![]() His landing was the third time letters were delivered to Vancouver by air. ![]() When he arrived at 11:30 a.m., a crowd of 6,000 locals greeted him. He exchanged the Ryan for an Travel Air to return to Pearson with 10 mailbags. with 184 pounds of mail headed for Medford, Ore., landing three hours later. 82, signed by Orville Wright, which he proudly displayed.Īce pilot Tex Rankin nicknamed the big and “well-padded” Bookwalter “Anti-lift” and defined the term as “a larger unnecessary object holding an airplane down.” Unhampered by the nickname, Bookwalter flew his Ryan-M1 monoplane from Pearson Field at 5:25 a.m. In 1919, Army flight instruction gave Bookwalter four hours of training before he soloed. Postal mail transported between Oregon and Washington. 15, 1926, Vern Bookwalter flew the first government-sanctioned airmail round-trip for PAT and returned, making the first official U.S. It seemed an alternative to Swan Island while the Portland airport was under construction, shrouded in bad weather or other no-fly circumstances. However, whether Pearson Field was used as a regular stop is unclear. Gorst selected Pearson Field to service the Portland Post Office for the Seattle-to-Los Angles run because, at the time, Portland lacked a viable airfield. In late 1925, Pacific Air Transport received a government contract to deliver regular airmail. Patterson, helped him get funds and became his adviser and eventually president of United Airlines. Among his shareholders were Julius Meier, owner of the Portland department store Meier & Frank. Gorst incorporated Pacific Air Transport in January 1926 and sold stock. ![]() Later he paid for flights with the famous pilot. When Silas Christofferson flew a Curtiss Pusher off the Multnomah Hotel in Portland, Gorst was in the crowd watching. With an eye to the future of transportation, he watched the brothers Wright closely, even naming his son Wilber. Before that, he dabbled in transportation, creating a boat motor launch service, an automobile business, and several West Coast bus lines. A successful Klondike gold seeker, Vern Gorst turned his gain toward flight in 1913.
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