OTHER RESOURCES

A very readable volume about the Grand Central Air Terminal is this book:

Underwood, John. 1984. Madcaps, Millionaires and 'Mose'. Heritage Press, Glendale, CA. 144pp.

---o0o---

Thanks to Guest Editor Bob Woodling for help researching this page.

---o0o---

home
the register
people
places
airplanes
events

YOU CAN HELP

I'm looking for information and photographs of pilot Coyle and his airplanes to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.

---o0o---

SPONSORED LINKS

HELP KEEP THESE WEB SITES ONLINE

 

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

You may NOW donate via PAYPAL by clicking the "Donate" icon below and using your credit card. You may use your card or your PAYPAL account. You are not required to have a PAYPAL account to donate.

 

When your donation clears the PAYPAL system, a certified receipt from Delta Mike Airfield, Inc. will be emailed to you for your tax purposes.

 

---o0o---

 

ORIE WILLIAM "Bill" WALKER COYLE

 

O.W. Coyle, T.W.A. "Speed," October, 1935 (Source: Woodling)
O.W. Coyle, T.W.A. "Speed," October, 1935 (Source: Woodling)

 

Bill Coyle is listed twice in the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT) Register. As with many GCAT pilots, his name was recorded as "Coyle," leaving us to guess his first name. Coincidentally, as I was writing the biography page for fellow Register pilot Harlan Hull, I was presented with an article from the October, 1935 edition of "Speed," a T.W.A. internal publication. He was profiled in that article, as exhibited at left. You may download the full article over at Hull's link. This is an early photograph of Coyle, given the hat badge signifying Western Air Express (WAE). WAE merged in 1930 with Standard Air Lines and Transcontinental Air Transport to form Transcontinental & Western Air, later Trans World Airlines or T.W.A.

Coyle's first mention in the Register was on Wednesday, April 1, 1931 at 7:00AM. He flew an unidentified Fokker transport and carried seven unidentified passengers plus his copilot for a total of nine people in the aircraft. His destination that morning was listed by tower Operator A.J. Lygum as San Francisco, CA. The airplane was owned by T.W.A. for whom Coyle worked.

More broadly, with T.W.A. in business only about a year at Coyle's first landing, at least 16 separate Fokker registration numbers were cited in the Register overall during 1930-31. All were F-10 or F-32 models. All but three were flown for T.W.A.

O.W. Coyle, Date Unknown (Source: SDAM)

 

According to ancestry.com, and the numerous pieces of biographical information found there about Coyle, he was born April 14, 1895, not 1896 as stated in the article, left. He was born in Gridley, IL. The 1900 U.S. Census, his first, placed him at age 5 (the oldest child) living in Gridley with his parents, John (age 30), mother Lillie (31), two sisters and a brother. His father was a farmer. Another member of the household was Edward Boothby (19), a farmhand. The 1910 Census read about the same, except the farmhand was absent. The 1920 Census finds the family reduced by their mother. Lillie passed away July 11, 1926 at age 48. Orie was 24 years old and his occupation was listed as "Farm laborer." His father appeared not as a farmer, but as a "General Laborer."

The portrait, right, comes courtesy of the San Diego Aerospace Museum Flickr Stream at the link. Besides this one, he has a collection of 237 of his photographs posted at the link. Another is below of him in the cockpit of a Northrop Alpha.

Coyle had been drafted in 1917 for WWI. His draft card is below, dated June 5, 1917. He was 22 years old and was employed in farming. Note his birth year is stated as 1995. His middle name was written "Walker" for this draft card, but see below.

O.W. Coyle, WWI Draft Card, 1917 (Source: ancestry.com)
O.W. Coyle, WWI Draft Card, 1917 (Source: ancestry.com)

As with many things, the details are in the fine print. If you look carefully at the diagonal printing at the lower left of this card, the text says, "If person is of African descent, tear off this corner." Some things change; some things remain the same.

At some point he did serve actively, and, according to ancestry.com, achieved the rank of colonel during WWI. After WWI, however, as indicated in the article above, he took up aviation in the service and learned to fly in 1923 at San Diego.

By 1930, Coyle had left the military and learned to fly. He took a job with Western Air Express and moved west in 1929. The 1930 Census places him at 34 years old living at 204 South Olive Avenue, Alhambra, CA. That address is a cluster of small, individual, white-painted bungalows that appear to be close to 1930s vintage. He was living with his new wife, Rita Bourne (29; 1901-1977), a California-born woman whom he married that same year. They rented their bungalow for $70 per month. Coyle was a newly-wed with a brand new job.

Coyle's second appearance in the Register was on Monday, April 20, 1931 at 3:25PM. He was preparing to fly the T.W.A. Northrop Alpha NC942Y (accident Mobeetie, TX January 14, 1932) to New York to establish the first coast-to-coast airmail delivery. The unidentified tower Operator wrote in the remarks column of the Register, "First 24hr mail to New York." Coyle was captured during his preparations in the photograph below, from John Underwood, as he settled into his cockpit. The photo caption at the link states, "The start of the first 24 hour transcontinental mail service, April 1931. Pilot Bill Coyle and TWA officials await the loading of the last bags of mail."

