The South Dakota Pilots Association promotes the active support of the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame through the SDPA newsletter.

The SD Aviation Hall of Fame is a non-profit South Dakota corporation with federal tax-exempt status, established to honor the pioneers and contributors to South Dakota aviation. Their history, accomplishment, impact on South Dakota, and memorabilia will be on display and available for inspection in the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame building to be located on the Black Hills Airport / Clyde Ice Field, Spearfish, SD.

If you know of someone from South Dakota who you believe would be a good nominee for the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame, please complete and submit the appropriate Nominee Application or contact Ted Miller at 605-642-0277.

• The Inductees
• The Home
• Building Fund
• Contacts
• Raffle
• Donated Aircraft
• Inductees in the Aviation Hall of Fame and the Combat Air Crew Memorial
• List of all Aviation Hall of Fame Inductees
• List of all Combat Air Crew Memorial Members
• Application Forms
  • South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame nominee form
  • Combat Air Crew Memorial nominee form
• Articles of Incorporation of South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame [PDF]
• Bylaws of the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame [PDF] 

The Inductees

Famous inductees such as Clyde Ice, Joe Foss, Duane Corning, Nellie Willhite, Charles Gemar, and more have been honored by the SD Aviation Hall of Fame.

Over 200 combat aircrew members have been inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame, and were residents of South Dakota who served their country with honor while flying combat tours in the many wars of the United States, from World War I to the present.

The Home

Presently, the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame, Inc. has an exhibit of Aviation Hall of Fame members and combat aircrew members at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Ellsworth Air Force Base, Rapid City, SD.

A new home (shown right, drawn by Claudette Miller) is planned in the future at the Black Hills / Clyde Ice Field, Spearfish, SD, to house the exhibit, aircraft, and memorabilia of the Hall of Fame members for future generations.

Building Fund

A building fund has been established and donations are solicited for this unique South Dakota institution. Your contributions are greatly appreciated. A contribution wall will be constructed and consist of plaques showing the donor’s name and section.

Building Fund Contributions

Contacts

South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame
Black Hills / Clyde Ice Field
424 Aviation Place
Spearfish, SD 57783
Phone 605-642-0277 (days)

President
Ted Miller
Black Hills Aero
424 Aviation Place
Spearfish, SD 57783
605-642-0277 (days)
Email: bha@mato.com

Vice President
Rich Krogstad
320 N. Tinton Road
Spearfish, SD 57783
Home 605-642-5385
Email: c21rich@mato.com

Board of Directors
Ted Miller, Spearfish
 Rich Krogstad, Spearfish
Pearl Gulbranson, Spearfish
Tami Schroeder, Brookings
Bobbie Potts, Gettysburg

Selection Committee
Ted Miller, Spearfish
Rich Krogstad, Spearfish
Leon Basler, Bismarck, ND
Grove Rathbun, Rapid City
Denny Martens, Vermillion
Bobbie Potts, Gettysburg
Norm Telkamp, Sioux Falls

Raffle
The SD Aviation Hall of Fame is searching for a “Light Sport Plane” to use in a fund-raising raffle.  If you know of a light sport plane like a J-3 Cub or PA-11, PLEASE contact Rich Krogstad at 605-642-5385 or email c21rich@mato.com, or Ted Miller at 605-642-0277 or email bha@mato.com -- at your earliest opportunity!! 

Once a plane has been secured for a Raffle, flyers about the raffle will be mailed through out the state and advertised in the newsletter of the South Dakota Pilots Association. 

Tentatively, a Raffle drawing will be held in mid-September.  Raffle tickets will probably cost $50 each.  MORE DETAILS LATER.  Make checks payable to the SD Aviation Hall of Fame, and mail to SD Aviation Hall of Fame, 424 Aviation Way, Spearfish, SD 57783.  Your raffle ticket will be mailed to you.  Need not be present to win.  Proceeds to the SD Aviation Hall of Fame, non-profit 503-C.

Donated Aircraft
If you have artifacts or an aircraft to donate to the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame, please contact Ted Miller.

Make & Model: Stits Playmate built by Henry Conrad Balcer
Year: 1968
N number: N6515
Donator: Charlotte Andersen, MD, Badger, SD
Location: Black Hills Aero, Black Hills Airport / Clyde Ice Field, Spearfish, SD

When my Dad started welding chromoly steel in our one-car garage, my 6 year-old eyes were wide with excitement -- this pile of metal was going to be our airplane?  I spent every evening with him "working" on the airplane.  I really could help with some things, like stitching the Dacron covered wings, but I'm sure he put up with my assistance, hoping that I would love it as much as he did.

