the exact lat and long of the delta base. Now this is what clued me into what it really was... that base was a U.S. Army installation during the war but that's all I could find out about it. However, where the beach would have been at that time there is a massive bunker that is still there. I figure it was an ammo storage bunker. It is now filled in with sand but still stands up above what used to be the shoreline and is still painted green. This is a very odd story that I guess will never really be uncovered but seeing that the army had to be very discrete during those days I guess it is the best that I will ever find out. I know now that it was truly a "front" for a civilian airline when in fact it was a war plane base. At least I "unofficially" know that.

[Dan]

That's interesting, Keith! Amazing what's out there, that we will probably will never know - "the rest of the story".

This reminded me, that I need to give Delta's Historical Department a call and see if they have any old pictures of the Atlanta airport and their operations center here.

I've also noticed another plane in one of their original hangers here and can't figure out what it is. It is not their famous DC-3, which used to occupy that hanger. Looks more like a DC-6 or 7 on jacks - or possible an early DC-8. I can't tell since the hanger doors' glass portion is only on the upper part of the large doors. Hard to see through.

Anyway, thanks for the update!

Dan

_{…it’s great being a kid again – without the glue!} ;D