A History of Gliding and Soaring in the Inland Empire (1930–1940)
A look back at the early days of soaring in southern California.
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2022 edition of the National Soaring Museum Historical Journal (see Resources, below) and is republished here with their kind permission and our thanks. — Ed.
As soaring became increasingly popular in the 1930s, many locations in southern California were adopted as regional “glider bases.” These included the well-known Point Loma and Torrey Pines in San Diego, and locations such as Hollywood Riviera and Long Beach in the Los Angeles basin among many others. The majority of sites were coastal as the cliffs and afternoon sea breezes offer ample opportunity for ridge soaring and knowledge of thermal soaring was only in its infancy. However, as gliding blossomed, aviation-minded folks in inland communities within southern California such as San Bernardino, Redlands, and Riverside also expressed interest in trying the sport. This region, known collectively as the “Inland Empire” has its own important role in regional gliding history that has largely been forgotten. One important location was Little Mountain, a site that is still popular for RC soaring. This article reviews the early history of Little Mountain and its more than 90-year connection to motorless flight.
The San Bernardino Glider Club
In late March and early April of 1930, speed record holder Frank Hawks made a well-publicized multi-day transcontinental aerotow across the United States using the Franklin P-S-2 “Eaglet.” Each stop from San Diego to New York City was used to promote the sport of gliding nationally. Given this and other popularized gliding activity in southern California, the manager of the local California Theatre in San Bernardino, Mr. M. F. Williams, decided it was time to form the “San Bernardino Glider Club” (SBGC) to convert local model airplane club enthusiasts into manned glider enthusiasts. The local Exchange Club sponsored the new club and news spread quickly. The SBGC wished to purchase a Franklin P-S-2 just like the one Hawks had used for his flight but during the Great Depression, they could hardly afford it. Supervised by Dr. L. W. Ayers, a member of the Exchange Club interested in aviation, the SBGC managed to collect $203 in donations (roughly the equivalent of $3,500 in 2023), most of these as individual $1 donations from members in the community, with $20 from the California Milk Producers Association, and $30 from the California Theatre operated by the Fox Film Corporation. On Saturday April 12, 1930, the midnight showing of the aviation-minded movie “Young Eagles” at the California Theatre was used as a fundraiser and upped the total to $300.¹⁻⁴ Franklin gliders were difficult to obtain at the time, and so interest shifted towards the purchase of a Bowlus sailplane instead for a total of $460, still just slightly out of reach for the club. A member of the U.S. Army Air Corps by the name of Gordon Corwin volunteered to serve as the club glider instructor and took glider lessons from Al Hastings at the Bowlus Glider School at Mines Field (now Los Angeles International Airport).⁵
Although interest remained high, few if any in San Bernardino had actually seen a glider in action before. Victor “Vic” Evans of the Redondo Beach Glider Club (RBGC) came to the area on June 1, 1930 to make a demonstration of his all-metal primary gliders at Ontario Airport.⁶⁻⁷ Soon thereafter, Alan Richard “Dick” Essery and other members of the Western Flyers Glider Club from San Diego arrived to provide a gliding demonstration to the SBGC. This event featured a primary glider flown by Essery on July 1, 1930 from the top of the Shandin Hills (Little Mountain) to the flats below, the first recorded glider flight from the location.⁸ Primary gliders were also being constructed by local high school students. For instance, armed with the knowledge that Little Mountain was now considered good for gliding, Colton High School student Noel Sharp announced that he would soar in his primary glider from Little Mountain south all the way to Colton, over the town of San Bernardino. He noted, “I’m going to take off and then pray for air currents to take me across the valley. I don’t have the least idea where I’ll land. That’s why I’m making the trip, to see how the air currents are off Little Mountain. If I have some luck I’m going to go out for some real records.”⁹ Needless to say there are no reports of his success — it’s a long way for a primary glider from Little Mountain to Colton.
