Alaska Aviation Museum - (unofficial)

Hangar 1

Display Photo People

Mary Barrows Worthylake was the first woman pilot trained and licensed in Alaska! She took lessons at Merrill Field and soloed on July 27, 1932 and got her license in September.

Noel Wein In 1924, pilot license No. 39 signed by Orville Wright, Wien brought his Hisso Standard biplane to Alaska and began servicing the gold-rich territory. He was first to fly from Fairbanks to Seattle, Fairbanks to Nome, and beyond the Arctic Circle, across the Bering Strait and was first to make a round-trip flight between Alaska and Asia.

Wiley Post the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Worked in high-altitude flying, he helped develop one of the first pressure suits and discovered the jet stream. The record for flying around the world was held the Graf Zeppelin, piloted by Hugo Eckener in August 1929 with a time of 21 days. On June 23, 1931 to July 1, after traveling 15,474 miles (24,903 km) in the record time of 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes. On August 15, 1935, Post and humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post's aircraft crashed on takeoff near Point Barrow.

Irene E. Ryan On June 23, 1932, she was certified as the first female aviator in the territory to solo and the first woman to earn a geology degree from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Ryan was responsible for the design of seventeen airports in Alaska, including Anchorage International Airport. In 1955, Ryan was elected to the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives. In 1959, she became a member of the Alaska State Senate. She used her influence to get the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission created in 1955. Governor Bill Egan appointed Ryan as commissioner of the Department of Economic Development for the state of Alaska during his second term. (Not the actress Irene Ryan, who played Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies)

Hap Arnold "Father of the Air Force". Instructed in flying by the Wright Brothers, July 6, 1911 - FAI pilot #29 and Military Aviator Certificate #2. July 7 1911 set an altitude recrod of 3,260 feet. In September Arnold became the first U.S. pilot to carry mail. He is credited as the first pilot to fly over the U.S. Capitol and the first to carry a United States Congressman as a passenger. Nov 2, 1912 - sent the first radio telegraph message, at a distance of 6 miles (9.7 km), from an aircraft to a receiver on the ground. August 5, 1917, he became the youngest full colonel in the Army. 1918 gave briefing on the Kettering Bug (early cruise missle). In 1934 he led ten Martin B-10B bombers on an 8,290-mile (13,340 km) flight from Bolling Field(Washington D.C.) to Fairbanks, Alaska, and back.