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Jim Christianson is a Bismarck native who has been actively involved in the redevelopment of downtown Bismarck for many years beginning with the Patterson Place project in the early 19 eighties, Jim is credited with leading the effort to save the historic Patterson hotel from the wrecking ball and to convert it into affordable housing for low income and elderly tenants. Jim and his partners also restored the historic Northern Pacific Railroad Depot at Fourth and Maine, longtime home to Fiesta Villa and the historic Capitol Theater building, which has been occupied by Dakota Stage community Theater since 1987. In the early 19 nineties, Jim supervised the renovation of former First National Bank building at Fourth and Maine for BNC National Bank. His development group also converted the old Sioux Hotel building on Fifth Street into 30 apartments for low income tenants. Jim is past president of the Downtown Business Association and he served on Bismarck’s Center City partnership and core committees. Jim can legitimately claim that he was raised with wolves as his parents, Mark and Betty Christianson founded the Dakota Zoo. The Christianson family raised many animals at their former home in Northwest Bismarck. Jim graduated from Bismarck high school and he attended Bismarck Junior College and the University of North Dakota. Jim is a licensed pilot and is a licensed North Dakota real estate broker as president of Northwest Realty Group. He is active in real estate sales and property management. He was a founding director, past president and treasurer of the Bismarck Historical Society. He continues to serve the community as chair of Bismarck’s Renaissance Zone Authority, Chair of Bismarck’s Parking Authority as a member and past president of the Bismarck State College Foundation Board of Trustees. Jim also serves as chair of the Capitol Gallery Society, formerly Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation and is active in promoting the Society’s Fine Art Gallery Capitol Gallery, which is located in the historic Woolworths building at 109 North Fourth Street in downtown Bismarck. Hello and welcome to planes of the past. I’ll look back at Bismarck’s iconic hangar five and some of the aircraft that traveled through Bismarck before world war two. I’m Jim Christiansen and most of the slides that you’re gonna see have a very personal uh matter to me. Uh they were taken by family members and I’ll get into that a little bit later. Once we uh get into the presentation, Bismarck’s first airport was actually Bismarck and Man Dan’s first airport. It was a cow pasture located on the flats between Bismarck and Mandan. It was moved to Bismarck off of South Washington Street in the early 19 twenties and later moved to its current location on land owned by the Strauss and mclean families. In 1940 the city purchased another 60 acres from the Wachter family and then acquired 100 and 60 acres more from the war assets administration. The first airline operation commenced in June of 1931 with Northwest Airlines making its inaugural flight into Bismarck with a six passenger Stinson Detroiter. And that is a picture of a Stinson Detroiter. Uh I don’t know the gentleman or the pilot standing next to it, but uh does say stenciled on the side of the airplane, Northwest Airline, the Stinson Detroiter, the first terminal building in Bismarck was constructed in 1936. It was part of a WP A or works project administration effort and of course Bismarck and the entire state of North Dakota were still deep into the Great Depression by the mid 19 thirties and you see a couple of airplanes in front of the uh terminal building and we’ll see more of those later on. As we go into the presentation. The large municipal hangar now known as hangar five was built in 1940 it was also a WP A project unfortunately, hangar five is scheduled to be demolished in 2024 to make additional ramp space for aircraft parking. This is a peak inside hangar five with a more modern airplane that’s a Cessna 182 RG which isn’t exactly historic, but it gives you a glimpse of the inside of hangar five. We’re gonna talk a little bit about some of the pre-war pre world war two airplanes, uh, that were mostly built in the 19 twenties and thirties as were many of the airplanes that landed in Bismarck and in that era, the late 19 thirties and into the early 19 forties, most of those planes were built in the late twenties and early thirties and some were commercially successful and others weren’t, some would end up being converted for military purposes when the United States army air force needed airplanes of all types in a hurry after the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Following are a few examples of twenties and thirties. Airplanes that came through Bismarck in the busy period leading up to our involvement in World War Two. This is an Alexander Eagle Rock Ox five. The Alexander Aircraft company was founded in Colorado in 1925 and for a time, it was the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer until it went bankrupt. During the Great Depression. The three seat biplane was powered by the famous World War one curtis Ox five engine also called the Aux. This particular photo was taken in Towner North Dakota in May of 1941 and it’s actually the only slide in this presentation that wasn’t taken at the Bismarck airport and I happen to have known the photographer. This is a Hamilton, the Hamilton H 45 and H 47. Uh The only difference they had was the amount of horsepower that the engine generated. But Hamilton’s were a corrugated metal