Unable to secure funds for their own glider, Dr. Ayers reorganized the SBGC on August 1, 1930 at the Anderson Building in San Bernardino.¹⁰ Eager to attract even more interest in gliding, Dr. Ayers met with Bowlus at the dedication of the Santa Paula Airport in Ventura County. There he convinced Bowlus to provide a glider demonstration for the SBGC sometime in the latter half of August.¹¹ Armed with this news, Ayers returned to the SBGC, organized a larger set of members on August 13, re-connected with Gordon Corwin as the club instructor, and pushed for success.¹²⁻¹³ Corwin was elected President, Ayers Vice President, Carlyle Eikleman as Treasurer/Secretary. Unfortunately, Bowlus’s plans changed as he travelled to the east coast and he was never able to address the SBGC.¹⁴
Other Regional Glider Clubs
In parallel to the SBGC, employees of the San Bernardino Post Office formed their own glider club in April 1930 including P. H. Scheppers, R. E. Barnette, N. K. Jelinek, H. E. Hunt, T. E. Cleveland, Wayne Stadtman, Joe Clapp, A. C. Yeates, Walter Herkelrath, W. E. Schroeder, William A. Leffen, Jr., and Stanley McClellan.¹⁵ Little is known about the success of this venture. In August 1930, the local San Bernardino YMCA announced an affiliation with the national non-profit American Model Aircrafters Club (AMAC) to inspire young boys and girls to take up model aviation and gliding. Dr. Ayers was also involved with this direction.¹⁶ Despite all the interest, the pressures of the Depression made it difficult for clubs to survive, and interest in gliding waned through the latter half of 1930 and into early 1931. The SBGC continued but fell back into a dormant mode.
Things were slightly different in Monterey Park to the west of San Bernardino. There, the Monterey Park Glider Club (MPGC) had a strong core group of fliers, eager to fly their primary gliders from various hillsides. By June 7, 1931, the MPGC had learned of Little Mountain and started flying there. Members of the Riverside Glider Club (RGC) including William “Bill” Atwood also attended these events.¹⁷ Take offs were made by shock cord from the top of the mountain near a lookout tower operated by the U.S. Forestry Service for the prevention of brush fires. Milton Jackson, the fireman stationed at the lookout was impressed with the efforts of the young glider pilots. (Being stationed in a fire lookout tower on the top of a mountain was a lonely job, being in the company of glider-minded folks, clearly much more fun!) The following week the glider guiders returned and without any experience whatsoever, Milton Jackson agreed to be launched from the mountain in one of the primary gliders. During his landing, the left wingtip caught on a clump of brush and swung the glider around with considerable force, damaging the glider but without injury to Jackson. Remaining flights that day were called off.¹⁸ Given the MPGC primary glider was now being repaired, Bill Atwood launched in his new sailplane on July 12, 1931 at Little Mountain and managed to soar for 12 minutes. His flight ended abruptly when he came just a bit too close to the mountain itself and a sudden downdraft caused an unanticipated forced landing, resulting in minor damage to the glider but no injuries to Atwood.¹⁹ This flight caused a local stir in the press and Atwood announced that as a part of repairs he would return in two weeks with a larger rudder and soar for an even longer period of time. Given these activities were happening in their backyard, Dr. Ayers yet again to invigorate the SBGC and the club moved its secondary glider closer to Little Mountain. News of the inland soaring location spread throughout southern California. Members of the Redondo Beach Glider Club (RBGC) and the Time Glider Club of Los Angeles traveled to use Little Mountain.²⁰ Finally Little Mountain was on the soaring map.
