Constructing a New Airstrip: The Pride of Detroit (1927)
During the summer of 1927, Stinson Aircraft Corporation and Waco Oil were sponsoring an around-the-world flight. They were attempting to break the fastest record, set by Edward Evans and Linton Wells in 1926. However, the companies had a minor problem. Newfoundland was an ideal waypoint between eastern North America and Europe but had no official airstrip.
Fred Koehler, a Stinson Aircraft representative, left for Newfoundland to tackle the issue. Due to past aviation success there in 1919, Koehler travelled to Harbour Grace from St. John’s. He met John L. Oke, a resident of the town, who suggested he knew just the spot for an airstrip.
Oke spoke of an area near Crow Hill in Harbour Grace, land where the grade and length would perfectly suit an airstrip. Koehler set his sights on transforming this piece of land into the new transatlantic aviation hub of North America.
He met with officials and was thrilled when his plan received community support. On July 25, the Harbour Grace Airport Trust Company formed, consisting of twenty-one members, each of whom contributed financially to the project.
Work began quickly on August 8, 1927. With money and equipment from private investors and the Provincial government, local labourers cleared an area measuring four thousand feet in length by three hundred feet in width.
A crowd gathers to welcome the Pride of Detroit at the newly-constructed Harbour Grace airstrip, 1927.
Horses and carts hauled away debris, with levelling done by rake and shovel. The work finished on August 26, just in time for the arrival of the Pride of Detroit, with Edward Schlee, president of Waco Oil, and pilot William S. Brock. On arriving in town, they praised the new airstrip as one of the finest they had seen.
Preparations were soon made for the next day’s flight. The pair spent the night at Cochrane House, an overnight establishment in downtown Harbour Grace.
In the early morning, at 7:43 a.m., the Pride of Detroit left the airstrip and headed for Croydon, England, the first port of call for their proposed around-the-world flight. The two successfully landed at Croydon roughly thirty-two hours later and continued their travel east.
The Pride of Detroit surrounded by curious onlookers before departing on its around-the-world flight attempt, 1927.
However, the rest of their travel was not as fortunate. The Pride of Detroit ran short of fuel near Nagasaki, Japan. After landing to refuel in Tokyo, a slight malfunction was detected in the motor. With crossing the Pacific Ocean still ahead of them, the pair cautiously decided to abandon their flight.
Excerpt from the Harbour Grace Airport Trust Company’s official logbook for the around-the-world flight attempt of the Pride of Detroit, 1927.