A Benchmark Flight for Southern California

At the turn of the century, flying airplanes was a spectator sport in Southern California.

One day in 1907, a Curtiss Pusher aircraft landed on a bean field just outside Santa Ana. In minutes, hundreds of gawking citizens were there. Among them was a young local motorcycle enthusiast, Glenn Martin.

He was so inspired by the sight of the plane he decided to build one. He flew it on Aug. 1, 1909, over a pasture at what is now Newport Boulevard and South Main Street. The flight covered 100 feet at an altitude of eight feet.

More flights followed: faster, farther, higher than before. Then he set a goal: The first Southern California flight over open water. He would fly from Newport Beach to Catalina Island.

On this date in 1912, he did it. With several thousand watching from shorelines and boats near Balboa Island, he took off at 12:15 p.m.

Nearly a century later, in an era when humankind almost routinely sends spacecraft on voyages to places such as Jupiter and Mars, it’s difficult to appreciate the exhilaration spectators felt that day--watching a man fly a rickety machine to an island in the ocean.

He reached an altitude of 3,500 feet. Spectators lining the shore of Avalon Bay soon saw him, his plane a buzzing speck on the horizon. Boat horns tooted, cheers grew.

Elapsed time: Thirty-seven minutes.

Martin ate a sandwich, patched a hole in a pontoon, refueled, took off again and headed back to Newport Beach.

Headline in the L.A. Times the next day:

“Santa Ana Aviator Crosses

Channel in Airship.”

During World War II, Martin manufactured military planes at a Baltimore plant that at one time employed 50,000 people.

He died in 1955 at 69.

Also on this date: In 1969, the NFL’s Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh franchises agreed to move to the American Football Conference with American Football League teams, virtually completing the NFL-AFL merger. . . . In 1936, at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio hit his first major league home run, had three runs batted in and made a noteworthy catch in center field in New York’s 7-2 victory over Philadelphia.