It worked.

My Dad finished the Stits Playmate in just under 2 1/2 years, the fastest time to date for one to be finished.  N6515 was the first to fly after Ray Stits flew the prototype.  The Playmate made its first trip to Rockford, Illinois in 1969, coming home with a trophy. 

My Dad and I flew many more years to Oshkosh.  We had the airplane in parades, in malls, almost anywhere anyone invited us.  The folding-wing design made it easy for it to be transported as well as allowing it access to places where many other aircraft cannot go.

It had the engine updated early on to the Lycoming 150 hp, which gave it more power, and makes it quite a peppy little craft to fly.

Dad and I rebuilt the Playmate in 1990, giving it all new fabric, new interior, and new avionics.  This time I could participate much more fully, and my Dad and I had a wonderful time doing it together.   What a joy it was to receive the first Paul Poberezny Founders Award for classic custom homebuilt in Oshkosh in 1991. 

While flying with my Dad all those years, I got my license, graduated from medical school, completed my psychiatry residency, got a Skyhawk, and missed Oshkosh only twice in all those years.  I then married the most wonderful man, Art, a pilot, who lives in Badger...on SD19. 

My Dad died in 2002, and I want a place for the Playmate to live forever. 

Charlotte Andersen, M.D.
Badger, SD

Make & Model: American Triwing built by Vern Kraemer
Year: 1952
N number: N6001V
Donator: Vern Kraemer, Nemo, SD
Location: being restored in Nemo, SD

Comment 9/25/05: The American Triwing was built by Vern Kraemer and was the first licensed homebuilt in South Dakota.  It was donated to the EAA Museum in 1959 in Hales Corners, WI, the second plane donated (Steve Wittman's Bonzo was the first).  When the EAA Museum moved to Oshkosh, WI, in the late 1980s, the Triwing was inexplicably destroyed by EAA (burned up the wings).  After some persistence on Vern's part, they returned the fuselage cut in 3-ft pieces in the box.  They kept the engine and instruments without permission. Vern has since welded the fuselage back together.  He has reconstructed the wings from his blueprints and is currently welding up the struts for the wings.  Once everything is in the proper position, he will begin covering the plane with fabric.  He is restoring it for display purposes only, not to be airworthy.
Comment October 2008:  Vern has welded the fuselage back together.  He has reconstructed the wings from his blueprints, refabricated the struts for the wings, and covered and painted the aircraft.   An engine that matches the original has been obtained and hung.  All that remains to be done is to hang the wings and add the painted logo on the fuselage.  Until the final display location has been finalized the plane is currently being stored in pieces in Vern's hangar.

Make & Model:  “Jeep” was designed & built by Ralph Burton
Year: 1941
N number:  N41664
Donator:  Burton family
Location:  stored in Rob Burton’s hangar at Custer County Airport

Information from Rob Burton (Hill City, SD) September 2008:  The “Jeep” was designed and built by Ralph Burton in 1941 at the old Alliance Airport, Alliance, NE.  Ralph was killed in the crash of a Beech Staggerwing near Philips, SD, on March 27, 1944, while carrying airmail between Cheyenne, Pierre, and Rapid City.  The plane was lashed to the top of a car and moved by Ivan Ellis from Alliance to Spearfish, SD.  The single seat plane had a Continental A-40-4 engine (salvaged from a wrecked Taylorcraft), 18-foot wingspan, and 12-foot overall length.  The parasol wing was adapted from a Taylorcraft airfoil and had modified Friese ailerons.  Newspaper accounts from 1941 report, “The plane takeoffs and lands at 55 miles per hour [and has reached speeds as high as 120 miles per hour].  Its cockpit is so small that the instrument panel is only a few inches from the pilot’s face, and the seat is recessed to permit the pilot to wear a parachute.”  The plane was called the “Jeep” after a popular air racer built by Art Chester.  Rob Burton (nephew of Ralph Burton) stored the dismantled plane in a garage for many years.  The plane was rebuilt for static display by Ivan Ellis in 1998-1999, and displayed at Black Hills Aero on Spearfish Airport in August 2002 at the time of the induction of Ralph Burton into the SD Aviation Hall of Fame.  

