100 years of flight

On Jan. 30, 1910, Salt Lakers got a chance to see for themselves what it was all about. The first flight in Utah occurred before an enthusiastic crowd of 8,000 people. French aviator Louis Paulhan took off from the Salt Lake Fairgrounds for a flight that lasted 10 minutes and 36 seconds and reached a height of 300 feet.

Paulhan claimed that as a record height, since he was more than 4,300 feet above sea level, and his last highest had been just over 4,100 feet. However, he was counting the elevation of the city in his calculations, so it didn't appear quite as spectacular to Salt Lake viewers.

To cash in on this newfangled popularity, companies began using pictures of airplanes in their ads — even for such things as clothes and shoes. In 1910, the automobile company of Hill, Blake and Irving briefly sold a personal biplane. And in 1911, a group of local entrepreneurs formed the Utah Aviation Co. to begin designing and building aircraft; unfortunately, this enterprise, quite literally, never got off the ground.

World War I established a military use for airplanes. But after the war, the country began to look at commercial enterprises. And one of the first to come along was mail delivery.

In May 1918, the U.S. Post Office established the first overnight airmail route between New York City and Washington, D.C. By 1920, service had expanded to Chicago, and the post office was beginning to think in terms of transcontinental routes. Airmail delivery would be accomplished in much the same way as the old Pony Express worked — a series of shorter hops across the country.

Given its position as a crossroads and transportation center dating back to wagon-train days, Salt Lake City was a natural choice for one of the new airmail stations.

Local businessmen, interested in the economic benefits of airmail service, put up some $27,000 to improve the airfield for this purpose. A cinder-covered landing strip in a marshy pasture called Basque Flats (named for the Spanish-French sheepherders in the area) had been established in 1911.

In 1920, the city purchased 100 acres surrounding the strip for $40 an acre for the construction of a field, hangar and other buildings. Christened Woodward Field, this was the beginning of what would eventually become the Salt Lake International Airport.