Hiller Aviation Museum

There are several states which can claim a significant role in aviation history.  Pennsylvania, where in Philadelphia,  the first hot air balloon flight in the United States took place on January 9, 1793; to North Carolina, where the first heavier than air flight took place at Kitty Hawk, on December 17, 1903, built by Orville and Wilbur Wright, two bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio.  There is New York’s continuing history with aviation, from early pioneers like Glenn Curtiss, to legendary companies like Curtiss, Brewster, Republic, Sikorsky, Chance-Vought, and Grumman. There is Washington, where Seattle is home to Boeing, Texas, home of NASA, and Florida, from where man went into space.

While all of these places have a stake in the history of United States aviation, California has a large place in the history of “those magnificent men and their flying machines”.  From the first successful aircraft landing on a ship, the USS Pennsylvania, anchored in San Francisco Bay in 1911, the US Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, constructed at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, to the airship hangars at Moffett Field, Amelia Earhart’s final flight, the Doolittle Raid, Howard Hughes’ pioneering work, Jack Northup, and NASA  Ames, the Lockheed “Skunk Works” and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and, of course, the place where man first broke the sound barrier.  Companies such as North American Aviation, McDonnell-Douglas, and Hughes Aircraft made their mark upon aviation and became household names.  There is a company that was not as well know to the general public, but was an innovative aviation company that left a legacy that is still important today.  That company is Hiller Aircraft Corporation, founded as Hiller Industries in Berkeley in 1942 by a then 17 year old Stanley Hiller Jr.

Stanley Hiller Jr. was interested in mechanics and engineering at a young age.  By the age of eight, built a racing car using a salvaged washing machine motor.  By fifteen he had constructed his first working model helicopter and by seventeen his first prototype, the XH-44, which he demonstrated to the US Army Air Corps.  During World War II Hiller Industries produced parts for aircraft.  In 1945, Henry J. Kaiser partnered with the young Hiller to form United Helicopters.  In 1947, the company introduced the Hiller 360, which later developed into the UH-12, one of the most produced light helicopters in the world and the military version the OH-23, widely used as a reconnaissance and medical evacuation helicopter during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.  The UH-12 is still used today for agricultural, forestry, construction, fire, law enforcement, and other purposes.  The company also served as an advanced projects facility for Lockheed and aided in the production of the CORONA reconnaissance satellites.

Hiller sold the company to Fairchild Industries in 1964 and left the aviation industry and went on to a very successful career as a corporate turnaround expert; but there was a bit of aviation business left to do.  During his time in the aviation industry, Stephen Hiller Jr. amassed a collection of his company’s and other aircraft.   In the 1970’s this collection was held in a warehouse and only open by appointment.  Hiller wanted to make his collection of experimental and historic aircraft to be accessible to the public.  In 1998, the Hiller Aviation Museum was opened in a purpose built building, displaying many aircraft from Hiller’s collection and housing a restoration facility and a research library.  Included in the collection are: a replica of the Avitor, the first “airplane” to fly over San Francisco Bay in 1869, the Pepsi Travel Air, a Solo XVF, a Hiller Flying Platform, a replica of a Fokker DIII Triplane, a Boeing Condor, and many others.    There are many displays centered on California’s aviation history and interactive displays demonstrating aeronautical principles.  The museum also hosts youth summer camps.  

GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason St.  Get on I-80 W from 5th St and Harrison St9 min (1.4 mi)

Follow US-101 S to Holly St in San Carlos. Take exit 411 from US-101 S

23 min (22.6 mi)

Continue on Holly St to your destination

2 min (0.7 mi)

Hiller Aviation Museum

601 Skyway Rd, San Carlos, CA 94070

For further information about hours, admission and special events please visit: https://www.hiller.org/

Mount Diablo Beacon

 

For millennia, humans have dreamed of flight. From ancient myths like Daedalus and Icarus to the designs of Leonardo Da Vinci, to Superman, humans have always wanted to fly like a bird. Almost every culture has stories of human flight. With the first human flight in a balloon by Etienne Montgolfier on October 15, 1783, the dream of human flight was realized, if not exactly like a bird. As early as 559 CE, attempts had been made at heavier than air flight, using a variety of kites, wings, and gliders, most with varying degrees of failure. The first manned glider flight was in 1853, and Otto Lilienthal made the first controlled glider flight in 1891. Lighter than air flight progressed, with the invention of the blimp in 1852 and the zeppelin in 1900, but heavier than air, powered, controlled flight remained elusive. It wasn’t until the Wright Brothers’ flight on December 17, 1903 that powered, controlled, heavier than air flight was achieved.

