History of Flight

Noteworthy is the striking mural that decorates the recreation room of the Service Men's Club at Davis-Monthan Airbase near Tucson. Here is a graphic and dramatic presentation of the history of flight, told in pictures and scrolls. The mural shows man conquering the air.

PICTURES ON A WALL AT DAVIS-MONTHAN FIELD, THE B-24 LIBERATOR BASE IN TUCSON, STRIKINGLY TELL THE STORY OF MAN'S ENDEAVORS TO CONQUER THE AIR. THE MURALS DONE BY PVT. PHIL BRINKMAN ARE UNUSUAL IN THEIR GRAPHIC AND DRAMATIC PRESENTATION OF THE HISTORY OF FLIGHT.

OFFICIAL U. S. ARMY AIR FORCE PHOTOS All that bare wall space in the Service could be six feet deep," he would say to himThose dimensions sometimes halted his Men's Club worried Private Phil Brinkself, letting out a low whistle and pulling at thoughts, but it got so he couldn't rest well at man. He couldn't get it out of his mind. His his red hair. That space would remind him night even after a hard day's duty with other fingers itched to decorate those walls. Ideas that someone had said that every artist's ambienlisted men at Davis-Monthan Airbase. He'd kept floating in and out of his brain for piction is to find the biggest possible space and drift into the club in his dirty cover-alls and tures to fill that space. make the biggest mark on it. He'd found the eye that wall thoughtfully. It began to be"That room's 36 by 90 feet and a mural space, but could he do it? filled, in his imagination, with pictures.

Private Phil Brinkman had never painted a mural before he did the one in the Service Men's Club and knew little of aviation's history. He used but three earth colors for his palette and, after sketching in his designs with pencil, painted with a strong direct method technique.

Sometimes he had to laugh at himself. He had never painted a mural in his life. That little job he'd done in a squadron day room in Salt Lake City didn't count. He knew almost nothing about aviation history even though he had been in the Air Corps since June 9, 1942. Yet here he was planning a great mural to tell the history of aviation from the Greek myth about Icarus through to today's B-24 Liberators.

There are no laws preventing a man's thinking, so he kept on studying the problem. The mural should tell the enlisted men something, help them learn as they looked. They were, as he, too busy to catch the whole sweep of man's ambition to fly and how he achieved that goal. But the murals were to be in a recreation room so they must not hit the men in the face, must provide mental and physical comfort and be in well orchestrated colors applied to a design that would not be too intrusive.

Every leisure hour began to be devoted to those murals by the former advertising illustrator. Every paper on his person, except of course his military documents, contained sketches which reflected those mental images which had been hopping about in his mind for weeks. Finally, the whole idea was worked out in his mind and on paper. He saw it in his mind's eye.

Then the real test of courage came. He gathered up his pile of drawings and went to his commanding officer to explain that he would like to do a mural in the club room. The officer liked the plan, took it to the Base Special Service officer, who is in charge of the service club. The matter was then laid before Col. Lowell H. Smith, commander of the base, who gave his final approval.

That was in January, 1943 and by late September the mural was completed. It represented a real achievement for the St. Louis private, who had done all the work on a voluntary, leisure-time basis. It is a private's history of aviation painted for privates, yet men of high rank in the Air Force have stood before the rhythmic progression of that aviation story and admired it extravagantly. Colonel Smith, himself one of the great pioneers who helped make that history, takes visiting officers and government officials to the Service Men's club whenever there is time to spare during their stop-overs at Davis-Monthan Airbase.

The beauty and suitability of the mural in an enlisted men's recreation room are two primary attractions, but it is also considered one of the finest and largest in the entire Air Force. It possesses the additional advantage of being as completely accurate in even minute details as the artist could make it through careful research.

One of the charms of the paintings is their associated significance. They deal with something the men know. They work on planes all day or are near them. Their ears echo with the roar of motors. Of evenings, as they sit in the club room, they can compare their B-24 Liberators with Leonardo da Vinci's 15th century drawings of means for man's flight, with kites and balloons of a later day, with Sir Hiram Maxim's steam flying machine and with Otto Lilenthal's glider. It gives them a sense of superiority over those who groped their way through the pages of history and sets them to wondering what the future of aviation will be.

