TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

I – The 1920’s                                                                                   

    1. Background

    2. The Beginnings of Mexico Farms Airfield – Cumberland’s First Airport

    3. Cap Amick

    4. Incidents at Mexico Farms

    5. General Billy Mitchell’s Impromptu Stop at Mexico Farms

    6. The Cumberland Aero Club

    7. Local Aviators

    8. Arrival of Jenny Aircraft Recalls Olden Days of Mexico Farms Airport

    9. The Curtiss OX-5 Engine

    10. Night Flights

    11. Activities at the Government Field

    12. Cumberland Barnstorming

    13. Whiskey Flights

    14. Twenty-two Army Airplanes Visit

    15. Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh

    16. Increased Mexico Farms Landing Field Use

    17. Minnie and William Johnson

    18. Early Hangars

    19. Mexico Farms – How Was It Named?

    20. The New Cumberland Airport at Pinto – Cumberland’s Second Airfield

              (38 Photos)                                                                                    

II – The 1930’s – Part I                                

   1. A Journey to Mexico Farms in the 1920’s and 1930’s

   2. Local Aviators Praised

   3. Evitts Mountain Airways Beacon

   4. Flyers and National Guard Stage Battle

   5. Everline Crash

   6. Ronald B “Torque” Landis

   7. The Pitcairn Saga Continued

   8. Laura Ingalls

   9. Cumberland’s Third Airport – Mexico Farms Upgrade

   10. Virgil Parker

   11. The First Glider in Cumberland

   12. Army Flyers Die

   13. Army Bomber Bailout

   14. Wylie Post and the Winnie Mae

   15. A Wright Brother Stops at Cumberland

   16. Allegany Flying School

            (27 Photos)                                                                        

III – The 1930’s – Part II                    

   1. Corporate Aircraft

   2. Forrest Miller

   3. Captain J. Phillip Roman

   4. U.S. Army Boeing P-12 Fighters

   5. Newton D. Crumley, Harvey Johnson, and Ronald Landis

   6. Howard Hughes

   7. Bernard Miltenberger 

   8. Pre-Helicopter (Autogyro)

   9. Flying Aces Aerial Circus

   10. Aircraft Residents at Mexico Farms – 1937

   11. The Tony-Taylor Cub

   12. Jack Delagrange  

   13. Cumberland Sesquicentennial – 1937

   14. First Air Mail – Keyser, WV

   15. William & Holland Rannells, William Milleson

   16. Cumberland Flying Service

   17. Pepsi Sky Writer

   18. Army Air Corps Seversky P-35’s

   19. Additional Flight Activity at Surrounding Airfields

             (45 Photos) 

IV – The 1940’s                                 

   1. The Cumberland Pilots Club

   2. The Cumberland Flying Club

   3. Bit and Pieces from the Early 1940’s

   4. Harry Flook

   5. The 1929 Swallow TP

   6. Avro Avian

   7. Air Show – 1941

   8. Mexico Farms during WW II

   9. Floyd Johnson

   10. Mexico Farms Civil Air Patrol

   11. Aerobatics – Slow and Half Rolls

   12. Post War – Mexico Farms -1945

   13. Cross Country Air Race

   14. Bits and Pieces 1946-1949

   15. The Construction of a New Cumberland Airport

   16. Staff Sergeant Fred Hosey

   17. Major Kenneth Jewell

   18. Other Heros of WW II

  19. Post War – 1945 – Cumberland’s New Municipal Airport, The Fourth Cumberland Airfield

   20. Cumberland’s Own B-17

   21. Cumberland Airways

   22. 1946 Air Show

   23. 1947 Air Show

   24. Mountain Air Service – 1948 Air Show

             (62 Photos)

V – The 1950’s     

   1. Warren Mullenax Era at the Cumberland Municipal Airport

   2. Major General Joseph D. ‘Smokey’ Caldara

   3. Kelly Springfield Tire Company Flight Operations

   4. Bill Holbrook

   5. Allegany Aircraft Service

   6. Bill Day – WW II Ace and Flight Instructor

   7. Cumberland Sport Car Races 1953-1971

   8. Prominent Participants – Cumberland Sport Car Races

   9. Gene Kelley

           (46 Photos)

VIThe 1960’s                           

   1. President Lyndon B. Johnson

   2. The National Jet Company

   3. John Twigg

   4. Gus Graf, Aviation Pioneer

   5. Soaring at Cumberland

   6. Notable Names and Notes of Forty Years of Soaring

   7. The Alleghany Flying Club, Inc

   8. Nicholson Air Service

   9. Dale Nicholson

   10. The Barnstormer Restaurant

   11. TWA Airliner Emergency Landing

   12. Strategic Air Command B-52 Crash

             (27 Photos)

VII – The 1970’s                                

   1. Experimental Aircraft Association – Chapter 426

   2. ‘Jumping Bob’ Judy

   3. Floyd Johnson’s Taylor J-2 Cub

   4. W. Royce Hodges, II, MD

   5. W. Donald Smith

   6. Lewis J. Ort

   7. Harold Armstrong – Vintage Aircraft Restorer

   8. Cumberland Based Civil Air Patrol Composite Squadron 18065

   9. History of Romney Flying Service at Mexico Farms

   10. Von Braun and Wagner – A Tale of Two Soaring Pilots

   11. The Rainmakers (Or Rainbreakers ?)

            (31 Photos)

VIII – The 1980’s                            

   1. Wind – A Weather Phenomenon with Local Effect

   2. The Termination of a Tomahawk

   3. Trooper Five – Maryland State Police MEDEVAC Unit at Cumberland

   4. The Unoccupied and Runaway Luscombe

   5. The Flying Power Saw

   6. Homebuilt Aircraft

   7. Charles Airesman

   8. Greg Teeter

   9. Hang Gliders and Ultra-lights

   10. The Long Boys – Harry, Dave, Joe, and Tim

            (28 Photos)

IX – The 1990’s                          

   1. Flight in a Fortress

   2. The Collings Foundation

   3. Navigation

   4. The Three Terminals Serving the Cumberland Airport

   5. A Journey to Oshkosh

   6. Keyser Celebrates Start of Air Mail

   7. David Summerfield Earns Life Saving Award

   8. Fly In Wedding

  9. The Potomac Highlands Cohongaronta Gallery

           (31 Photos)

X – The 2000’s                               

   1. Past Cumberland Airport Operators and Managers

   2. The Evolution of the Potomac Highlands Airport Authority

   3. Airport Buffs

   4. Cumberland – A Blimp Stopover Point

   5. A Sequence of Airline Activity Serving Cumberland

   6. A Compilation of Cumberland’s Surrounding Airfields

   7. The Flying Fraternity and Open Arms

   8. The Future of Local Aviation

   9. Photographic Addendum

           (70 Photos)

Acknowledgements

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