THANK YOU!
YOUR PURCHASE OF THESE BOOKS SUPPORTS THE WEB SITES THAT BRING TO YOU THE HISTORY BEHIND OLD AIRFIELD REGISTERS
Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register (available in paperback) with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. 375 pages with black & white photographs and extensive tables
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The Congress of Ghosts (available as Kindle Edition eBook) is an anniversary celebration for 2010. It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.
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Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register, 1925-1936 (available in paperback) at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.
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Art Goebel's Own Story (available as free PDF download) by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion. Available as a free download at the link.
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Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race (available as Kindle Edition eBook) is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.
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Clover Field: The first Century of Aviation in the Golden State (available in paperback & Kindle Edition) With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great. 281 pages, black & white photographs.
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I'm looking for information and photographs of pilot Batt and his airplane to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.
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HOWARD H. BATT
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Howard Batt apeared frequently in the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT) Register. He shows up 13 times during April and May, 1931. The tower operator who filled in the Register always identified him as "Batt."
His frequent visits to GCAT are not surprising, since Batt operated a charter flight business out of Clover Field, Santa Monica, CA. Batt also appears once in the Clover Field Register. At all his GCAT landings he flew the Travel Air he identified as NC9973, which was owned by John Burnham during the couple of years Batt flew it. Undated portrait, left, from this REFERENCE, volume 1920-1929.
The photograph, right, is from Popular Aviation (PA) magazine, October, 1937. Batt stands next to a Beechcraft Staggerwing, which he used in his charter business. According to the article accompanying the photograph ("Taxi Drivers of the Sky," by Selby Calkins; at the link is a PDF of the article, 1.5Mb), Batt was also the head of the Association of Motion Picture Pilots, as well as the distributor of, "...two makes of sports planes."
"Taxi Drivers of the Sky" is a good reference, as it not only cites Batt and his work, but also provides thumbnail sketches of other charter pilots in the Los Angeles area. Among them are Joe Lewis, Joe Plosser, Paul Mantz and Bob Blair. Likewise it features descriptions of some of the types of charter work done by these pilots: flights to out-of-the-way destinations, transport of government officials, entertainers, businessmen and ambulance transports. Some high- and low-profile elopers were transported by private charter.
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An online biography of Paul Mantz, at the link, summarizes a collaboration between Batt and Mantz as follows:
| "In 1933 Paul attended the National Air Races when they were brought to Los Angeles by Cliff Henderson. 48,000 spectators were on hand to witness the races, sky divers and aerobatics. Paul was aware that many considered the Hollywood pilots to be not up to par with the men flying in the event that day. Paul had a secret that nobody knew about. At 4 pm, Paul showed them differently. That's when the “Hollywood Trio” took to the sky. Howard Batt, Franke Clarke and Paul put on a show of formation aerobatics like had never been seen before. They were trailing red, white and blue smoke from their three different brands of aircraft; a Stearman, a Travel Air and Paul’s Boeing P-12. After the graceful aerobatics, they performed a series of interlocking smoke rings and then the finale involved Clarke and Mantz making a head-to-head pass and narrowly missing each other. At the last second, they then pulled into half loops and did the same thing at the top! The crowd went crazy. The “Hollywood Trio” was immediately signed to perform at the rest of the races that year by Cliff Henderson." |
Batt has no real Web presence that I could find. What there is comprises minor mentions of his business dealings, such as his appointment as a Ryan distributor at Clover Field in 1936, left, or his leadership of the Ryan aircraft exhibit at the Los Angeles Aircraft Show in 1937, below right.
Note in the article at left mention of Register pilot Joe Lewis, and in the article below, mention of Lewis and Register pilot Tex Rankin.
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I have no information about Batt's birth or death dates, or about his family or what he did for fun. If you can help fill in the blanks, please let me KNOW.
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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 06/16/14 REVISED: