BALLARDWALTER

Interview with Walter Ballard

 

circa 1978

 

Interviewer: Johnson, Jerry

Ballard shares stories of early aviation in San Diego County and "elsewhere," starting on June 2, 1978 and continuing on August 14, 1978, January 31, 1979, and February 9, 1979. The first recording was made at the airfield where the Spirit of St. Louis was being restored, and he talks about his barnstorming and stunt flying with a parachute jumper. He would also take up prospects for a real-estate development and show them the whole area. In 1929 he began working for TWA, but he didn't like it. They instituted a night mail service with danger pay, but he quit in 1932 and went to work for American Airways instead, in San Diego. When he was laid off from American Airlines, he bought an airplane that later crashed, with the death of his crew and injuries to him. After that he flew scenic round trips from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, where he met his future wife at Bright Angel Lodge. He stayed a year in Central America flying dynamite there, then returned to marry the woman he had met, eloping to Las Vegas. Over the course of his aviation career, he flew for five airlines. At the time of these interviews, he was involved in the restoration of old planes, including the Spirit of St. Louis and volunteering at the San Diego Aerospace Museum. In these interview, Ballard also covers aviation history in San Diego and compares flying then to now.

Stunt flying; Barnstorming; Lindberg Field; Night mail; TWA; Ford Trimotor; American Airlines; Spirit of St. Louis; San Diego Aerospace Museum; Walter Ballard; Jerry Johnson; Oral histories; Interviews; Airplane crashes; Crash landings

 

California

© San Diego State University. All rights reserved.

 

 

English

 

Audiocassette

00:57:52

No

 

 

 

Audio

MP3

77.66 MB