The South Dakota Pilots Association is promoting and supporting the 100th Anniversary of Flight in South Dakota.  Aviation Historian Norma Kraemer of Deadwood, SD, is leading the effort on several fronts.  If you have suggestions on activities that can promote Centennial of Flight in South Dakota please contact Norma at cubandcorben@msn.com

• Exhibit schedule for South Dakota’s First Century of Flight celebration
• SD Centennial of Flight Book Project
• South Dakota’s First Heavier-than-Air Flight
• South Dakota’s First Pilot
• Battle of Rickenbacker Field

Exhibit Schedule for South Dakota’s First Century of Flight Celebration

If you would like to help sponsor the traveling display of historical photos or the major exhibit, please contact Norma Kraemer at 605-342-2339 and her e-mail address is cubandcorben@msn.com  The SDPA has donated $1,000 toward the traveling photograph exhibit.  The SD Aeronautics Commission has pledged $4,000 toward the estimated $14,000 cost of doing the major museum exhibits. 

SD Centennial of Flight Book Project

    The book “South Dakota’s First Century of Flight” by Norma Kraemer has been completed and should be available in August 2010.  The book is being published by Arcadia Publishing (www.arcadiapublishing.com).  The format of the book is pictures with captions and a limited amount of text.  It will not be an all-inclusive history of the state’s aviation history, however, the picture format will keep pilots and the public entertained and informed. 
     The link for the book project for information on the book is: http://sdaviationhx.blogspot.com/
     Contact Norma Kraemer at 605-342-2339 and her e-mail address is cubandcorben@msn.com  

South Dakota’s First Heavier-than-Air Flight by Norma Kraemer
    The first flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft was in Rapid City, SD, on April 9, 1911.  The plane was brought here by the Western South Dakota Stockgrower’s Association for their convention and was a contracted exhibition using a Curtiss Model D pusher.  In September 1911 the State Fair hired several demonstration companies to perform for the entire week.  Over the next several years planes made appearances at Deadwood, Sioux Falls and Yankton (1912), Spearfish, Edgemont and Belle Fourche (1913), Vermillion and Ft. Pierre (1915).  Over the years I have seen various references to “firsts” in aviation throughout the state that conflict.  It basically shows that news did not travel well between communities before the advent of radio and television.

South Dakota’s First Pilot by Norma Kraemer
     Saxe Pitts Gantz was born in 1883 in Rapid City, SD.  In 1898 he moved with his mother to the Klondike for the Yukon Gold Rush.  After returning to South Dakota, he attended the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. 
     He worked for General Electric in Schenectady, NY.  He also worked on the Crouch Railroad Line as a Civil Engineer in Rapid City.  During WWII he worked in production control at Douglas Aircraft Tulsa, OK. 
     Saxe attended the Stockgrower’s Convention in Rapid City, SD, on March 9, 1911, when he first saw a plane fly.  The demonstrator pilot was Hugh Robinson from the Curtiss Aerial Exhibition Company.  Saxe asked about learning to fly and Robinson recommended the flying school at Kinloch Park, MO.  Saxe was unhappy with the flying school’s Curtiss Model D, which cost $5,000.  He knew he needed a plane of his own so with the help of two other men they built a replica in about 2 months for $3000. The aircraft was powered with a 50HP Roberts engine that cost $1150 and had an empty weight of about 1500 lbs. 
     While teaching himself to fly he said, “We did a lot of grass cutting around the field before we had enough nerve to go airborne.”  On his first flight he pancaked from about 40 feet and demolished the plane.  He rebuilt the plane and steeled his nerves to return to the air for a successful flight, and was the first South Dakotan to fly an airplane.  For $800 he flew four flights at the Clinton County Fair in Breese, IL.  He had a contract to fly at Laramie, WY, for $2500, but his plane was destroyed in shop fire in St. Louis before he arrived.  Saxe never flew again. 
     Saxe died at Custer, SD, December 31, 1959, at the age of 76.  He was cremated and his ashes are buried at his tombstone site at Silver City, SD.
     Saxe Pitts Gantz was inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame September 11, 2009. 

Battle of Rickenbacker Field by Norma Kraemer
     Charles Lindbergh toured the lower 48 states in 1927 after his record setting fight to Paris.  South Dakota had one of the more unusual events on his tour.  Lindbergh landed at Sioux Falls’ Renner Airport (initially called Lindbergh Airport, but renamed Renner so people would know where it was.) From there he was to visit Sioux City, Iowa.  However, Sioux City had no airport of its own. The only airport in the area was at what is called North Sioux City, named Rickenbacker Field.
     When Lindbergh scheduled his landing, the people of Sioux City failed to realize that the airfield was not in Iowa . They sent the Iowa National Guard to protect Lindbergh, only to be faced down by the Union County Sheriff and the chief deputy state sheriff. The Union County State’s attorney, who had been deputized, hit the Iowa Guard captain with a right to jaw that left him on the ground when challenged by the Guard troops. After the Captain returned a punch breaking the attorney’s glasses, the captain ordered his men to “fix bayonets.” With that, one of the sheriff’s deputies pulled a .45. While the Iowa captain was still punching it out, his Sergeant ordered the Iowa troops to stand down. The Guard slinked away to the catcalls of the crowd.
     When Lindbergh returned to his plane to fly on to Pierre the next day he had no idea of how well South Dakota protected his plane.