Bernard's Airport
Bernard's Airport was a non-commercial airfield in Beaverton, Oregon, USA.[1] The airfield was originally named Watts Airport.
History
The site of Bernard's Airport was originally developed as a motion picture studio in the 1920s. After filmmaking on the West Coast became concentrated in Hollywood this 32 acre film studio site was converted into an aircraft hangar factory. Dr. G. E. Watts, the financier behind the film venture in Beaverton, was also an aviation enthusiast, who founded Watts Airport. The original hanger at Watts Airport was on the west side of Erickson, along what is now Sixth Street. Before long, airplanes were being built and tested in Beaverton and many pilots were using the Watts airstrip.
Air Space Magazine, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian, states that the real history of grassroots aviation in Oregon began in "the hayfields of Beaverton" (i.e. Bernard's Airport), where aircraft innovation design achieved a wide circle of inventors and pilots.[2]
Certain experimental and one-of-a-kind aircraft were based at Watts Airport. For example, Alley reports on one unusual plane based at Watts Airport in 1929, that was an experimental one-of-a-kind model.[3] In this aircraft the pilot sat in an open air compartment, behind a roomy enclosed passenger cabin; the aircraft, nicknamed the "Flying Pickle" is now in the Pearson Air Museum.
Having outgrown the site, Charles Bernard was approached[4] to assist with expansion of the airport. Bernard built more wood frame hangars parallel to the what is now Cedar Hills Boulevard. and the home-built airplane industry in Beaverton thrived. Bernard Airport was once known as the oldest continuously-operated airport in Oregon. On September 11, 1938 the Oregonian reported that Bernard Airport was "perhaps the busiest noncommercial airport in the United States."[5] In the case of Bernard's Airport there exists the added distinction that most of the planes are amateur built."[5] The airfield was converted into the Beaverton Mall shopping center in 1969.[4].
References
- ^ City of Beaverton official website: Beaverton History: Beaverton Airport and Motion Picture Industry
- ^ Ken Scott, Air Space, History of Flight, Oregon Aviation Historical Society, The Resistance(2007)
- ^ Bill Alley, Pearson Field: Pioneering Aviation in Vancouver and Portland, Arcadia Publishing, 127 pages (2006) ISBN 0738531294
- ^ a b Earth Metrics Inc, Phase I Environmental Site Assessment for Willow Grove Apartments at 11981 SW Center Street, Beaverton, Oregon, December 8, 1989
- ^ a b Oregonian, September, 11, 1938 Cite error: The named reference "Oregonian" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).