Walter Ballard, 93; Pioneering Airmail Pilot

Walter Ballard, credited with piloting the plane that carried the nation’s first load of transcontinental airmail in 1932, died Sunday at his home in La Mesa at 93.

A devotee of fast cars and stunt flying in the embryonic days of both cars and planes, Ballard was a pilot for American Airways, now American Airlines, in 1932, when he flew the first hop--from San Diego’s Lindbergh Field to Phoenix--of the first transcontinental mail delivery.

Ballard, who lived in the San Diego area for about 30 years, had learned to fly at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado during World War I and commanded various naval air stations in the United States during World War II, said his wife, Susan. She added that he logged more than 3 million air miles and 20,000 flying hours in 25 different types of planes.

“Walter was a slice of early aviation history,” said Edwin McKellar, executive director of the San Diego Aerospace Museum. “He will be greatly missed at the museum, where he spent many hours and years helping to restore planes in our collection.”

Ballard had been a volunteer at the museum until a few months before his death.

Among the planes he helped restore was a 1917 Curtiss JN4-D “Jenny,” in which Ballard learned to fly during World War I. The war ended just as he finished training.

“We put in 10 hours a day at North Island, learning almost everything there was to know about airplanes,” he said a few years ago. “It didn’t seem right to let all that training go to waste.”

After World War II he sold real estate in the San Diego area.