There is a simplicity and symmetry about the murals. They have a sense of motion which leads the eye in rhythmical progression around the room from plane to plane through the centuries of history.

Many enlisted men would spurn the idea of going to an art gallery, even being interested in art, but they cannot help but like those pictures, just as man has liked them since the days when he decorated caves in France and Arizona with primitive paintings. One such cave lies west of the Davis-Monthan Airbase and Tucson on the Papago reservation. Indians occupied it from before the time of Christ and on its walls are strange paintings done by forgotten artists.

The men also like their ability to recognize various planes shown in the murals and to tell about having seen this or that barnstormer or "air gypsy" of early days when he flew through his home town. They also recount their experiences in the crowds that greeted some pioneer hero of aviation, including their own base commander, Colonel Smith, who directed the first flight around the world in 1924. They remember when the first airmail and passenger services were inaugurated in their villages, towns or cities. Private Brinkman knew what would interest them because he was interested himself.

rected the first flight around the world in 1924. They remember when the first airmail and passenger services were inaugurated in their villages, towns or cities. Private Brinkman knew what would interest them because he was interested himself.

He was in the position of a portrait painter who must learn to know his subject as he paints it. Aviation history unfolded before his eyes, fresh, new and fascinating, and his perceptions were sensitive and sharp. He did not begin his book research for details until after all the preliminary sketches were approved by his superior officers. Then he used every authoritative volume three libraries could produce for him that at the base, Tucson's Carnegie Public Library, and that at the University of Arizona.

How he grew up knowing so little of aviation history or its pioneers is a mystery to him. He can explain it only by his absorption in becoming an advertising illustrator.

Private Brinkman was born in St. Louis in 1916, grew up and got his education there. He was red headed and probably freckle faced. His late father, George C. Brinkman, opened the first automobile agency in St. Louis, had no developed artistic interests. One of his three sisters, Mrs. Georgia Rassieur of St. Louis, is a commercial artist, but neither knows of any of their Dutch-French ancestors who ever painted, even on china.

A tall, ruddy complexioned young man, he attended the Washington Art School at Washington University for two years. When 22 years old he went to Chicago, entered the American Academy, and studied with Hyden Sundblum, well-known commercial illustrator who created the Coca-Cola girl. He gained confidence and went to New York City to study with Harvey Dunn, dean of illustrators. There he began to find himself as he worked in art classes six days and three nights of each week. His mediums were water colors and oils and he learned all the required techniques, such as lettering and lay-out, for commercial advertising work.

His first post as a novice was with the Gardner Advertising Agency in St. Louis, but after a half-year of apprenticeship he moved back to New York City and was connected with Ruth Ruff Ryan, one of the big four companies With Delane's idea in mind, the Montgolfier brothers of Paris filled paper bags with hot air and found that they rose. They developed the bags until in 1783 two men, Rosier and Marquis d'Arlandes, made the first human flight in history. In the same year Professor Charles varnished a silk bag and experimented with inflamable air (hydrogen). It soon proved far more practical, but dangerous, than hot air. In such a balloon Blanchard and Jeffries made the first crossing of the English Channel-1785. Ten years later, through the request of our first president, Blanchard was to make the first aerial ascent in the new world.

For darechond control the bag was elongated. Henry Giffard built the first navigable steam-driven airship-1852 Santos-Dumont made the world balloon conscious with his many air escapades over Paris. The green balloon was strictly non-rigid providing many thrills in jack-knifing every so cater. The crafts were propelled by engines run on hydrogen pumped from the bag. His twelve miles per was most envied...

We now follow the trend of heavier-than-air for it is the true Lineage of our modern plane. The rigid wing or glider seems to have been conceived in the ancient box kite. Sir George Gayley fathered British aeronautics in fashioning a tail to a large kite and in 1894 contrived to glide an appreciable distance. The final development of the rigid wing or glider prior to its power plant is accredited to throw engineer by Otto Lilienthal of Germany (represented in yellow), Picher of Great Britain (in green), and Octave Chanute. (An engineer by profession, he built the Chicago stock yards and numerous bridges across the Mississippi. Chanute Field is named in his honor.) flying models became quite successful of this time. 1890 finds Clement Ader building a series of bird-like machines under the french government. One is claimed to have flown, altho never officially accredited.

