Happy Anniversary, AOPA

85 years protecting your freedom to fly

December 1, 2024 By Julie Summers Walker

AOPA’s dedication to public outreach started at the beginning.

AOPA’s dedication to public outreach started at the beginning.

“The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, long overdue, has just been born. You ought to see the kid!” —Gill Robb WilsonWhat was life at AOPA like 85 years ago? Luckily for us, photography can tell the story. AOPA was founded in 1939 as the world was on the cusp of the second world war. U.S. aviation had grown and achieved major milestones from its early entry into war efforts in World War I to the advent of a second world war. Thousands of young men had learned to fly in the military, and general aviation was born in the decades between the world wars. From 1937 to 1939, the number of pilots nearly doubled, from 17,681 to 33,706. AOPA was born in the environs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A group of influential businessmen and lawyers—all pilots—met at Wings Field in May 1939 to organize the association that would protect the freedom of “private fliers” and continue the possibility of the joy of flight for all aviators for nearly a century.

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AOPA's Early History and Events

Photography by AOPA.
It included early aircraft giveaways like the one on the Arthur Godfrey show.
Many of AOPA’s early events took place at PACC at Wings Field.
The house that became the headquarters of the Philadelphia Aviation Country Club (shown here in 1948).
Civil Air Patrol subchasers, such as this Fairchild 24, patrolled the U.S. coastline.