Personal and Organizational Papers
Hazel Smothers Collection
Hazel Smothers was born November 22, 1929 in San Luis Obispo. She gained her Private Pilot’s License 19 Oct 1961; Helicopter License 12 Jan, 1968; Multi-engine certificate 24 Mar 1970; Commercial Rating 31 Jan 1977, #1513114. She held a type certificate for Single & Multi-engine Land, plus Rotorcraft & Helicopter. [more].
Joseph H. Famme Collection
Joseph H. Famme, an engineer and manufacturing executive, helped develop a variety of military and commercial aircraft for General Dynamics/Convair and its predecessor organizations since 1936. [more].
Charles A. Hill Collection
Charles A. Hill was a U.S. Army career man who joined in 1899. During World War I he was an Air Service Captain serving in France where he took part in several raids on enemy targets. The collection contains photographs, personal documents, newspaper clippings, and sheet music.
T. Claude Ryan Collection
The San Diego based Ryan Corporation started in 1922 as an air service and quickly grew to become a training school, passenger airline, and aircraft manufacturer. In 1927 they built the famous "Spirit of St. Louis" for Charles Lindbergh in which he made the first solo crossing of the north Atlantic from New York to Paris. Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical remains in business today. The collection contains photographs, daybooks, letters, and many other items.
Lawrence Crum Collection
Lawrence Crum received his U.S. Navy Aviator wings in 1942. He served on the USS Ranger during both WWII and the 1950s. The collection contains numerous photographs of both the exterior and interior of the USS Ranger as well as personal documents.
San Diego Flight 13 Order of Daedalians Collection
The collection consists of 4 cubic feet of national and flight rosters, meeting minutes, newsletters, correspondences, and records of awards dating from the chapter’s inception in 1964 to the present.
Joseph Martin Tschirgi Collection
Joseph Martin Tschirgi was born in 1922 and graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1948 after serving as a Weather Officer with the Army Air Corps. He received a M.S. in Aerodynamics from the University of Michigan in 1950. Tschirgi’s first job was at Douglas Aircraft Company where he worked on the Sparrow Missile. [more].
Onita Thorley Topping Collection
Onita Thorley Topping was a popular and well known woman pilot of the 1930s. She held both a commercial pilot's rating and a Master Mechanic certificate. For a while, she was the only licensed female pilot in the state of Utah. She was a member of the 99s and participated in various air derbies and contests. The collection contains newspaper clippings, licenses, and photographs dating from 1931 to 1939.[more].
Convair/General Dynamics' Company Papers and Photograph Collection
The San Diego Air & Space Museum's Library and Archives is the home of the Convair/General Dynamics' company papers and photograph archives, as well as company papers and reports donated to the museum in 1995 by General Dynamics Lockheed-Martin. This unique collection documents the heritage of Consolidated, Consolidated Vultee, Convair, and General Dynamics in San Diego from 1935 [more].
Frank S. "Luke" Luqueer Photograph Collection
The Frank S. "Luke" Luqueer Photograph Collection is composed of 4 large albums covering from the 1920s to the 1950s. The albums contain historic photos and correspondences from many important historical figures [more].
Mark Irwin Photograph Collection
Mark Irwin worked for Convair as the Chief of the Film and Video Group from 1944 to 1977, during one of the most innovative and productive time periods of the company’s existence. His work covers Convair’s premier programs such as the Seadart, the R3Y Tradewind, the Atlas ballistic missile, the POGO and the Tomahawk cruise missile.[more].
Colonel Bernt Balchen Collection
Bernt Balchen was born in Tveit, Norway on October 23, 1899. Colonel Balchen, a native Norwegian, started flying in 1921. [more].
Birdie Draper Collection
Birdie Viola Draper was born in 1916 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At age 20, Miss Draper began training as a parachutist with Stub Chrissinger, an instructor for Hincks Flying Service. Mr. Chrissinger was one of two licensed parachute riggers in Minnesota at the time. After her training, Miss Draper joined a stunt group of Thrill Day Performers. She became known as the "Queen of Daredevils", performing at thrill shows and fairs throughout the country.[more].
Eugene P. Rankin Collection
A graduate of the Naval Academy, Rankin earned his wings at Pensacola, Florida, in 1941. Two years later, he became commanding officer of a squadron of Consolidated PBY Catalina patrol aircraft in the Pacific, known as the Black Cat Squadron, and earned the Legion of Merit. [more].
J. M. F. Haase Photograph Collection
Born in San Francisco in 1893, Joseph Malta Frederick Haase joined the Navy in 1911 and was chief photographer at North Island Naval Air Station for much of his career in the 1920s and 1930s. JMF "Bunny" Haase documented all the aviation activities from the early 1920s at North Island that at the time encompassed the Army's Rockwell Field and NAS San Diego.[more].
Theodore Gildred, Sr. Collection
Theodore Gildred, Sr. (1900-1967) was born on May 12, 1900, in Rochester, New York, one of nine children. His parents moved to South America in 1905, and he was educated in Argentina and Ecuador. He entered New York University in 1915 and graduated in 1918 as a civil engineer.[more].