The United States at this time employed Samuel Langley, a member of the Smith sonian Institute, to build a full size machine around the turn of his very discouraging model. The radial rotary power plant of 48 hp was controlled by his associate Manley. This experiment of 1903 was heavily covered by newspapers so that when unforseen accidents occurred in its final launching-mention failures apart from the picture itself-the critical press literally rode Langley into oblivion.

Above Allied and German pilots, who thumb their noses at each other. Rigid balAs World War I closed planes used synchronized machine guns and Balloons, parachutes, hurtling bombs and searchlights mark flight's developments. dropped bombs from hastily devised racks. Typical planes are shown.

in advertising, and then with Benton Bowles. Again his spare time went into decorating another squadron day room and also in making signs used about the base. Then the idea of the mural became an obsession. It staggered him, sometimes, to think of filling nearly 900 square feet of beaverboard, painted in the standard army buttercup yellow, in that long room. It would be a hard task also to get the progressive story around the many doors and windows, past exposed pipes and ceiling beams. It was a chopped up space which must be tied artfully together so interruptions Again his spare time went into decorating another squadron day room and also in making signs used about the base. Then the idea of the mural became an obsession. It staggered him, sometimes, to think of filling nearly 900 square feet of beaverboard, painted in the standard army buttercup yellow, in that long room. It would be a hard task also to get the progressive story around the many doors and windows, past exposed pipes and ceiling beams. It was a chopped up space which must be tied artfully together so interruptions would be unnoticed as the paintings were studied. It would also be difficult because the Arizona sun streamed in through every opening, producing a sheen over everything.

A mural is a "sweetening" or a "dressing" for a room and so must have fitness of subject for the room's use and at the same time be an adornment by way of an aesthetic design. The fitness was the history of aviation. How to fit that into a proper design was the really tough problem.

He had done all the preliminary sketches, but in miniature so when it came time to sketch those drawings upon the wall he did them in sweeping strokes with a pencil. Sometimes things were not in their proper places and he would "juggle them around until they fitted." He would pencil in several sections and then go back to an early one to begin painting in the picture with oils. He used the direct painting method, finishing everything while the oil was still wet and never returning to retouch.

The palette he could use was limited by the colors available on the base. He chose three earth colors: burnt sienna, yellow ochre and ivory black. These, sometimes mixed withwhite, provided him all possible hues and shades of purple, blue, green, and red he wanted. The buttercup yellow that surrounds the pictures gives a warmth which some colors do not in themselves possess. There is complete color orchestration or harmony. Neither in color or design are the pictures timid, the mural having strength without any of the billboard blatancy of the modern school of sledge-hammer technique.

Private Brinkman may seem just another young American of 27 years, sunburned, tall, well built, athletic, and with direct, honest eyes, but underneath he possesses sensitivity which is reflected in the mural's symbolism. There is the direct and obvious story told of the developments of man's newest means of locomotion, but behind the kites, balloons and planes, which seem to hang out away from the wall, so good is his perspective, there is an additional story told.

The eastern section of the mural, at the end of the room opposite the entrance and above the orchestra's platform, is one of the best pieces of his symbolic painting. It shows the Nine doys after Langley's remourned failure twe Otisans flew from the sand dunes of Killy Hawk a flight that may in succeeding history prove the most epochal individual achievment of a human being. In accompaniment with Chanule, the Wright's carried out countless glider flights midst the Indiana sand dunes. For the use of constant irigh winds final experiments were made of Kity Hawk, N. Carolina. The criginal 12 hp, 4-cylinder engine was at last fitted to the glider. On the murning of December 17,1903, Orville Wright flow forty yards, ten fest high, for a period of twelve seconds. The longest succeeding flight thee moring was 284 yards. The world in orneral was a non-believer and for the next five years the Wright's constantly damarntrated both here and in Europe. 10 1909, August 2 (the birthday of the Army Air force), the Army bought its first plane the meal A Wright. Europe readily accepted the possibility of flight and filled the succeeding years with success, the mare nebilde being Louis Bleriot, habert Lathen, Hears with sucess, the mare nebilde Glen Curtiss is accredited with the movedic ailerce idre, the first hydro-air plane, and the "America (1914) aluch lae built for trans-Atlantic Night. The outbreak of war pastponed further endeavors.

