Articles and Stories

Reidar Olsen was 15 years old when he built his first airplane. It was a pusher biplane on skids powered by a 7-hp motor and quite up-to-date for Norway in 1913. Olsen was one of many teenage prodigies building airplanes in those days. WAHF Inductee Thomas Hamilton made his first airplane in Vancouver, Canada, then, and a teenager we’d like to know more about named Harry Tees was doing the same thing in Green Bay.
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Since 1929, the Bouchard family from the Ashland, Wisconsin area have been flying as commercial pilots, and now have a fourth generation expressing their love of aviation.
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In October 1985, WAHF Founder Carl Guell traveled to Minocqua to interview Gilbert “Gib” Green. The transcript of the interview tells the story of one man’s life as a Wisconsin aviator in the 1930s and ’40s.
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This is a story of what might have been. A story involving Wisconsin’s “Tail-gunner Joe” McCarthy, Charles Lindbergh, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Wrigley family of chewing gum fame, and Wisconsin architect Frank Lloyd Wright. This is the story of how Lake Geneva narrowly missed being home to the United States Air Force Academy.
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While on a first date, Marie Spear fell in love with flying. She went for a ride in a Stearman with a fellow named Pete. She not only fell in love with flying, but in time, with the pilot, too.
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From Southeast Asia to the Florida panhandle, Major Leonard “Len” Knitter’s Air Force career has taken him from fixed-wing transport to flying the iconic Sikorsky HH-3E “Jolly Green” in high-stakes rescue missions. A Milwaukee native and WAHF supporter, Knitter’s story blends skill, dedication, and decades of rotary-wing expertise, offering a rare look at the life of an Air Force helicopter pilot on alert during hurricane season and beyond.
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Early on the afternoon of May 5th, 1958, Madison residents living on the north shore of Lake Monona watched as an F-102A Delta Dagger returned from a routine training mission to Madison’s Truax Air Force Base. At the time Truax was part of the Air Force’s Air Defense Command and home to three activ
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From a high school biplane escapade that landed Paul Poberezny in the principal’s office to a lifetime of building, flying, and mentoring, his story celebrates the humor, passion, and dedication that keeps general aviation alive today.
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More than 50,000 American fighter pilots saw air combat in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Forty-four of those pilots hailed from Wisconsin and hence could be termed ‘Badger Aces.’
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From the Golden Age of Aviation to an Aviation World Record
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Bob Lussow’s story begins as a boy watching the planes overhead going into what is now O’Hare International Airport. His greatest dream was to become a pilot. To date, he has flown over 40,000 hours in many different types of airplanes, retiring from Delta after a long career. Bob and his wife Timi moved to Wisconsin and quickly became involved with their local airport community and EAA chapter. He is continuing to fly and instruct the next generation of aviators in his retirement– living his lifelong dreams!
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While it’s difficult to believe now, during the darkest days of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, as part of those NORAD defenses, many communities in the United States had their own neighborhood missile batteries, where nuclear-tipped missiles sat at constant alert, ready to shoot down waves of Soviet bombers.
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A pilot and flight instructor, Bill Lotzer was a successful aviation businessperson and a national leader in developing general aviation in the years after World War II.
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James Michener was a Navy officer in World War II in the South Pacific where his duties took him to various exotic isles.
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Born in the Town of Hewitt in Marathon County, Wisconsin, in 1931, Archie Henkelmann made his mark in the world of aviation as an instructor and supervisor at the Janesville Vocational School, now known as Blackhawk Technical College.
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Carl E. Guell had a teacher’s patience, an aviator’s confidence, and a preservationist’s instinct. Long before the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame existed he was already doing the work that would define it - collecting stories, documenting scenes from the sky, and showing people why aviation matters.
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An outbreak of spanworms occurred during the summer of 1925 amid the hemlock forests of Wisconsin's Peninsula State Park. The Conservation Commission used a never attempted method to save the park and its forested bluffs.
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Airports, fixes and waypoints
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The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has a "Passport Program" that encourages pilots to visit all of Wisconsin's public use airports. Steve Benesh of Oshkosh was awarded the top prize, a leather flight jacket, at the Wisconsin Aviation Conference held last week in Appleton.
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Traditional runway construction methods during times of war are not acceptable. In 1939, while most of the world was at war, the United States addressed this problem among many others. This is the story of how Marston Mat solved that issue.
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Did you know that Charles Lindbergh, before he was a pilot, attended UW-Madison? A review of the book that shares stories of Lindbergh, the student, 1920-1922.
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A happenstance opportunity to hear two recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor led to a search for Wisconsin's Medal of Honor recipients.
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The first flight for Kohler Aviation Corporation's Bridge Across Lake Michigan. On Aug 29, 1929 the Loening C-2C Air Yacht departs Grand Rapids MI arrives about 90 minutes later in Milwaukee WI. Two days later, on Sep 1, 1929, the first revenue flight was flown.
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A brief history of the first across the lake airline.
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Who has made a difference in Wisconsin aviation history? Who among those folks will you nominate for induction into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame?
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