OKLAHOMA STATE SENATE / From the desk of Sen. Jessica Garvin
On Saturday, Aug. 19, Americans celebrated National Aviation Day to honor the history, pioneers, innovators, and accomplishments of this incredible industry. This was first observed in 1939 on the anniversary of renowned American aviator Orville Wright’s birthday, following a proclamation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Oklahoma is one of the nation’s premier states for aviation and has a long heritage of innovation. Traveling show pilot Charles Willard conducted the first powered flight in our state on March 18, 1910, just six years after the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. He flew a Curtiss Pusher airplane at an altitude of 300 to 400 feet at 30 mph close to where Capitol Hill High School is today in south Oklahoma City. That simple flight started a trend and soon aviation was all the rage across the state. During WWI, pilots were trained to fly Curtiss biplanes. Mangum native William Ponder became an “ace” for shooting down more than five enemy planes in the conflict. Following the war, the first airports were established in Oklahoma City and Tulsa in 1919.
The 1920s saw a significant increase in the number of people becoming pilots. Tulsa’s Spartan Aircraft opened their aeronautics school, now called the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology, in 1928. The Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission was established in 1931 and began issuing pilot’s licenses. That same year, Oklahoma pilot Wiley Post flew around the world with his navigator, Harold Gatty, in a record eight days and 16 hours, and two years later, he beat his record in a solo performance. In 1932, two more Oklahoma pilots, Thomas Cox Allen and James Herman Banning, set another record as the first African Americans to complete a transcontinental flight.
Today, aviation has become our second largest industry, contributing approximately $44 billion to our economy annually and employing more than 120,000 Oklahomans. We now have more than 135 publicuse airports, including two international airports. The state is home to more than 1,100 aerospace entities, including manufacturers; maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities, research and development, military and others.
In fact, Oklahoma has the two largest MRO facilities in the world. The American Airlines Maintenance and Engineering Center in Tulsa is the world’s largest commercial airline MRO facility with more than 6,000 employees. The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker Air Force Base is the largest Department of Defense air depot, employing 26,000.
It’s no surprise with our strong patriotic heritage that we also have five military installations, two air national guard operations and numerous other aerospace assets, like the Oklahoma Air and Space Port.
We’re blessed to have four airports in our district, along with several outstanding local companies, like B5 Aviation in Duncan, which is a fixed-based operator (FBO) where customers can receive top-notch aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, aircraft maintenance or rental, and even flight instruction. These companies are the backbone of the industry, providing critical support and helping train the next generation of aviators. Add to this, the unique aviation programs offered in many of our local schools and others around the state that have made Oklahoma the nation’s leader in aerospace and aviation education. The future is bright for Oklahoma’s aerospace industry.
To contact me, please write to Senator Jessica Garvin, State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 237, Oklahoma City, OK, 73105, email me at [email protected] or call 405-521-5522.