skinned high wing tail drer powered by a nine cylinder radial engine. The wasp engine that was rated from 450 up to 525 horsepower. They were used in the late 19 twenties through the thirties for passenger and mail service and again, Northwest Airlines flew at least nine Hamiltons on their Chicago Minneapolis route and this particular Hamilton was photographed at the Bismarck Airport. This is a Culver GK Dart designed by a guy named Al Mooney. Uh Most people are familiar with aviation are familiar with the name Mooney. Uh Culver built fewer than 100 Darts in the 19 thirties. And the two seat model that’s shown here was uh fitted with a 90 horsepower engine that had a maximum speed of 100 and 31 MPH and a service ceiling of 16,000 ft. It’s a pretty quick little airplane for, for the day. The Culver Dart, this is a Stinson reliant. Uh The reliant was a high wing fixed tailwheel monoplane powered by a variety of radial engines. A total of thir 1327 reliance were built from 1933 to 1941 and they were used by the Army Air Force as a utility aircraft and a trainer. This is slide as the Taylor Craft fleet, more than 5500 Taylor Crafts were built between 1935 and 1986. They were a popular personal aircraft before the war and then became a well-respected trainer. During the war, the Bismarck flying school had several tailor crafts in its fleet of aircraft. This is an coup and a tailor craft side by side or actually nose to tail the coup on the left. The s shiny airplane is a low wing monoplane that was first flown in 1937. It was considered one of the safest fixed wing aircraft at the time because of its uh aluminum frame construction production continued under various manufacturers. But the final model was known as the Mooney M 10 and that was produced in 1970. So there’s that name Mooney again. So on the left, you’ve got an er coup on the right, a tailor craft. This photo shows a a tailor craft flying over down near downtown Bismarck kind over the railroad tracks. It’s kind of blurry. But upon closer examination, you can see the Patterson hotel right underneath the landing gear of the airplane with a large uppercase p on top of the building in the state Capitol in the background under the wing of the uh photography air aircraft. So the Capitol was completed in in 32. So this is probably the mid to late 19 thirties that this photo was taken. This is a very common uh popular aircraft called the North American Texan, the T six. it was also known as the A T six and the Army Air Corps version, the Navy called it the SNJ and the British uh Air Force, actually the British Marine Air Force called it the Harvard. It was a primary trainer first developed in the 19 thirties. As you can see, a ton of them were built, more than 15,000 T sixes were built. Uh They’re still flying today and there’s one that’s actually hangar at the airport over in Mandan, the Texan, the T six Texan. This is a Boeing 22 42 47 which was introduced in 1933. It was an early United States airliner and one of the first with uh advances such as an all metal semi monocoque construction. It had a fully cantilevered wing and retractable landing gear. The Boeing 24 72 47 Douglas DC, a very iconic aircraft, one of probably one of the most recognizable airplanes of the thirties, forties and fifties. More than 16,000 DC threes were built. The military version was known as the C 47. This particular Northwest Airlines plane was carrying Hollywood stars, Barbara Stanwick and Robert Taylor and stopped in Bismarck in May 1941 and drew quite a crowd out at the airport. It’s the Douglas DC three by 1940 war was obviously raging in Europe and it was apparent that the United States was gonna be dragged into the conflict. Bismarck was a convenient fueling stop for many military aircraft that were being Ferried on to Great Falls, Montana Fairbanks, Alaska and even Russia following are some examples. Some of those aircraft that came through the Bismarck Airport in 1940 41. Northrop A 17, the Northrop A 17 attack bomber entered service in 1936. And when the army Air Corps decided that attack aircraft should be multi engine. The A 17 was basically rendered surplus following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The A 17 was used for coastal patrols along the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. The Northrop A 17, this is the Douglas B 18. It was nicknamed or known as the Bolo. It was an early American heavy bomber that entered service in the late 19 thirties. It was based on the Douglas DC two but it was slow, had Inan inadequate armament and carried a small bomb load. In spite of these shortcomings A B 18 was one of the first US army aircraft to sink a German U boat in August 1942 in the Caribbean. There’s another view of the Douglas B 18 looking at it from the front, give you an idea what the, the gunner was laying in the front of that airplane. Culver. We heard that name before. This is a Culver LC A another uh one of six models that L Mooney designed when he worked at Culver aircraft. He eventually left and founded Mooney aircraft on his own. But the cadet LC A was powered by a 75 horsepower eight cylinder horizontally opposed piston engine. In 1940 the cadet was selected by the army Air Corps for use as a radio controlled target drone. Kind of an ignominious ending for a cute little airplane. Douglas. There’s the Douglas name again, this is a B 23 known as the dragon and this was the first American bomber equipped with a manned 50 caliber machine gun in the tail. Although faster and better armed than the B 18, the B 23 wasn’t comparable to the newer B 25 Mitchell and the B 26 