Boeing School of Aeronautics - Oakland

from 1929 article ⁴

The Boeing School of Aeronautics was a flying, airplane design, and mechanic training school at the Oakland Airport, founded in September 1929. It was started by Boeing to compete with other flying schools like the Curtiss Flying School in San Diego. The school started with 16 staff and 100 students (or 14 staff and 125 students according to another source.) The Boeing Frontiers website says they planned on 25 students, but 100 applied, so they expanded to starting classes every 3 months instead of every year. ² Theophilus Lee, Jr. was the school manager, and George Myers was the director of flying. ⁵ Hilton F. Lusk was the first dean, though he was only there a year. ³

Notable alumni of the school include Lee Ya-Ching, who was the first woman in China to receive a civil pilot's license; Frederick Howard Buller, who later designedDHC-2 Beaver float plane, widely used by bush pilots in Canada and the U.S.; Ed Yost, the "Father of the Modern Day Hot-Air Balloon"; and Lillian Moses, who may have been the first woman to receive a pilot's license from the school.

Flight students formed the "Flying Jackass Club" made up of students (and some instructors) "who commit 'one of those things' while acquiring their wings." ¹³ Likewise the master mechanics students created A "Fumblers' Club". ¹⁴

Personnel

Hilton Frank Lusk grew up in Oakland and graduated from Oakland Tech. Before Boeing, he had been a professor at College of the Pacific (now University of the Pacific) where he had started a aeronautics program. He wasn't at the Boeing School long; in September 1930 he left to teach at Sacramento City College ⁷ and manage the Sacramento municipal airport.

School manager Theophilus Lee, Jr. had been a flying instructor during WWI, later became a Methodist pastor in San Francisco, then became a pilot for the mail service. ⁹ In 1942 he joined the U.S. Army Air Force as a major to teach. ¹¹

Allen F. Bonnalie was the director of technical instruction c.1931-1938. He had been a pilot during WWI ad was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, ¹⁰ and was later an exec with United Airlines.

John W. Thorp was a graduate of the school and later an instructor in engineering drawing and design. He designed the T-5 trainer used by the school, and numerous other aircraft over the years.

In addition to the above, different articles list various names over the years, ^3,12 and a 1939 ad in Popular Aviation shows pictures and gives brief biographies of them. ¹⁵

Popular Aviation 1939 ¹⁵

Name	Position	Years
W.E. Wright	director of shop department
Dr. Edmund Padden	flight surgeon
J. Multon	director of class instruction and welding
C.O. Brinklinger	director of maintenance and service work
R.L. Bonnet, Jr.		1929
Elzor E. Hall		1929
K.A. Kennedy	superintendent of placement bureau	1931
K.H. Holmgren	editor of Boeing School News	1939
E.J. Krenz	instructor in air transportation and communication	1939
Marvin Martin	instructor in air transportation and operating procedure	1939
H.R. Bretlinger	instructor in maintenance and service	1939
E.J. Camy	instructor in aircraft power pants	1939
David Retan	instructor in metal fabrications	1939
Leroy B. "Pop" Gregg	instructor in flying	1939
Herbert Marsh	superintendent of technical instruction	1939
Don L. McDaniel	registrar	1939-1940
Wesley B. Davis	engines, shops, propellers	1939-1940
Thure Anderson	maintenance and service	1939
Robert Borzi	radio	1939
Harry Chin	drawing, design	1939
W.B. Beckwith	meteorology	1939
Allen Johnson	maintenance and service	1939
Edward Johnson	mathematics	1939
Carl T. Kuhl	flying	1939
Walter W. Parkhill	metals	1939
Randall Smith	welding	1939
Raymond J. Stephan	instruments	1939
John F. Turner	air law	1939
N.F. Ward	metallurgy	1939
G.H. Willingham	flying	1939
Carl Kolmodin	wood fabrications	1939
Marshall S. Caley	avigation	1939
Charles L. Moser	radio and communications	1939
C.G. Gutteridge	wood fabrications, rigging, doping	1939
Victor Shawe	assistant registrar	1940
Mortimer Powell	director of aeronautical engineering instruction	1941
Clarence A. Friberg	flight instructor	1939-1941
Charles I. Stanton	assistant administrator of civil aeronautics	1941
Victor Shawe	assistant registrar	1941

History

Boeing started the school in part to train pilots for its Boeing Air Transport (BAT) company. Through consolidations, BAT became part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC), and eventually United Airlines.

The school was initially housed in Hangar No. 5. ⁵ In 1940 as part of increased national defense preparations, the school built barracks and other new buildings to train enlisted soldiers as aircraft mechanics. ⁸ The school expanded to 14 buildings and 1,000 students at its peak in 1942.

Boeing absorbed the school functions into the parent company. In 1943, the school facilities became the United Air Lines Training Center which continued to train mechanics under a Navy contract until 1945, before closing. ^1,2

See also a selection of ads for the school from the 1930s and 1940s from Popular Aviation magazine.

Today the Oakland Aviation Museum is housed in one of the former school buildings. Hangar No.5 still stands at 8517 Earhart Rd.

1930 dedication ⁶1933 progressClyde Sunderland photo, 1940 expansion