Visionaries like the Livingston brothers from Cedar Falls and Davenport's Ralph Cram, Don Luscombe, and Billy Cook started air taxi and freight lines, flight and mechanic schools, and aircraft manufacturing facilities. Iowa City became an original U.S. Airmail stop and, during World War II, Ottumwa and other communities operated training sites for military aviation, with women playing a major role.
The postwar establishment of regional air carriers became commonplace, and today a new generation is leading Eastern Iowa into the 21st century while preserving the memory of those who started it all.
Background Information
Americans Wilbur and Orville Wright conducted the first heavier-than-air flight and America has led in aviation innovations ever since. Iowa went from the Michigan Territory to the Wisconsin Territory and finally to statehood in 1846. Along with the Missouri, the Mississippi forms the longest river system in the world and ultimately drains almost all of the central United States.