With the Wright Brothers’ success came an aviation explosion. Militaries around the world were interested in the new-dangled hydroplanes. Balloons had been used in military roles as early 1794 and by the American Civil War, had come into regular use as observation platforms. Balloons had two distinct disadvantages however, they were large and to be effective observation posts, they were tethered in place, making them rather conspicuous targets for the enemy. Airplanes suffered from neither of these drawbacks, they were small, fast, and maneuverable; making them perfect for reconnaissance missions. The US Army purchased a one of a kind Wright Model A for the Signal Corps in 1909, marking the beginning of military aviation. In 1909, the French Air Force was established. In 1910, the Imperial German Army established the Imperial German Flying Service. In 1911, the US Navy purchased it’s first plane, the Italian Air Force was founded, as was the Imperial Russian Air Service. In 1912 the Royal Flying Corps was founded.

This was the era of “Those Magnificent Men and their Flying Machines”. Competitions were held beginning in 1909 and many early speed and endurance records were made. There was growing fascination with these flying machines and those who flew them. The first Aeronautical Competition in the United States was held in Los Angeles in 1910. A year later, the Italians sent the airplane to war in the Italio-Turkish War of 1911, where they use airplanes for reconnaissance and bombing missions. It wouldn’t be long before airplanes became a staple of warfare.

In 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, plunged the Europe into World War 1. This was when aerial combat came into its own and armed fighter aircraft, bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft were developed. The term “ace” was introduced for the first time, by the French to describe a pilot who had five or more victories, Certain planes became legendary, the Fokker DIII, the Albatross, the Sopwith Camel, the Fokker DR 1, and the Nieuport 17. This is when pilots became famous, Manfred von Richthofen, Max Immelmann, Ernst Udet, Eddie Rickenbacker, Rene Fonck, Werner Voss, and a young pilot named Hermann Goering.

When the war ended, many of the pilots who survived went on to help develop faster and safer planes. Air shows and competitions became popular and the airplane once more captured the public’s attention; particularly in the United States. In 1919 the US Navy Seaplane NC-4 completed the first trans-Atlantic flight from Long Island to Lisbon. As early as 1911, the US Postal Department experimented with using airplanes to transport mail and on May 15, 1918, the US Airmail Service was established. The creation of the airmail service accomplished two goals, the faster and more efficient transport of the mail and the expansion of civil aviation which, in turn, led to the training of new pilots.

There was a problem, due to the lack of aeronautical aids to navigation, especially those suited for night flying, airmail was placed on trains at night, adding valuable time to it’s delivery. A solution was at hand, in 1923, Congress authorized the Transcontinental Airway System, a series of concrete landmarks, beacons and emergency airfields that would stretch from coast to coast. By 1925, the airway extended from New York to San Francisco and by 1933 the airway was complete covering 18,000 miles and consisting of 1,500 beacons. This “highway in the sky” reduced the delivery time of transcontinental mail to be reduced by two business days.

In 1928, Standard Oil built five aviation beacons on the west coast as part of the system. They were located in Seattle, Portland, Mount Diablo, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The Mt. Diablo beacon is the only one still remaining and functional. The signal to light the beacons was given by Charles Lindbergh on April 15, 1928. Originally atop of a 75 foot steel tower, the light was moved to the top of the summit building by the Civilian Conservation Corps in April of 1941. The Mt. Diablo beacon could be seen for 150 miles and was one of the terminal beacons for the Transcontinental Airway. The beacon remained in service until December 8, 1941, when it was extinguished as precaution against a possible Japanese attack. It remained extinguished until December 7, 1964 when Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz attended a memorial relighting ceremony to honor those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor. He suggested the beacon be lit every December 7^th as a memorial. Since then it has been lit, every December 7^th as a memorial to those who lost their lives on that terrible day. Beginning in 2022, it is also lit on Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. By 1973, the Transcontinental Airway System was obsolete and it was dismantled. While many of the concrete arrow landmarks still survive, the beacon on Mt. Diablo is one of the few surviving operational relics of the beginning of commercial aviation routes.

Hamilton Field

Nestled on the eastern edge of Novato, along the Marin Country shore is a bit of aviation history.  During the First World War it became apparent that not only did nations need to have navies and armies to win wars, they were also going to need air forces.  Since the Civil War, the United States Army had used balloons for artillery spotting and reconnaissance but with the advent heavier than air flight, the role of military aviation began to rapidly change.  The US Army Signal Corps established an Aeronautical Division in 1907.  At that time, the Army only had eight balloons, used for observation and reconnaissance.  During that year, the Signal Corps purchased two more balloons and, in 1908, a small dirigible, bringing the total number of Army aircraft to eleven.

