Three Springfielders — Maude Tait, Robert Hall and Lowell Bayles — swept the Cleveland, Ohio, air races in the Granville Brothers' cutting-edge aircraft on Sept. 6 and 7, 1931.
By JOHN LOCKWOOD
The 1920s and the 1930s were probably the most romantic period in the history of aviation.
It was the era of the stunt flyer, when airplanes were still a novelty rather than a part of everyday life. There were big names then, too, such as Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart.
It was during this time that Springfield swept the air races on Sept. 6 and 7 at the 1931 national air show in Cleveland, Ohio. The three Springfielders who won the competitions were Maude Tait, Robert Hall and Lowell Bayles.
John Lockwood Maude Tait and her family had perhaps the greatest long-term effect on Springfield. Her father, James Tait, was part owner of the Springfield Airport at Fisk Park. On July 5, 1929, James and his three brothers went even further, announcing there would be an airplane plant - Springfield's first - built at the airport, to be run by the five nationally famous Granville brothers, who were aviation engineers in Boston at the time.
This was something of a coup for the Tait family, for more than 20 other cities had tried to persuade the Granvilles to set up shop there instead. The Granvilles began building "Gee Bee" airplanes, "Gee Bee" standing for Granville Brothers.
This is a 1931 Gee Bee Senior Sportster as flown by Springfield's Maude Tait. Maude began taking lessons in 1927 from Roscoe Brinton, of the Curtiss Flying Service. By 1928, she had qualified for a pilot's license and a commercial pilot's license. At this time, she even achieved an unofficial women's altitude record of 16,500 feet.
As for Robert Hall, he had been interested in aviation from childhood and studied engineering at Harvard. He then went to work for the Granville brothers, who were so impressed with him that they gave him a laboratory in which to work. Hall became a designer of Gee Bee monoplanes.
Lowell Bayles started out as a University of Illinois student, but had to quit his first year due to eye trouble. He then became an electrician in the Herrin, Ill., coal mines, where he saved up enough money to buy his first airplane, learning to fly by 1923. In 1928, he moved to Springfield.
Maude Tait, who was born in Chicopee, set a world speed record for female fliers in 1931, beating Amelia Earhart's previous record by almost 10 miles an hour and missing the men's record by just 1 mph. At the Cleveland Air Show, then, Maude Tait flew in a red-and-white Gee Bee. One of the other competitors was Amelia Earhart. Did the two meet then?
At any rate, Maude finished first in the 10-mile, free-for-all women's race, for the Aerol trophy, averaging a speed of 187.574 mph.
Hall, meanwhile, won the free-for-all race of men and women. He used a black-and-yellow Gee Bee, flying at 222.5 mph.
Bayles, using Hall's Gee Bee, won the Thompson trophy race, at 236.239 mph.
The three flyers returned to Springfield on Sept. 10, 1931, each one flying into the airport separately. A crowd of 3,000 welcomed them with cheers.
Maude landed first, to be greeted by her parents and by an admirer who gave her a bouquet of flowers. Hall landed next, then Bayles. There followed a city parade, which eventually ended up at City Hall. There the mayor gave them scrolls. Dinner followed at 7:30 p.m., followed by fireworks at 9:30 at the airport.
So, for a brief time, Springfield, Massachusetts, dominated American aviation.
John Lockwood, a freelance writer, lives in Washington, D.C.
His sources for this column include: The Sun, Sept. 7, 1931, page 1; The Daily Boston Globe, July 6, 1929, page 20; Aug. 19, 1929, page 13; Sept. 2, 1931, page 28; Sept. 4, 1931, page 11; Sept. 6, 1931, page A-5; Sept. 8, 1931, page 9; Dec. 6, 1931, page B-1; The Springfield Daily Republican, Sept. 8, 1931, page 1; Sept. 10, 1931, page 1; Sept. 11, 1931, page 1.