Up to 1914, aircraft development was very indefinite. They were too occupied to worry much whether they were noisy or why, but with the outbreak of the war, the purpose they needed for the war, they were soon provided with all the direction an holding their craft in on ever keel and nursing their sputtering engines France had the largest air arm, some 1500 planes. She was the first to launch this embryotic factor into battle. Few had any conception of its military potentialities. Immediately it proved the all beeing eye, an observer. Encounters betwe air arm, some 1500 planes. She was very amicable in the early days. for the next four years. between enemy planes were their noses or perhaps take a pot shot at their colleagues in passing, but Anthony Folder kher soon fixed this by introducing the synchronized machine gun. Aerial combat from there on out proved a major science. During 1915-16 Germany raided England with a hundred or more dirigibles. Von Zepplin and Shutte had developed, these craft to a most serviceable degree, altheach anti-aircraft and figh sand Nieuports. or more impetuous pilots would thumb al art. The French Spads and Brich Suk-5's and Sopwiths in the hands of sach masters as Guynemer, Richthofen, Bishop, Richenbacker and Luke, played a decisive factor in the course of history var lasted another ther year, cerial warfare might wall have established itself, but as it was the world continued to view the plane as a crackpot substitute for a light cavalry umt.

American "gypsy fliers" barn-stormed the United States after the first world war and flew in crates at the risk of their lives. Some great and noted fliers were produced in this way.

Beginning of the use of aircraft in modern wars, overlooking the French use in 1870 of balloons to carry messages from Paris during a siege. The 93rd French Squadron is shown with uplifted rifles, but the position of arms and hands indicates the bayonet thrust as if launching the airplanes. Eyes disassociated from any faces indicate the plane's use as an observational agent, but in the center of the panel Richthofen flies above a pair of hands, each thumb placed on the nose of an Allied and German pilot. They represent the real intensity of air warfare and beyond the crossed hands fall bombs which became a part of airplanes before World War I ended.

The mural's story swings through the barnstorming period, the first airmail and passenger routes. The airmail is represented by an immense envelope addressed to Miss Minitte Duffy of New York City and carrying a Wash ington, D. C. return address. The young woman is a friend of the artist, but she did not receive such a letter when that shuttle route was inaugurated May 15, 1918 between the two cities. He flushes when questioned as to why he chose her name to place on the envelope.

The panel following on that early period is devoted to men who are most responsible for The recent developments in aviation General Billy Mitchell, General Arnold, Colonel Lowell H. Smith, Lindbergh, Admiral Byrd, Wiley Post, Kingsford Smith, General Frank Andrews, Jimmie Doolittle, Amelia Earhart and Igor Sikorsky. Those heads are more than three feet high. Personal friends recognize the vari ous personages and comment on the excellent likenesses although Private Brinkman has known none of them except Colonel Smith.

Another point of symbolism in the murals is an outstretched, open hand which speaks of the conquest of the globe by commercial transport and clipper liners, some of which are painted into the mural. That hand changes into a closed, mailed fist, however, indicating the struggle for might and power. Beyond the fist are the latest Flying Fortresses, bombers and pursuit ships, the position of honor being reserved for the B-24 Liberator used at the Davis-Monthan Airbase.

The heads of the famous, pioneer fliers were exaggerated in size, but reproductions of mod ern planes had to be shrunk. The B-24 is six feet long in the mural, but its actual wing spread of around 110 feet can only be sug gested. The artist tried to keep all planes in relative proportion so such a ship as the "June Bug" made by Glenn H. Curtiss in 1908 looks the fragile, small craft it was compared with today's giants.

Broken spaces and exposed pipes are forgotten as the mural's story unfolds "Some of the modern muralists have gone in for screaming colors and dramatic designs," said Private Brinkman to a group of visitors one day. "I was not interested in showing the powers and emotions of war or man's char acter in war. I wished to tell realistically something of the history of what man has done in the achievement of flight through the air."

