WILSON "BARNEY" McCLANAHAN - EARLY DIXON AVIATOR
An early Dixon aviation pioneer passed away on July 29, 1994 in
California at the age of 91. It was in 1939 that Wilson McClanahan
along with his wife and two children left the Dixon area and moved to
Pasadena, California to work as a carpenter. He spent much of his
leisure time through the years at the Aviation Museum at Cable
Airport located in Upland, California visiting with other pioneers of
the airways and reminiscing about aviation history.
Being associated in many aviation clubs such as the OX5 Pioneer
Aviators, the Silver Wings and the Early Birds kept him in touch with
his many companions who shared similar interests. And he often
visited his good friend, E. Hamilton Lee, who still resides in
Colton, California. Mr. Lee was one of the first air mail pilots and
was senior pilot for United States Air Lines, retiring in 1949 and
was regarded as one of the greatest pilots who ever flew.
Barney's curiosity and love for the airplane was evident at an
early age, and he never lost that, however he lost the other "love of
his life," when his wife Ethel died in November of 1993 after nearly
69 years of marriage.
Wilson "Barney" McClanahan was born on Sept. 21, 1902 to William
F. and Minnie McClanahan in Nachusa. Barney, as he would come to be
affectionately called, was the second child in a family which
included seven children, five boys and two girls.
Barney had his first airplane ride in the summer of 1919 at the
age of almost seventeen years when he met a pilot by the name of Bob
Blair. Mr. Blair was a resident of California who traveled throughout
the midwest during the summer months as a barnstormer and worked in
this part of the country on several occasions.
The romance and adventure of the airplane and those men that
soared like birds above the earth, all started with the World War I
aviators. Those stories of early flight had intrigued Barney and
started him on the road to his love for the flying machine.
During the spring of 1923, Henry L. Burdick arrived in Dixon and
started an airport just east of town along side of Route 38, which
was called the Dixon Aviation Field. Barney McClanahan completed a
flying course given by Mr. Burdick and became the first graduate of
the flight school, having saved enough money for lessons while
working at the Dixon Fruit Company.
Soon thereafter, Henry Burdick and Barney McClanahan rented 50
acres of land which also included about 10 acres of apple orchard for
$100 a year and set about building a business. Their airfield was
located across the road from the present day Dixon Airport. The
following year, 1924, the two men purchased a World War I training
plane which was a two-place (pilot and passenger) open cockpit Curtis
Jenny with Canuck wings and an OX5 motor. This was obtained from a
man who had crashed the airplane and countless hours were spent by
them rebuilding the plane on three separate occasions.
The 1920s also produced air adventurers of a different sort in
addition to the pilots who flew the mechanized birds. On the scene
came parachutists, wing walkers, dare-devils, a new breed of
barnstormer and citizens who sought rides at $10 to $20 a throw, all
seeking the thrill of a lifetime. The airport of Burdick and
McClanahan, whose brother Frank, often helped about the place
featured many of these attractions and Barney often flew the planes
which carried aloft these gallant adventurers. Ethel Dare, the first
woman parachutist who later lost her life when she jumped out of her
harness during an exhibition in Michigan made appearances locally.
One of the talked about local dare-devil incidents involved
Ronald Stume who was a manager of a store in Dixon. Mr. Stume while
performing stunts on a rope suspended from a Jenny, piloted by Mr.
Burdick was injured. Burdick calmly flew over the Rock River and
dumped Stume into the water, circling about until lifeguards from the
Assembly Park Beach fished him out.
This period of excitement and superfluous events also produced a
romance of another kind for Barney, as he began courting a Miss Ethel
Typer of Hampton, Iowa in a most unusual way - by air. An article
which was published in the Hampton newspaper stated: "Miss Ethel
Typer came from Dixon, Illinois, to Hampton via airplane last Sunday
for a visit at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Typer.
Miss Typer is the first woman to make a trip of any great length to
Hampton in an airplane. Dixon is over 280 miles and the time required
for the journey was less than four hours, with two stops made along
the way. The airplane in which Miss Typer made the trip to Hampton
was piloted by Barney McClanahan, an instructor in flying at Dixon.
Miss Typer said that the air holds no fears for her and that she
really enjoys flying."
It was not long afterward, that Barney McClanahan performed a
feat which until then was unheard of and had not been tried before -
flying to his own wedding in Hampton, Iowa.
All pictures and articles found on this page are copyrighted by
the Lee County Historical Society. They are not to be reproduced,
redistributed, sold, or otherwise altered. These pictures and
articles are for the sole private, non-commercial use for research
and education. These pictures may not be used without the expressed
written permission of the Lee County Historical Society.