Happy birthday, ‘AOPA Pilot’
Premier aviation magazine is 65 years old
Since 1939, AOPA had reported on general aviation in what was first Popular Aviation then Flying and Popular Aviation and finally Flying magazine. AOPA contributed to the Ziff-Davis publication in first the “AOPA Section” and then “The AOPA Pilot.” The decision to break from Ziff-Davis and Flying was made by AOPA President Joseph B. “Doc” Hartranft, Editor Max Karant, and Managing Editor Charles P. Miller.
“The editorial policy of The AOPA Pilot will be to educate, entertain, and inform, and to do so objectively, forcefully, and fearlessly,” said Karant.
The editorial staff had offices at AOPA headquarters, which at that time was located at 4644 East-West Highway in Bethesda, Maryland. Freelance writers and AOPA members wrote most of the 1958 magazine content. Membership was $10 per year (adjusted for inflation, that’s about $100 now) and the first staff writer for The AOPA Pilot earned $6,000 per year.
The first cover of The AOPA Pilot featured an air-to-air photograph of the Cessna 182 Skylane. The magazine used the title The AOPA Pilot until 1979, when “The” was dropped.
AOPA Pilot is the world’s largest-circulation general aviation magazine, staffed by pilots and aircraft owners who are award-winning writers, artists, and photographers. The magazine consistently wins design and photography awards each year.
Aviation History
Eyes on the prize
On March 27, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh registered his entry for the Orteig Prize, a challenge for the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo. The challenge and a $25,000 prize was issued by Raymond Orteig in 1920, but no one had been successful. Orteig, a French-American hotelier, aviation enthusiast, and philanthropist who had heard World War I pilots describe their exploits, believed in the future of aviation.
“Gentlemen, as a stimulus to courageous aviators, I desire to offer, through the auspices and regulations of the Aero Club of America, a prize of $25,000 to the first aviator of any Allied country crossing the Atlantic in one flight from Paris to New York or New York to Paris, all other details in your care,” said Orteig.
Lindbergh made the successful crossing, landing in France on May 20, 1927, after 33 hours in the air over a dark ocean, with little more than a compass.
The prize led to an increase in public awareness and interest in aviation. Between 1926 and 1929, the United States experienced a 30-fold increase in the number of airline passengers, from 5,782 to 173,405. Lindbergh’s flight also contributed to a 300-percent increase in applications for pilot certificates and a 400-percent increase in the number of licensed aircraft in the United States in 1927 alone.
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