"I am convinced that this same literal tech nique could be adapted to all sections of the army and navy, as the development of guns for the infantry, the progress of the coast guard, the work of the medical corps, and the changes that have come in ships. The average soldier enters the army and has to span high powered courses in specialized schools, learn all the techniques of modern war, but he has no time in which to study the history of the particular division of the army in which he is. It would help him to visualize how he fits into that picture, into that progress that has been made."

The mural is accurate in minute details. Small letters and numbers on planes were taken from actual photographs and official records. There was a mail plane numberedpeace-time changes to airmail and passenger services. Aviation was coming of age, figuring in the commercial development of America, catching people's imagination.

166, a DeHaviland converted from war use to peace-time activity. Colonel Smith's Doug las army plane is a copy of the one now in the Smithsonian Institute. The da Vinci flying bats were copied from texts which reproduced the Italian's drawings, as was a copy of S. P. Langley's motor-driven aircraft of 1903. The artist painted with a text book in one hand most of the time.

There are vast territories of aviation history which the muralist wisely did not touch. In fact, he said as he finished the painting: “I could do it over again. I'd like another chance to portray another history of the air corps. So far as design goes I believe I could develop the next one much better.” Perhaps he will want an even bigger space on which to make a bigger mark next time, he did not say, but he surely has made a mark through this mural which will not be forgotten for many years. Generals have complimented him on his work, remarked: “We are not used to having quite such fine work in our service clubs.” What will become of the mural after the war is a question visitors ask, for the regulation army building is of light construction and not fireproof. But the enthusiasm expressed by members of the Davis-Monthan official staff makes it safe to predict that it will be preserved.

The opinion of that staff is epitomized by Colonel Smith's official appraisal of the mural, which is as follows: The work Pvt. Phil Brinkman accomplished ed in decorating the walls of the Davis-Mon than Service Club deserves more than passing attention.

“The young muralist contributed greatly toward making the base's center for enlisted men even more attractive. And, in addition, he has presented a carefully authenticated His tory of Flight which has particular attraction and value for the thousands of young men passing through this training phase of the Second Air Force.

“A study of Pvt. Brinkman's mural has a place in the training program of Davis-Mon than. The work not only acquaints flying per sonnel with ancient yearnings and early efforts of man in the study of flight, but constantly reminds the present generation of airmen that the successful operation of the great planes of today has only been made possible through the sacrifices of the pioneers of the past.” Scrolls not yet completed in the Brinkman murals at Davis-Monthan Field will carry the following legends: General Billy Mitchell, General Arnold, Colonel Lowell H. Smith and Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, figures in air history.

With the signing of the Armistice, the air plane again became an apparently useless prod uct. Excess war stocks were piled up and buried for want of a better idea. However, thousands of war-trained pilots, on returning to civilian pursuits, bought up surplus bargain priced training craft and soon became known as our “air gypsies” and “barnstormers.” In their “jenneys” and “caudrons” they carried aviation to every town and hamlet. Thrills were their stock in trade. For many life was exciting but short. With few exceptions all records were made by these men. They initi ated civil aviation, creating the largest charter business in the world.

The first airmail service was inaugurated by May 15, 1918 on a shuttle line between Washington, D. C., Philadelphia and New York City. World War De Havilands were the car riers and by 1924 Jack Knight pushed this serv ice around the clock from coast to coast by air. All mail routes were potential passenger lines. So in 1920, the first passenger service was in troduced, running from Key West to Havana.

Individual achievements, spectacular flights blossomed during this early post-war period. In 1919 the Navy launched three Curtiss flying boats, for the first attempted North Atlantic flight from New Foundland to England. Out of the three, Commander A. C. Read in the NC-4 succeeded. A month later, two Englishmen, (Continued on Page Forty-nine) ventured out for new conquests even into the stratosphere and his planes increased in size and speed.

Peacetime pursuits gave way to the mailed fist (left) of war's determination. The newest planes being flown by daring young pilots in World War II end the mural. A B-24 Liberator flies toward a tip of Icarus' wings, which begin the mural. So is the story of flight told on a wall.