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Un-American Ace in the RAF

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In the sidebar to the story on Fred Gillet in Aviation History, March 1999, Wilfred Beaver is included among a listing of American aces in Royal Air Force service. In fact, according to Beaver’s daughter, he was born at Kingswood, Bristol, England. His parents separated in 1911, when he was 14, and he was sent to Montreal, Canada, to live with an uncle. On August 7, 1914, he joined the 1st Canadian Heavy Battery, and in 1917 he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.

Beaver returned to Canada after the war, and on April 23, 1919, he was admitted to the United States for permanent residence. He became a naturalized citizen on September 21, 1926, but under no circumstances can he be considered an American ace of World War I.

The confusion may stem from his having served with the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II. He joined up in June 1942 and served with the 447th Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force. Beaver was released from active duty on January 15, 1946, but served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve from 1949 to 1955. He died on August 19, 1986.

R. Ian Edwinson
Indianapolis, Ind.

Antarctica’s Hollick-Kenyon Plateau

The article “Polar Star Rising” in your March issue provides an excellent and accurate summary of the history-making flight of Polar Star in 1935. The last sentence refers to the additions to maps of the “Ellsworth Highlands” and “Ellsworth Mountains.” Lincoln Ellsworth’s appreciation for my brother Herbert Hollick-Kenyon’s piloting skills was acknowledged by also adding the “Hollick-Kenyon Plateau” to Antarctica maps. Rear Admiral Richard Byrd stated in a letter of November 29, 1954, to my brother, “Your flight was one of the greatest in all the history of aviation.”

David H. Kenyon
Eugene, Ore.

Revisiting Bennett Field

Your March “People and Planes” department about Bennett Field, written by R.A. Woodworth, brought back memories. When I was a kid in 1937-38, I lived at 38 Rubicon Street in Binghamton, about five miles by air from Bennett Field. I saw aircraft flying over my house quite often, especially in the summer.

The city of Binghamton had a bathhouse for swimming on the west bank of the Chenango River and just adjacent to the De Forest Street bridge. There I witnessed lots of flights–many of them passing over the bridge at a 40-degree angle headed southeast, so I could see the main wheels still spinning after the takeoff roll.

When the lifeguards were not looking, teenagers would climb the top of the bridge and dive into the river. Some boasted that if they had a stone, they could have hit a plane from that height. They could clearly see the pilot and passengers, and they also remarked on how dirty the bottoms of the planes were.

Late in the ’30s, the Works Progress Administration built the Tri-City Airport in Endicott, N.Y., and flights out of Bennett Field soon stopped. It was at that point that I started building and flying small gas-powered model airplanes–a hobby I have taken up once again now that I have retired. I feel sure that my lifelong interest in aviation stems from those flights I saw long ago out of Bennett Field.

Michael Zelsnack
Aliquippa, Pa.

Argentia, not Argentina

In your March “Enduring Heritage” department on the Yankee Air Force’s collection at Willow Run, you mention that “the PB-1G, patrolled the waters…as well as the coastal regions of Argentina and Canada.” I submit the logs will show Argentia (Newfoundland).

It’s not the first time this mistake has been made. When I was serving in the U.S. Navy, one of the first sea stories I heard was from an aviation boatswain’s mate who told me how excited he was to graduate from Class “A” school and get orders to shore duty in what he misread as Argentina. He thought he was getting shore duty in South America. Needless to say, he was actually transferred to Argentia, in Newfoundland.

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