The PHOENIX, AZ Page of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register Website

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Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. Or use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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The Congress of Ghosts 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 It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders.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 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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Art Goebel's Own Story 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 is available at the link. What was it like to fly from Oakland to Honolulu in a single-engine plane during August 1927? Was the 25,000 dollar prize worth it? Did the resulting fame balance the risk? For the first time ever, this book presents the pilot and navigator's stories written by them within days of their record-setting adventure. Pilot Art Goebel and navigator William V. Davis, Jr. take us with them on the Woolaroc, their orange and blue Travel Air monoplane (NX869) as they enter the hazardous world of Golden Age trans-oceanic air racing.

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Clover Field: The First Century of Aviation in the Golden State. 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.

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PHOENIX, AZ

Among the airfields cited in the Register, Phoenix is one of the most numerous among the 3,000+ landings recorded. Eighty-four landings recorded in the Register identify Phoenix as their home base. An impressive 243 arrived at Tucson from Phoenix, and 211 were headed toward Phoenix as their final destination.

Below, from this REFERENCE, page 58, is a description of the three airfields that served the Phoenix area. Except for pilot Robert W. Henderson, whose log book clearly identifies Municipal as his base of operations, it's impossible to know which of the airfields were used by Register pilots who cited Phoenix. The most likely was #2, Sky Harbor Field.

**Phoenix Airfields, Ca. 1931** (Source: Webmaster)

Phoenix Municipal (#1) lost favor as an airfield ca. 1929. And little wonder. It was located far west of the center of Phoenix. It was sometimes called Christy Field. Sky Harbor (#2) was more centrally located and it was dedicated November 16, 1928. Business slowly siphoned away from the Municipal field and it became "temporarily abandoned" sometime between 1929 and 1931. As far as I know, it never reopened. Register pilot J. Parker VanZandt's Scenic Airways operated out of Sky Harbor. Some of the airfields in the Phoenix area during the Golden Age are addressed at the link (as of 12/25/22 this link is blocked by a browser guard).

Central Airport (#3) was located about a mile west of Sky Harbor. According to the link above, the address was 1601 S. Central Avenue, about on the corner of Cocopah and Mohave. Google Earth shows no trace of an airfield there today, rather it is the site of the local Salvation Army and a stone supplier, among other businesses.

Below, from this REFERENCE, page 7, a description of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, ca. 1937.

**Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, Ca. 1937** (Source: Webmaster)

Below, from Google Earth, the location (according to the lat/long values in the image above) of the original Sky Harbor Airport is identified as a couple of hundred yards west of the current Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The old location, as described in 1931, was, "... 1/2 mile N of Salt River. 1/2 mile S of Washington Boulevard." The Salt River is visible at the bottom of the photo below; Washington is just off the top of the image. The Southern Pacific Railroad ("S.P.R.R.") siding is visible in the very top left corner.

The coordinates listed in the description above are shown near the left side of the photo; the western ends of the current International airport runways are at right. The location of the old airfield is near the properties of the rental car businesses affiliated with the airport, and of the U.S. Post Office on E. Buckeye Rd. Given that the lat/long were measured in the late 1930s, it is probably fair to say that the old and new Sky Harbor airports are co-located.

**Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Ca. 2010** (Source: *Google Earth*)

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 12/20/10 REVISED: 10/18/11, 12/25/22

YOU CAN HELP

I'm looking for additional information and photographs of the Phoenix airfields to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please use this FORM to contact me.

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