NATION : Grand Canyon Air Founder Dies
J. Parker Van Zandt, an aviation pioneer who founded a scenic airline company at the Grand Canyon and established what is now Phoenix’s main airport, has died in Santa Barbara, it was learned today. He was 96.
He died at a rest home Sunday of complications of pneumonia.
Van Zandt, who held federal pilot license No. 17, served on the Civil Aeronautics Board, was director of aviation research at the Brookings Institute and wrote widely on aviation.
Van Zandt began flying as an officer with the U.S. Signal Corps during World War I. In 1927, he flew over the Grand Canyon to deliver a plane for the Ford Motor Co. and later established Scenic Airways.
Scenic, which Van Zandt sold in 1935, still operates.
Van Zandt bought three cotton farms on the outskirts of Phoenix and built a landing strip, hangar and office for Scenic. Phoenix kept the name Sky Harbor when it bought the airport in 1935.
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