Soaring at Little Mountain
On August 1, 1931 Gordon Corwin, SBGC President and Instructor, launched at Little Mountain in the club’s silver-winged secondary glider via shock cord at 4:30 p.m. He stayed aloft 57 minutes, setting a new site duration record. The SBGC secondary glider was designed by Arthur Campbell of Riverside, an aeronautical engineer and graduate of Caltech, and built by Vic Evans and his Evans Glider Company. It was becoming clear to many that Little Mountain was a special place as it faced the prevailing westerly afternoon winds but also allowed for soaring in stronger northerly Santa Ana winds.²¹ Corwin returned on August 2nd and made another flight, climbing to over 400 feet above the mountain in a 25-minute flight, which was considered a new site record for altitude.²²
With so many glider clubs active at the site on the weekends, it was natural for someone to propose a glider meet. This was arranged for Labor Day weekend, September 1931 and sponsored by Milton Jackson and Vic Evans with Dr. Ayers serving as Meet Coordinator. Through connections in the Forestry Service, Jackson began researching the weather in the area to predict when winds would be favorable. Meanwhile, Evans considered this meet as the first of a larger series of “Glider Goodwill Meets” to be held at different locations throughout California once a quarter to foster fun competition.²³ Dr. Ayers hoped for between 6 and 12 gliders for the glider meet. The U.S. Forestry Service even went so far as to provide equipment for a camp on the top of the mountain to house the 25 participants that were expected. In preparation for the glider meet, 6 SBGC members completed their glider license at Tri-City Airport in Colton on August 24th. The licenses required no written exam, only a test of their ability to maneuver the club’s secondary glider following an auto-tow, banking, and then landing successfully.²⁴⁻²⁵
Corwin once again returned to Little Mountain on Sunday August 9 to try to break his site records for endurance and altitude, however insufficient winds had other plans and he landed after scratching for just 5 minutes.²⁶ John Pierce, a Pasadena resident and founding member of the Long Beach Glider Club, also stopped by to see the activities and noted that he too would have his sailplane at the Labor Day glider meet.²⁷ Corwin returned with the SBGC secondary glider on August 22. Fortunately, that day a solid 13–18kt wind was blowing. He launched in the late afternoon, with Milton Jackson serving as official timer. 1 hour and 20 minutes later the winds subsided and Corwin landed at the base of the mountain having established not only the first 1-hour flight at the site but a new site record of 700 feet in altitude.²⁸ On Sunday August 23, members of the Pasadena Glider Club came to Little Mountain to test out their primary glider. The longest flight was just 2 and half minutes. But this was only because the gusty winds in the afternoon were so strong that flying a primary glider was considered too dangerous.
Quickly it was realized that there was so much interest in the Labor Day glider meet and so little time left to organize that the meet needed to be postponed. Local papers noted, “popularity of Little Mountain as a glider rendezvous is increasing rapidly due to the fame the location has received this summer. This coupled with excellent flying conditions and the ever growing number of glidermen visiting the spot from all parts of the Southland makes a test of skill and endurance imminent, observers assert.”²⁹
Despite the postponement, glider guiders showed up anyway on Labor Day weekend to enjoy soaring. On Saturday Sept 5, 1931 John Pierce brought his large 43-foot wingspan sailplane, with test flights made to get the feel of the site.³⁰ The following day, 15-year-old E. G. “Guy” Rowell, Jr. of Redondo Beach soared in an Evans secondary glider for 1 hour and 18 minutes at Little Mountain at an altitude of 400–450 feet above the summit. It was his first experience at soaring and at times the very gusty wind caused his glider to move erratically, so much so that spectators were convinced he would crash. But each time, he managed to bring the glider back under his control. “On one occasion the wind failed and forced the light ship below the summit of the mountain on the north side. Taking advantage of a breath of light air the youthful pilot gained enough altitude to set the craft down on the summit of the mountain near his point of take-off without a mishap.” Using a similar type of Evans secondary glider, Gordon Corwin soared for 1 hour and 57 minutes the same day. Members of the MPGC and RBGC camped on the hill.³¹ Meanwhile, members of the Santa Maria Glider Club on California’s central coast drove all the way with their primary glider in tow just to visit Little Mountain and see what the fuss was about.³²
Unfortunately, during in the Fall of 1931 and into early 1932 tragedy struck the local southern California. Over the cliffs of Redondo Beach, the wings came off a glider that Vic Evans was piloting and he was killed in the resulting crash.³³⁻³⁵ In January, 1932, another glider pilot Frank Slaughter was killed at Redondo Beach when the tail came off his primary glider.³⁶ With the deaths of these two popular local glider pilots, once again interest in gliding waned in the region, until the summer of 1932, the same summer that brought the Olympic Games to Los Angeles for the first time and a renewed interest in sports of all types.
