Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum

Feature Article

MAJOR C. RAY WASSALL-ST. LOUIS AVIATOR OF YESTERYEAR
BY JACK M. ABERCROMBIE

Forty-six years ago, an obscure publication, News of St. Louis Aviation Old Timers, presented the following article.

NOSTALGIC MEMORIES OF YESTERYEAR AVIATION
By C. Ray Wassall
Former Commander 110th Observation Squadron Missouri National Guard

Recently I received letters from some of my good friends and Saint Louis Aviation Oldtimers, such as Bob Nash, Ray Branson, Jack Roth and Jack Merrill.

Now, take Jack Merrill. He really is an Old Timer. He discussed some things that really go way back. Most Oldtimers remember vividly having to dodge the old grain elevator at Lambert, but Jack recalls the Forest Park days, when the constant hazard to students was the cupola on the Police Station in the Park. Not many go back that far, but I remember it very well. Jack said Art Brown was his instructor. I believe Art was the first person to whom the newly formed Robertson Aircraft sold an airplane.

Jack also discussed an accident that occurred when an airplane hit a tree near the horse water-trough on Clayton Road. He did not remember who it was, but I believe I remember it as one that I saw from the air. I believe it was Johnny Hinchey who lives out here in Lancaster and who turns up at QB meetings and such, sometimes.

Some people think it is corny to talk about "the good old days", but present day aviation people have no idea how much fun it was in the twenties.

Cross-country flying in the Middle West, when there were no airports, you met the nicest people that way. I estimate I have landed on at least five hundred different farms, and there was not a one who objected, except one lady at Flora, Illinois, who wanted $5 for the use of her field, so I just took off and landed in another field.

There was an art in those days - how to pick a field from the air that would be safe to land on, and how about cattle, horses, pigs? Can you land in a field with animals?? Present jet jockies never heard of such a problem. I suppose you all remember some of the old-time problems. You can land in a field with cows but not horses, and you can leave a plane in a field overnight with horses, but not with cows or pigs, because they eat the fabric off the airplane. Anyone who knows this is really an Oldtimer.

Oldtimers should know that Major Lambert's close friends mostly called him "Doc"'. I get quite a boot out of recalling the first tine I landed on Lambert Field. It was about 100 yards behind Bill Robertson, when we both went out there from Forest Park to see if the field would be suitable. We decided it sure would be - if we did not have to pay the rent. Good old Doc Lambert paid the rent and leased it for us for several years.

The first really big event at Lambert was the day we got a water spigot at the corner of the hangar. This, of course, was installed by Doc Lambert. He did the spade work (and you should have seen the dirt fly!) from the farmhouse to the hangar, and he did the pipe wrench work with his own hands. We had water, and we really appreciated it.

I wonder how many know how Saint Louis got the wonderful 1923 Air Races? Randall Foster dld the leg work, and Doc Lambert planned the action on how to get the Races for Saint Louis.

For just plain fun we sold acrobatic rides in Forest Park. A "plain" ride was $5, but for $10 you would get one loop, one-half roll and a two- or three-turn spin. I would say that about half the customers took the $10 ride. Then, for the "sports," we would go under the Eads Bridge with them for $25! One real friendly fellow paid $25 to go over Dago Hill with sone altitude and cut off the engine and glide as long as possible while he played the trumpet for his friends below.

Those were the days!

The author of the short memoir, Charles Raymond Wassall, C. Ray Wassall, or, as he preferred to be called, Ray Wassall, a native of St. Louis, made significant contributions to early St. Louis aviation history. Although he never achieved the fame of the more well-known early St. Louis aviators such as Tom Benoist, Albert Bond Lambert, Oliver Parks, and James Doolittle, his contributions extended over more than 40 years; arguably, he was in the same league as the more famous. He was a friend and supporter and, for a time, the commanding officer of Charles A. Lindbergh. Were it not for Wassall, Lindbergh might not have accomplished all that he did. Wassall was relatively unsung but always in the action.

Ray, born September 1894, was the oldest of four boys of the Charles and Kate Wassall family (Ray, Clifford, Warren, and John). He spent his boy-hood years growing up in the Dogtown neighborhood of St. Louis only a few blocks from Forest Park-almost in the shadows of the giant balloons and airships performing during the 1904 Louisiana Purchase celebrations and the 1907 International Aeronautic Tournament. What a wonderful place and time to live as a young boy! Certainly, Wassall would have been impressed with fellow teen-ager Cromwell Dixon and his piloting of his two home-built, pedal powered dirigibles during the 1907 festivities.

But, the greatest aviation influence when a young man were the Glen Curtiss airplane flights at Forest Park during the Centennial Week celebrations of 1909 followed by many airplane flights by several pilots during the 1910 International Aeronautic Tournament at Kinloch field. (continue to the complete article in .pdf)