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"Max Picks Bellefonte"
20"x30" Watercolor
On September 20, 1918, Max Miller, flying a white
Standard JR-1B mail plane with a mailbag painted on the side landed at Bellefonte and declared it to be the best choice for an airmail field. He was greeted by practically the whole town. |
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"Misty Morning Mail Run"
15"x20" watercolor
The air mail pilots were, in the beginning at least, under a "fly or be fired" order from the postmaster Otto Preager. The deskbound official, never having flown, had no idea or obvious concern about what the pilots had to endure. "If I can see the building across the street, it's ok to fly." The aviators went on strike and one pilot took a Post Office official on a mail run that scared the fellow so bad, the rule was changed to give the pilots the right to decide if conditions were good enough to fly.
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"Spreading the Word"
24"x30" Acrylic on canvas
In the early twenties technologies as we know them and take for granted today were still in their infancy. The powered airplane was barely twenty years old. Trains were the main mode of overland transportation and the telephone still had humans as operators. A sign painter and his apprentice are seen painting one of the hundreds of Mail Pouch barns that started showing up all over at that time.
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"The Sunbury Stump"
20"x30" Acrylic on canvas
This painting is based on a true story from Allie Allison. The Air Mail Service used to pay farmers and land owners subsidies to keep a field or 2 clear for use as emergency strips. These strips were all over because the guys had to land a LOT. This is a true story of an emergency strip on one of the islands in the Susquehanna river in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. The farmer's strip had an old tree stump right in the landing path of the planes. When the pilots would make it in O.K. they would raise heck with the farmer who would just say "One of these days I'll have to get around to removing that." According to Mr. Allison, he finally did. |
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"Colleagues"
20"x24" Acrylic on canvas
This painting is a hypothetical scene of two DH-4 mail planes passing each other on a nice summer day in Pennsylvania. |
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"Back in Bellefonte"
30"x40" Acrylic on canvas
The people of Bellefonte loved the air mail pilots. Everyone wanted them as house guests, gave them dinners and treated them like rock stars are treated today. In return the pilots would give impromptu air shows and simply show off for their friends. This painting is from a story or "legend" if you will, of pilot Slim Lewis. It is said that Slim once buzzed by the courthouse so close that the weathervane spun around! |
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"Engine Trouble"
15"x20" watercolor
Although the pilots loved the converted DH-4s, powered aviation was still in it's infancy and the planes needed a lot of coaxing just to keep flying. This painting is a scene of a not uncommon event. A pilot has a problem and needs to set his machine down right away. Luckily there is an open pasture somewhere in amish country. Some were not so fortunate. Pennsylvania was not only hilly but covered with a lot more timber 80 years ago. |
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"Frost Class Delivery"
24"x36" Acrylic on canvas
The pilots flew in all weather conditions. Winter gear included fur lined suits, standard leather helmet and a brown leather face mask to avoid frostbite. Ernie Allison had to make an emergency landing near DuBois, PA and after he made it down, started to walk toward a farm house for help. Little did he know, the daily paper reported that an ape had escaped from the Clearfield Zoo. When he knocked on the door an old lady opened it, screamed bloody murder and ran like an athlete. |
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"Max Miller's Last Flight"
20"x24" Acrylic on canvas
Early on the morning of September 1, 1920. Max Miller and his mechanic Gustav Reierson were flying their Junkers JL-6 mail plane enroute to Cleveland when the engine caught fire apparently due to a leaky fuel line. The problem of the JL-6 was reported by pilots on several occasions. The crash occurred near a farm in Morristown, NJ. The New York Times headline read: "Premier Mail Pilot Dies in Flaming Fall. Duty Their Final Thought. Aviators Dropped Letter Bags to Safety as Plane Became a Blazing Meteor" (The JL-6 was an all metal monoplane, way ahead of it's time.) |
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"The Hell Stretch"
12"x18" watercolor
They wondered when it would happen. The citizens of quiet Millersburg, Pennsylvania, were concerned about the daring airmail pilots who, when forced to by bad weather and fog, flew up the Susquehanna at high speed and low altitude using the river as a guide. Concern grew with the new telephone wires strung across the river just south of town. On Monday afternoon, September 27, 1920, Frederick Robinson left Hazelhurst field in Long Island five hours behind schedule due to extreme fog conditions. His plane had been loaded with 14 bags of mail. Finding the river just above Harrisburg, Robinson turned north en route to Bellefonte field. Flying ever lower because of the poor visibility, his landing gear struck the wires and, acting like bungee cords, the cables hurled his plane tail first down into the shallow water killing him instantly. Frederick A. Robinson was 22 years old. |
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"Bellefonte Airmail
Field" 20"x30" watercolor
First Built in 1918 after being
chosen by Max Miller as the best spot for a field, Bellefonte
Airmail Field was located where the Bellefonte High School is today.
The original hangars burned down and were rebuilt in 1919. Later,
the entire field was moved to Pleasant Gap, an area more suited to
the beacon guided night flights. |
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"Laundry Day at the
Brockerhoff"
20"x30" watercolor
The pilots had a lot of friends and
admirers in Bellefonte. They were the celebrities of the day. A lot of the
pilots stayed at the Brockerhoff Hotel when they were in town and while arriving
from a flight would fly up Allehenv Street and drop mail bags filled with their
dirty laundry into the street where the passers by would happily pick them up
and take them into the maids for cleaning. |
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"Max Miller" 24"x30" acrylic on canvas
This painting was a
private commission by Jim Miller of Minnesota. Mr. Miller is the nephew of Max
and has made quite a hobby of researching his life. Max immigrated to the United
States from Norway as a boy, became a citizen and joined the US Army in the
early 1900's. He served briefly in the Philippines and also in the Mexican
Border Patrol in 1916 in search of Poncho Villa. Max learned to fly in Curtis
Jenny biplanes while in the service. After his hitch was up, he was chosen as
the very first pilot hired by the fledgling Aerial Mail Service. On September
20, 1918, Max, flying a white Standard
JR-1B mail plane with a mailbag painted on the side landed at Bellefonte, PA and
declared it to be the best choice for an airmail field. He was greeted by
practically the whole town.
Early on the morning of September 1, 1920. Max Miller and his mechanic
Gustav Reierson were flying their Junkers JL-6 mail plane enroute to Cleveland
when the engine caught fire apparently due to a leaky fuel line. The problem of
the JL-6 was reported by pilots on several occasions. The crash occurred near a
farm in Morristown, NJ. The New York Times headline read: "Premier Mail
Pilot Dies in Flaming Fall. Duty Their Final Thought. Aviators Dropped Letter
Bags to Safety as Plane Became a Blazing Meteor" |