Bill Coyle in NC942Y, April 20, 1931, 3:25PM (Source: Link)
Bill Coyle in NC942Y, April 20, 1931, 3:25PM (Source: Link)

 

Interestingly, over at Harlan Hull's page (q.v.) you'll find that Hull's landing was made on Tuesday, April 21,1931 at 8:00AM, a full 17 hours after Coyle's landing. Suffice to say that both these flights represented the first transport of U.S. mail by air from coast to coast well under 24 hours.

Below is a photograph of Coyle in the cockpit of an all-metal Alpha, probably NC942Y, probably taken the same day, if not the same hour, in April at GCAT. He holds what looks like a newspaper in his hand.

O.W. Coyle in Northrop Alpha, Date Unknown (Source: SDAM)
O.W. Coyle in Northrop Alpha, Date Unknown (Source: SDAM)

Another photograph of Coyle with an Alpha appears below from John Underwood's book (cited, top, left sidebar). The Alpha first flew in 1930, with a total of only 17 built. T.W.A. flew most of them.

Bill Coyle With the Northrop Alpha "Miss Los Angeles" (Source: Underwood)
Bill Coyle With the Northrop Alpha "Miss Los Angeles" (Source: Underwood)

Among his photographs on the SDAM site is this aerial view taken from the cockpit on NC933Y, one of the Nothrop Alphas flown by T.W.A. The date and location of the image is unknown. A small amount of information about it is at the link. Note the antenna mast on the wingtip.

Aerial Photograph Showing Wing of Northrop Alpha NC933A (Source: SDAM)

 

By 1934 Coyle moved a little closer to his work. The Glendale, CA city directory that year recorded him and Rita living at 1536 Allen Avenue, Glendale, CA. His occupation was recorded as "Pilot." His father had died in 1937, age 68. I have no information about his activities during the late 1930s. If you can help fill in the blanks, please let me KNOW.

 

O.W. Coyle, WWII Draft Card, 1942 (Source: ancestry.com)
O.W. Coyle, WWII Draft Card, 1942 (Source: ancestry.com)

 

As with many men of Coyle's demographic cohort, he was also called to the draft during WWII. His draft card, ca. 1942, is at right. Notice that he stated his birth year as 1896, and that he used his other middle name. At the time he registered he worked for Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, CA.

He had worked for Douglas for at least three years to the point he registered for the draft. In August, 1939, he was sent to France to take over the European sales agency for the Douglas Aircraft Company. An article appeared on August 1, 1939 in the Bloomington Pantograph that documented his move and assignment, below.

 

Bloomington Pantograph, August 1, 1939 (Source: Woodling)

 

GROUP DEPART The first group of new DB-7A bombers left yesterday for New York for delivery to representatives of England. Commander of the delivery flight was O. W. Coyle, formerly chief pilot of T.W.A’s western division. Before the French collapse he was in charge of Douglas men stationed in French Morocco assembling planes shipped there from Southern California.

It was a busy time for Coyle during the years just prior to WWII. On November 22, 1940, The San Bernardino County Sun, right, reported a trans-ocean movement of Douglas DB-7A bombers to England. Note that after his Paris assignment he had moved to French Morocco, then, presumably, back to the U.S. when the Germans invaded France.

 

Zanesville (OH) Sunday Times-Signal, May 11, 1941 (Source: Woodling)
Zanesville (OH) Sunday Times-Signal, May 11, 1941 (Source: Woodling)

About six-months later, Coyle, as a civilian back in the U.S., aided an Army pilot with the testing of of the Douglas B-19 bomber at Santa Monica, CA. The set up for the testing was cited in the Zanesville, OH Sunday Times-Signal of May 11, 1941, right. The Army test pilot, S.M. Umstead, is not a Register signer.

O.W. Coyle, WWII (Source: SDAM)

 

At some point, Coyle left Douglas Aircraft to rejoin the Army. The photograph, left, shows him during WWII, date and location unknown.

In the Army, he was involved with trans-Atlantic transport. The Wichita Falls (TX) Daily Times of March 12, 1944 cited a flight from Santa Monica to England carrying three tons of cargo. His routing took him from Santa Monica to Brazil and across the Atlantic to Africa before heading north to Great Britain. The Daily Times article is below, left.

 

Wichita Falls (TX) Daily TImes, March 12, 1944 (Source: Wooding)
Wichita Falls (TX) Daily TImes, March 12, 1944 (Source: Wooding)

 

According to the Los Angeles County voter registrations for 1946, both Coyle and Rita were registered with the Republican party.

In 1948, he was a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserves and commanded the Reserve 36th Air Depot at the Lockheed plant in Burbank, CA. His command was documented in the Van Nuys News of October 4, 1948, right.

Van Nuys News, October 4, 1948 (Source: Woodling)

 

 

Coyle retired in April, 1956 as a USAF colonel. He enjoyed a long retirement and flew West to his final horizon on April 8, 1980 at San Diego, CA. He was interred June 10, 1980 at the Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, CA. Rita is buried with him. Coyle flew with Transport license T411, a relatively low number. He was in the flying game for a long time.

 

 

In the spring of 1929, Coyle was recorded twice in the pages of the Oxnard Field Register, Albuquerque, NM. He flew the Fokker F-10A NC392E owned by WAE. An Oxnard Field Web site is in preparation and will join the ranks of Delta Mike Airfield, Inc. soon.

 

 

 

 

---o0o---

SPONSORED LINKS

THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 01/15/16 REVISED: 02/03/16, 02/05/16