Martin Marauder, the B 23 never saw combat overseas and was used mainly as a trainer. Here’s a familiar aircraft, the Curtiss P 40 the war hawk. It was a front, front line fighter used by almost all all allied powers during world war two. It was the third most produced American fighter of the war after the P 51 and the P 47. And when production ceased in November 1944 13,738 P forties had been built over 200 allied fighter pilots became aces flying the P 40. The Curtiss P 40 Warhawk. This is this odd looking duck is a Grumman Widgeon. During world war two, the amphibious Wigen was used as a small patrol aircraft by the Navy, the Coast Guard, the civil air patrol, the army air force and the British Royal Navy. One has to wonder if they ever practiced landing on the Missouri River. Here we have a North American B 25 Mitchell which was named after us. Military aviation pioneer General William Billy Mitchell. The B 25 medium bomber served in every theater in world war two and more than 10,000 were built making it the most produced American medium bomber of the war. It was also the bomber or the airplane that was used by Mitchell and his crew when they uh launched the first raids on Tokyo. Um in the spring of 1942 the Mitchell bomber B 25 Mitchell. So if you’re wondering where all these photos came from? Well, for much of 1941 through 1943 my dad, mark Christiansen junior was a civil pilot training flight instructor at the Bismarck flying School, which was sponsored by Bismarck Junior College, uh and dean Werner at the time, fellow instructors included Vince Cavasso, Charles Shafer and Bob Watts. Uh The last name is familiar to most people, Bob and his brother, Jack Watts operated Capital Aviation for many, many, many, many years. They’re, they’re all gone now. So this isn’t necessarily um trip back through time for the Christiansen family, but he had a lot to do with uh with training pilots at the airport here and, and these photographs. So he gets some billing. Um Mark received his army Air Force Commission in 1944 and was appointed to the Air Transport command. He had previously a, as an aside, he had applied for the navy uh fighter school and with his good friend, cash register, who we’re gonna talk about here in a minute, but he didn’t make the cut. So he ended up in the air transport command and spent most of 1944 based out of Cairo Egypt flying from Casablanca to Karachi, India. He logged more than 2000 hours in ac 46 commando transport plane and they carried passengers, combat soldiers and war cargo all over the Middle East. Most of you thought that Mark Christiansen just loved animals. Well, as the story goes, Mark and his future wife, Betty founded the Dakota Zoo in 1961 and raising a family of kids and animals eventually took the place of flying. But the Dakota Zoo is indeed another story. This guy Francis Register is pictured here in a Grumman f for a wildcat. And he’s one of my dad’s closest high school friends and a fellow aviation student at Wahpeton in the late 19 thirties. Uh Lieutenant junior grade Cash Register was North Dakota’s first flying ace in World War two with eight kills at Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. Um back story on cash. His given name was Francis Register. His uncle or cousin paul Register was actually North Dakota’s first casualty on the uh on the US S Arizona when it was sunk in Pearl Harbor. So Francis enlisted and, and got into the naval flight uh fighter pilot school in Pensacola. And when he got his wings there, uh wouldn’t do to have a fighter pilot named Francis. And of course his last name was register. So he became Cash Register. Uh cash married, uh my aunt Ruth Christiansen in February 1942 and he was killed in action off the island of a two in the Alaskan Peninsula in May of 1943 North Dakota’s first ace fighter pilot in World War Two. Cash Register. The photographer behind most of these photos that you’ve seen most of these slides except for this one, of course, was Betty Barnes born and raised in Bismarck. She was uh as it says, the chief cook, bottle washer bus driver and photographer for the Bismarck flying School. And she was also Mark’s partner in crime. Betty took most of the photos on these slides and she was thoughtful enough to label them with the airplane type and date they were photographed. So future generations could look up more information on Wikipedia. She’s standing next to a, a transport small bus that on the side says Bismarck Flying School. Uh She would pick up the the students who came from all over the state and the region and stayed in the, the Hips Hips Hotel on seventh street and she’d pick them up in the morning, drive them out to the airport for their lessons and drive them back a day. And at the end of the day, make sure they got lunch. And, uh, in the meantime, she took photographs while she was also working on getting her private pilot’s license. Betty knew the way to Mark’s heart. She soloed in April 1941 and went on to earn her own private pilot certificate and the photo at the far right of Mark and Betty standing in front of a tailor craft. One of my dad’s tailor crafts was taken in hangar five in 1941. Third generation of pilots. Well, Mark’s grandson Marcus Christiansen took flying lessons from Bismarck Aero Center and received his private pilot certificate at age 18. Once in a while, he humors his old man by going flying with him. And so it goes reach for the stars. Marcus and there’s a closing thought courtesy of Leonardo da Vinci. Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward for there you have been and there you will always long to return.