It was the golden age of aviation - the time between the first and second world wars, when American airplane makers and pilots were racing to set new speed records and entertaining a fascinated public with daring acrobatic stunts. It brought fame, fortune and sometimes tragedy.
Butch Felterman’s father was part of aviation history, in the unlikely place of Patterson, Louisiana.
"My dad would come from the airport and talk about what was going on at the air service," remembers Felterman. "We were in our little town. All of the streets were gravel. There was no pavement, no television. So this was really exciting stuff when an air show would come to town."
The Patterson air strip was built in a sugarcane field by Harry Williams, whose family made a fortune in cypress lumber. At one time, their Patterson sawmill was the largest in the country. But as the cypress was depleted, Williams turned his attention to a new, fast form of transportation: airplanes. And Williams found the perfect partner, Jimmie Wedell, a self-taught mechanic who once built a car out of bicycle wheels and a motorcycle engine.
"He had a skill and a natural ability to design things that would go fast. When he met Harry Williams it was natural because Harry Williams loved speed, race boats, motorcycles, cars."
Felterman’s dad worked for the Wedell-Williams, and helped construct airplanes that would make the Patterson air service world famous.
"His specialty was building the wing sections, those tiny pieces of wood that went into the construction of the wings called the ribs, and then covering them at first with fabric and then later with plywood."
Wedell-Williams pushed the limits of airplane design, building racing aircraft that dominated national competitions. In 1932, the Patterson-built planes finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Bendix, a famous Los Angeles to Cleveland race.
"They were all about equal in speed. But sometimes, just like in the auto car racing today, sometimes one of them will get a small advantage and he’ll come in first."
The number 44 is the most famous of the Wedell-Williams built airplanes. In 1933, it was the fastest plane in the world, and the first one ever to fly faster than 300 miles per hour. Wedell was at the controls.
The Louisiana State Museum in Patterson has some of those trophies, including Wedell’s record setting flight of 305.33 miles per hour. There are also exact replicas of the company’s racing airplanes, some of which actually fly. These planes commemorate a time when Patterson, Louisiana was an aviation Mecca.
"Wedell-Williams air service had the largest fleet of airplanes in the nation; (they) had over 60 airplanes."
The collection, which also features relics from the cypress industry, preserves a story that may have been lost.
"These children that are growing up in the small communities such as Patterson can know that these flying moguls, these pioneers, once lived here and ruled the aviation industry in the United States," said Diana Buckley, the museum’s curator.
There is a tragic end to the Wedell-Williams story. While teaching a student pilot, Jimmie Wedell was killed in a crash at the Patterson airport, one year after he broke the speed record. Felterman remembers when his dad got the news.
"He got in that car and took off for the airport on the gravel roads, and I remember the gravel just flying as he left to go up there. But Jimmie was dead when he got there."
And two years later, Harry Williams and his pilot died when their plane crashed on a routine flight home from Baton Rouge. Williams and Wedell were daring men of vision who, for a few years in the early 1930’s, pushed the limits of what was possible, and put themselves and their south Louisiana company on top of the aviation world.