In 1909, the Army acquired its first airplane from the Wright Brothers and in 1910 it made its first flight.  In 1911, Congress appropriated $125,000 for the Army’s Aeronautical Division.  By the end of 1911, the Army Signal Corps had a total of six aircraft, and had conducted trials to prove the feasibility of aerial bombing.  Still, the fledgling Air Corps only had a handful of pilots including 2nd Lt. Henry “Hap” Arnold, who was one of the Army’s first flight instructors.  In 1913, the “1st Provisional Aero Squadron” was created, alter renamed the “1st Aero Squadron” and saw service in Mexico in 1916, becoming the first United States air combat unit.  It still exists as the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron and is headquartered at Beale Air Force Base.  With the outbreak of World War I, the European powers rapidly increased the size of their air forces and aeronautical technology rapidly advanced.  

By the time the United States entered the war in 1917, it was far behind the other warring nations in air strength.  By the end of the war, the US Army Air Service only made up 10% of the aeronautical strength of the Allied Powers and after the war, the Air Service, like the rest of the United States military, was rapidly reduced in size from 19,168 officers and 178,149 enlisted men in November 1918 to just 1,168 officers and 8,428 enlisted men by the end of June 1920.

During the late 1920’s the Army Air Corps began looking for a suitable location on the West Coast for an air base.  The Army settled on a location known as “Marin Meadows” and Marin County transferred the 937 acre site for $1.00.  Originally known as Air Corps Station, San Rafael, construction began on the airfield in 1932, the airfield was renamed “Hamilton Field” after 1st Lt. Lloyd Hamilton who received the Distinguish Flying Cross, posthumously, during World War I and was completed in 1935.  Upon completion, the airfield was officially dedicated on May 12, 1935 and ceremonially “handed over” to Brigadier General Henry, “Hap” Arnold who commanded the Army Air Corps’ 1st Wing.  Hamilton Field was to be primarily a bomber base and it was before the addition of pursuit (fighter) units.

During World War II, Hamilton Field was part of the Western Defense Command and served primarily as a training and transshipment base.  It was on December 7, 1941 that the six B-17 bombers of the 38 Reconnaissance Squadron from Hamilton Field arrived at Hickam Field in Hawaii while the Japanese attack was ongoing.  The personnel at Hickam was expecting the squadron and early in the attack radar operators confused the Japanese attack with the incoming squadron.  After the war was over and the Air Force was created in 1947, Hamilton Air Force Base remained in service, serving as the home for several units of the Air Defense Command were stationed at Hamilton including the 325th Fighter Wing, the 78th Fighter Wing,  the 556th Air Defense Group, the 1st Fighter Wing and the 26th Air Division all called Hamilton Air Force Base home.  NORAD’s Western Region Command was stationed at Hamilton until 1969.

By the early 70’s, the usefulness of Hamilton Air Force Base was declining.  Urban encroachment, lack of land to expand and an increasingly ambivalent, if not hostile, political climate all led to the deactivation of Hamilton as an active base in 1973.  In 1973, the base was transferred to the Army, the Navy used some of the housing and the Coast Guard used two of the hangars.  In 1976, the base was closed and placed in “caretaker status”.  In 1980 to 1983 a few of the barracks and other buildings were used as a refugee processing center.  From 1983-1990, Hamilton Field was the venue for the “Wings of Victory” air show, an annual event produced by the non-profit Hamilton Field Association. In 1993, the Army transferred its remaining portion of the base to the “New Hamilton Partnership” and redevelopment began.  In 1996, the Navy vacated the housing on base and the military presence on Hamilton Field ended, nearly sixty years after it began.

Today, several of the historic Spanish Revival style buildings and hangars have been restored and repurposed.  The developer had built several housing developments on the former base.  The former runway is no more, the levee that protected it having been intentionally breached and the area allowed to revert to marshland.  The Hamilton Field History Museum, a small but impressive museum housed in the former base fire station and staffed by volunteer docents who are more than eager to spend time explaining the history of the base to you is worth a visit, there are excellent displays covering the entire history of the base.

GETTING THERE: Take US101 N to exit 458 Nave Drive in Novato.  Merge onto Nave Drive.  Turn Right onto Main Gate Road, and continue on to Palm Drive and make a slight right onto South Palm Drive.  Then turn right onto Hangar Avenue.  The museum will be on your right at 555 Hangar Avenue.  The museum is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Noon to 4:00 pm.  (415) 382-8614