IOWA AVIATION MUSEUM

Born October 11, 1930, Jerry Dwyer developed his love for flying at an early age. At the airport near his home, he mowed runways and scrubbed the hangar to pay for flying lessons. He started flying at 13 years old.…

In the early 40s, the military believed that black people lacked adequate skills to operate or maintain sophisticated military aviation equipment. Despite much pressure, it seemed nothing would change their minds. In 1941, thanks to a lawsuit filed by Yancy…

Born in Lanyon, Iowa in 1912, Wilmer (Bill) Reedholm grew up in nearby Boxholm. When he was nine, a barnstormer landing near Lanyon gave him his first flight, thus beginning a lifelong passion for aviation. In 1928, when Bill was…

Born in 1889 in Davenport, aviation inspiration came early to Frank Wallace when he watched Eugene Ely make his first flights in 1910. In those early days, Frank dreamed of an airport with a flying school and hangers for area…

Bill Fox was born and raised near Osage in North Central Iowa. He served in the Naval Aviation Branch of the United States   Navy aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Oriskany in Korea. Upon receiving his honorable discharge, he attended Iowa State College…

Born on October 24, 1957, in Waukegan, Illinois, Kimberly Olson spent most of her youth in New Hampton, Iowa. She entered the Unites States Air Force in the late 1970s. When she applied for military flight school during officer training,…

Jack E. Conger was born April 6, 1921 near Orient, Iowa.  After high school, he attended the South Dakota School of Mines, in Rapid City studying metallurgy. Conger enlisted in the United States Marines in March 1941. On October 25,…

Delbert Clayton was born in Fontanelle, Iowa. As a high school student, he was obsessed with flying. So much so, that in July 1930, a mere nine months after the stock market crash of 1929, he convinced his father to…

Born in Marshalltown in 1910, Glen T. Niederhauser quit high school to help on the family dairy farm. He earned his pilot’s license in 1929. He was a barnstormer and flew the first air mail route between Marshalltown and Des…

Clyde Cable was born May 14, 1928 in Waterloo, Iowa. Shortly after his birth, he became the youngest person ever to fly in an airplane when his father, well-known aviator and first inductee into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame,…