On June 19, 1932, Burchard Wilson of Burbank managed to soar in a glider for 1 hour 28 minutes at Little Mountain. He flew as far west as Cajon Road (later known as a part of Route 66) and south of the mountain by nearly a mile. Adverse winds forced him to land at the base of the mountain. That same day two other gliders were flown by Lester Fuller and Frank Wolcott, both of the Glendale Glider Club. A bad landing caused sufficient damage to Fuller’s glider that he was unable to fly in the afternoon.³⁷ While glider pilots would return on some weekends to the site, their flights no longer made local headlines as gliding was now considered more commonplace.
By the spring of 1933, the Redlands Glider Club announced that Little Mountain would become the base for their operations. As a member of this club, Charles D. Wilcox operated a primary glider with a nacelle for drag reduction. The new Shandin Hills Airport located just to the south of Little Mountain also gained popularity by hosting an air show on April 23, 1933 completed with stunt flying and parachute jumping. The airport and its proximity to Little Mountain once again revived interest in gliding in the area.³⁸
On May 26, 1935 two flights were made at Little Mountain, each more than one hour in duration. Don Stevens soared in his Franklin P-S-2 secondary glider for 1 hour and 10 minutes and Harland Ross soared for 1 hour. At the time Stevens and Ross were associated with the Bowlus-DuPont company of San Fernando. Wallace Neugent of Glendale was present as well as other members of the Riverside Glider Club. Milton Jackson, who was still maintaining the forestry lookout tower served as a timer and witness for the flights.³⁹
On May 30, 1935, “Little Joe” Stasneck and a passenger flew in the RGC’s large 50-foot wingspan 2-place glider for 1 hour and 18 minutes and to a height of 1,000 feet above Little Mountain. This flight established new site records for 2-place gliders. Other RGC members Morris Slack, George Ferrell, Frank Ferrell, Carson Shade, Meredith Shade and Jesse Veach attended. “Those at the field claimed it was one of the best [sites] they had ever used.” Arrangements were made for newsreel cameras to take pictures of the soaring planned for the following weekend June 8–9.⁴⁰
On Sunday June 9, 1935 Stasneck once again returned to Little Mountain and soared for 1 hour 37 minutes in his homebuilt glider, setting a new site record. On June 16, a variety of glider enthusiasts converged on Little Mountain including Don Stevens with his Franklin P-S-2, Franklin Wolcott of Glendale with his Spillane secondary glider, and Joe Stanseck. They noted to the press that, “plans are being made for the future charting of Little Mountain and the regions north extending to the big mountain range. The work will be done by Mr. Stanseck, assisted by Milton Jackson, fire dispatcher and observer at the Little Mountain lookout. The charting will indicate where favorable air currents are and will further opportunities in making cross country altitude and endurance glider records, it was stated. As a value of the air currents in the hills, in a recent contest a rubber band model remained in the air 31 minutes. The world record for glider models is 14 minutes. However, the record-breaking time was unofficial. Mr. Stevens believes that glider supremacy may soon be centered at San Bernardino instead of at Elmira, N.Y., present glider center of the world, where records are made and competition is staged constantly.”⁴¹
The manager of the nearby Shandin Hills Airport, Gwin Cook, noted that new hangars should be constructed at the airport for use by glider pilots. “This port is the only one in the country with a glider take-off so close, and the surrounding land is so flat there are always ample opportunities for safe landings.”⁴¹ (If one looks carefully at Figure 3, the Shandin Hills Airport can be found just near the bottom of the red circle in the middle of the image). Plans were announced for a July 4th glider contest arranged under the auspices of the American Glider Association. Fred Barnes, Robert “Bob” Stanley, and Bud Hugill of Los Angeles visited the site in late June, 1935 and flew the 2-place 52-foot wingspan Buxton “Transporter” and a similarly large open cockpit sailplane (perhaps the “Sloanlo”) to evaluate the merits of the site. Despite this, no records of a July 4, 1935 meet can be found. However, soaring continued at Little Mountain into the late 1930s with exhibitions for newsreels etc. largely arranged by Don Stevens.