The sound of the engine swelled and thickened, and soon an open cockpit biplane could be seen. The small boy yelled for his mother to come out and see. A plane descended slightly and made a few passes over a nearby field to check the condition of the surface. The pilot made a speed-killing climbing turn and side-slipped, gliding gently to earth.
Thus was Carlisle's first aeroplane flight recorded. The date was the evening of September 26, 1911. At 6:05 o'clock Walter Johnson, of Rochester, New York, an aviator of the Thomas Brothers Company of Bath, New York, soared from the Carlisle Gun Club field adjoining the Cumberland County Fair Grounds on the north, circled gracefully and very successfully around several other adjoining fields and the center field of the fair ground, and in about fifteen minutes came down a short distance from where he started. Several thousand saw the birdman.
In the 1920s and 1930s an airplane pilot could take off and land in any field he wanted as long as he could negotiate it. The first airports were usually grass strips or open fields; for most communities, asphalt and concrete runways came later, during the 1930s.
Despite aviation's poor reputation, resulting from numerous barnstorming accidents in the '20s and '30s, many fliers established reputable fixed-base operations, offering flight training, charter flights, aerial photography and other services that helped develop commercial aviation.
J. Earl Steinhaur used to have a biplane tied down in a field west of Bridge Street just off Fifteenth Street in New Cumberland. No facilities; just a plane, a pilot, and a suitable field to sell rides. Fuel was filtered through a chamois cloth to remove water and dirt. He later opened the Beaufort Flying Service on the Linglestown Road, opposite the Herbert Hoover School in Dauphin County.
Following is a potpourri of persons and incidents associated with eleven fields and airstrips that once operated in Cumberland County.
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