Inductees in the Aviation Hall of Fame and the Combat Air Crew Memorial

The SD Aviation Hall of Fame inducted three people during ceremonies held at Black Hills Airport / Clyde Ice Field on September 11, 2009. 

Saxe Pitts Gantz
     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 Stock Show in Rapid City, SD, on March 9, 1911, when he first saw a plane fly.  The demonstrator pilot 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 $5000.  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 be 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.  Saxe Pitts Gantz was inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame September 11, 2009. 

Colman L. “Buzz” Wagner
      “Buzz” was born on May 1, 1920, and spent his early life on the family farm at Verdon, SD, where he constructed model airplanes using the cardboard from Post Toasties cereal boxes.  He had his first airplane ride in a barnstormer’s Curtis-Robbin.  After graduating from Clark High School, Wagner enrolled in a new aircraft engineering course at SDSC in Brookings.  In WWII, he was trained as a P-38 Specialist and served as a mechanic.  Following his military service, “Buzz” was united in marriage to his pilot wife, Lloydine.  Wagner was the Clark County Airport manager for 46 years.  He owned Wagner Aerial Service and was an A&P and I.A. licensed mechanic and inspector.  He owned, rebuilt and sold probably 100’s of airplanes, mostly Aeronca Champs, Chiefs, Champions and L3s.  He owned over 13 Luscombes, had Cubs, Pipers, Taylorcrafts, Ercoupes, Stinson 108s, 10As, 1936 Stinson Gullwing, Republic Seabee, Bonanzas, Cessna 140s, 170s, 172s and many other planes.   He also had and built a Spezio Tuholder, Baby Ace, Itzit, Retractable Midget Mustang, Mustang II, Barracuda, EAA Biplane, Team Airbike and Bandit (4-place Bush Plane of his own design).  He became a worldwide authority on the Aeronca, Champion, and Bellanca – “Citabria” aircrafts, specializing in Bush Plane and Float Plane applications.  He held a number of engine conversion STCs (Supplemental Type Certificate) and was a leading supplier of parts and paperwork.  He professionally rebuilt and modified these planes for customers.  He had the International Aeronca Association club, held a Lifetime EAA Membership and for many years had a booth and gave forums at the Oshkosh EAA Fly-In.  Buzz died on August 28, 2008.  Coleman “Buzz” Wagner was inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame on September 11, 2009. 

Col. John F. Welch, USAF (Retired)
      John was born April 17, 1920, at Bailey, Kansas.  He saw his first airplane when he was 9 years old when two Jennies landed about 1 mile from their house.  The family went to see them and watched them take off.  The next time he saw a plane he was behind the pilot seat of a Gull-Wing Stinson at a Labor Day celebration in Winner, SD.  John was in College in 1941-42.  He left college and was in the service from 1943 to 1948.  He went back to college and graduated with degrees in Business Administration and Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University.  He worked as a technical writer for Beech Aircraft till he was called back to the service during the Korean War.  He received his masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. 
      His military career included flying with Jimmy Doolittle’s 8th Air Force as a B-17 pilot during WWII.   In the Korean War he flew for Strategic Air Command piloting B-36s and B-52s.   His medals includes Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 21 Oak Leaf Cluster and the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Bronze and Silver Star from the Vietnamese Government.  In 1970 John started Silver Wings Aviation at Rapid City Regional Airport.  He had a Part 135 charter service and Part 141 flying school where he instructed many students.  He also operated air transportation for radiologists for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Books he authored include: Modern Airmanship 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th additions, Flight InstructorsPocket Hand Book, Dead Engine Kids, RB-36 Days at Rapid City, a memoir of his experience at Ellsworth AFB, and My Year in Vietnam, a memoir of his Vietnam experiences.  John Welch was inducted into the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame on September 11, 2009. 

Six people were inducted into the Combat Air Crew Memorial section of the SD Aviation Hall of Fame during a ceremony at Black Hills Airport / Clyde Ice Field, Spearfish, on September 11, 2009.

Childs, Charles, Lt. Col.
Eibart, Don C., Lt. Com.   
Klein, Verle, Rear Admiral
Teachout, Gerald, Lt. Col.
Tech, Laverne R., Maj.
Welch, John F., Col.

List of all South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame Inductees

List of all Combat Air Crew Memorial Members