Events mark area’s role in flight history

Air refueling has come a long way since pilots Nick Mamer and Art Walker took off from Spokane 75 years ago for a round-trip, nonstop transcontinental flight in their 1929 Buhl CA-6 biplane.

On Sunday, the U.S. Air Force will commemorate that historic flight and “75 Years of Air Refueling and Spokane Aviation” with a fly-by over Spokane of a KC-135 tanker from Fairchild Air Force Base and a C-17 from McChord Air Force Base.

“This is an opportunity for citizens to see their hometown aircraft,” Fairchild’s Maj. Dave Kincaid said.

The July Fourth-Neighbor Days fly-by is a warm-up for Skyfest, Fairchild’s annual air show, which will be July 24 and 25.

“We like to think of Fairchild as America’s first team for rapid global mobility,” said Kincaid, the event’s deputy director, in announcing the lineup for this year’s air show.

Topping the bill of aerobatic acts are the Thunderbirds out of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The F-16C Fighting Falcon aerobatic team will fly at 3 p.m. July 24 and at 3:30 p.m. July 25. Fairchild gates will open both days at 9 a.m. for a world-class lineup of air acts, including the F-15 West Coast Demo Team.

Other military demonstrations include two of the Air Force’s newest trainers, the T-6, and a heritage fly-by of an F-15 with a P-51 Mustang.

Also scheduled to appear are top civilian acts, including Julie Clark, flying a Beech T-34 Mentor; Greg Poe flying an Edge 540; Tim Weber, flying an Extra 300; and Canada’s Manfred Radius, flying a sail plane.

Security is a big deal at Fairchild during the global war on terrorism, said Kincaid, who reminded the expected crowd of between 30,000 and 40,000 people that they will be subject to random searches and metal detectors. Pets, coolers and lawn chairs will not be allowed onto the base. He recommended bringing containers for free water refills.

“This is our biggest community relations event of the year,” Kincaid said. “It gives us a chance to give back to the community and show how tax dollars are being spent.”

At the same time, he said, “We’re trying to get the word out about the significant contributions Spokane has made to air refueling and aviation history.”

The flight of the Spokane Sun-God was a big part of that history.

According to newspaper accounts, the biplane took off from Spokane’s Felts Field at 6 p.m. Aug. 15, 1929, for its first refueling point over San Francisco’s Mills Field before heading east. Along the way, the Sun-God was refueled at predetermined points over Salt Lake City; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Omaha; Chicago; Cleveland; New York; and Washington, D.C. Then it returned via Cleveland; Chicago; St. Paul; the Dakotas; and Montana, before arriving in Spokane 120 hours and 7,200 miles later.

Mamer and Walker set a world distance record at great risk to themselves and without two-way radio just two years after Charles Lindbergh’s New York-to-Paris flight. At one point, the Sun-God’s propeller cut the refueling hose, spraying the plane and its crew with fuel. Another time, the men asked for an emergency refueling over Miles City, Mont., during which 5-gallon milk cans filled with fuel had to be lowered to the Sun-God’s crew.

Today, people tend to think not so much about the mission of tankers, Kincaid said. But there are few countries in the world that can perform this mission and none so well as the United States.

“Tankers are responsible for getting planes there and back and keeping them overhead for the guys in Iraq,” Kincaid said.

“We wouldn’t be a superpower without them.”