⁴² In 1938 and 1939, the Shandin Hills Airport was used more routinely for glider testing by Frank Wolcott, Bob Heidemann and other members of the newly formed Southern California Soaring Association (SCSA), a club that continues to exist today.⁴³⁻⁴⁴ On June 16, 1939, the famous German glider pilot Peter Riedel was launched in a sailplane via auto-tow from the Shandin Hills Airport. Encountering a thermal he rose to over 6,000 feet above San Bernardino before heading to the east for his goal of Palm Springs. However, encountering the strong winds in the San Gorgonio Pass, Riedel was forced to land 1 mile northeast of Banning on the Morongo Indian Reservation after soaring for three hours. The following day he was able to soar over Mt. San Jacinto on a flight from Palm Springs.⁴⁵⁻⁴⁶ Interestingly in the late 1930s the Shandin Hills Airport became very popular with model airplane enthusiasts who scheduled several competitions. One of these included Reginald Denny, the Hollywood movie actor who would later play a pivotal role in the development of the Radioplane target drone in World War II.⁴⁷
Conclusions
Many in the RC soaring community of southern California are familiar with Little Mountain for its great slope soaring since the 1970s. However, few realize that the site has its own association with gliding back to 1930. This places Little Mountain in the same context as Torrey Pines or Redondo Beach as one of the earliest locations for gliding in the region and now in its 93rd year. We are fortunate that with all of the development in the surrounding area, Little Mountain still remains, complete with dirt roads that lead to the top of the mountain and its radio towers where a lookout tower once existed. Unfortunately, the nearby Shandin Hills Airport closed in about the time of World War II and is now covered by the I-15 freeway and homes. The California Theatre, where the San Bernardino Glider Club first started still remains today as the California Theatre for the Performing Arts and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.⁴⁸
Few if any photos of the early gliding activities at Little Mountain remain, however those familiar with the history of aeromodelling and soaring will have already recognized some important names. Bill Atwood later became well known for his many model airplane engine designs as a part of Cox Hobbies. He was inducted into the Academy of Model Aeronautics Hall of Fame in 1982.⁴⁹ John Pierce later became an important figure in the field of communications theory and became a co-inventor of pulse code modulation (PCM) that was featured in RC transmitters in the 1980s and 1990s,⁵⁰ Harland Ross was the designer of the first 20:1, 30:1, and 40:1 sailplanes in United States history and was inducted into the Soaring Hall of Fame in 1959.⁵¹ Others like Don Stevens helped popularize gliding through the motion picture industry. Joe Stasneck continued soaring at a wide variety of locations in southern California, passing away in 2008. And of course, there is a whole other history associated with RC gliding at the site, one that also is poorly recorded. Sites like these are critical to the future of soaring not only to help interpret the past but preserve the future for forms of motorless flight. Little Mountain needs to continue as a location for RC soaring for many years to come.
©2022 Gary B. Fogel
References
Also by the Author
- Albert E. Hastings | America’s First National Glider Champion by Gary B. Fogel in the New RC Soaring Digest. — “The period of 1929–1931 was particularly important to the growth of soaring in the United States. Inspired by the success of Lindbergh’s Atlantic crossing…”
- The 2022 International Hand Launch Glider Festival by Gary B. Fogel in the New RC Soaring Digest. — “In October of 1994 the TPG established the first two-day contest for javelin-launched gliders, including various unique tasks…”
- A History of Gliding and Soaring in the Inland Empire (1930–1940) by Gary B. Fogel in the National Soaring Museum Journal, Summer 2022 edition.
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