Bevo Howard Papers

A preeminent aviator of the 1940s through 1960s, “Bevo” Howard’s interest in aviation began at an early age. Born Beverly Eggleston Howard on August 11, 1914, in Bath, South Carolina, and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Howard learned to fly before he was sixteen. While in high school, he paid for his lessons by parachute jumping and selling airplane rides. He soloed in 1931 and bought his first airplane, an OX-5 powered WACO 10, with cash earned from his newspaper route.

In 1932, Howard left Augusta Junior College in his freshman year and joined the newly formed Hawthorne Flying Service in Charleston, South Carolina, as a “line boy” earning $10 per week. By 1936, he had become the owner and president of Hawthorne at the age of 21, and his father, Charles L. Howard, served as the vice president of Hawthorne’s Charleston operations.

From 1936 until 1938, Howard flew as a commercial airline pilot, the youngest pilot with an Air Transport Rating in the industry, flying DC-2s for Eastern Airlines and Delta Airlines. He returned full-time to Hawthorne Flying Service in 1938 and over the next 30 years Hawthorne’s business interests grew to include the following:

• Hawthorne Flying Services at Charleston and Columbia, the original 1932 organization • Hawthorne School of Aeronautics, a U.S.A.F. contract flying school at Moultrie, Georgia • Hawthorne Airmotive at Municipal Airport, Orangeburg • Hawthorne Airways, flying local air mail routes • Air Services, Inc., charter and sightseeing services from National Airport, Washington, D.C. • CAA C.P.T.P. at the Citadel, College of Charleston, and University of South Carolina • U.S. Army pilot training at Orangeburg • U.S. Navy V-5 Program pilot training at Columbia In 1936, six years after his first exhibition at Walterboro, Howard won the National Lightplane Aerobatic Championship at Miami and repeated the honor in 1940 and 1941. In 1938, he became the first pilot to perform an outside loop in a light plane, a 37.5hp Piper Cub. He won the International Light Plane Aerobatic Championship in 1939, 1940, and 1941, and the International Aerobatic Championship open to all types of aircraft in 1946, 1947, and 1949. He won second place in the 1948 and 1950 International Aerobatic Championship. He also flew exhibitions in Cuba and France (in 1950 for more than 300,000 people just at the Paris International Air Exposition.)

Though he always thought of flying as his hobby, Howard was once the highest paid air show pilot in the United States and flew in most major air meets in the country. In addition to holding six world championships for precision aerobatic flying, he is also the first and only pilot to accomplish a hands-off inverted ribbon pick-up maneuver.

On October 4, 1941, Hawthorne contracted to operate the primary flying school (through 1945) for the Army Air Force at Orangeburg, South Carolina. There, 4,272 American and 1,652 French cadets completed the program. Hawthorne received the Certificate of Service Award from the United States Army Air Force Training Command for safe and efficient flight operations. The primary aircraft used in the training was the Boeing/Stearman PT-17. Howard, himself, was awarded French Air Force wings and the French Médaille de l’Aéronautique in 1945.

The following year Howard was called upon to demonstrate the operational utility of light aircraft in modern warfare, and his study contributed to the Army’s decision to use light planes for liaison, artillery spotting, and air rescue missions in combat.

Howard was voted Outstanding Young Man of South Carolina by the State Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1943 for his contributions to aviation, national defense, and state civic affairs.

The Hawthorne operation in Columbia, South Carolina, was also awarded the Andrew J. Haire Award of $5,000 for outstanding airport operation in 1945. This site was a Navy Primary Flight Training School using Piper Cub aircraft.

On October 12, 1945, Hawthorne-Orangeburg became the last of sixty-four civilian contract schools to close at the end of WWII with Class 46b (French.) However, civilian operations continued at Jacksonville, Florida, and Moultrie, Georgia, where they became the Piedmont-Hawthorne chain of aviation Fixed Base Operators.

In 1945, Bevo became a charter member of the Air Power League and was appointed to the Industry Consulting Committee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Administration (serving until 1956.) He was also a two-term president of the Aeronautical Training Society and National Aviation Trades Association. Howard and William Strohmeier co-authored an aviation textbook, You Can Learn to Fly, in 1947.

Beginning in 1948 and continuing through 1953 two classes of Pakistani cadets trained with the Hawthorne curriculum in Jacksonville. This was the first time a civilian company in the United States was contracted to train foreign military students in fighter-type aircraft (the F-51 and F-47.)

In March 1951, the United States Air Force (USAF) contracted for a primary flying school, to be called Hawthorne School of Aeronautics, at Spence Air Base, Moultrie, Georgia. (Spence was to be reactivated, having been an advanced flying school during WWII and deactivated in 1945.) Average annual enrollment was 300 cadets from the United States and thirty-two allied nations over the following ten years. The primary airplane used in the training was the North American T-6.

In 1954, Howard was awarded yet another honor from the French Air Force, Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, in recognition for his training and achievements as an aerobatic pilot.

At Spence Air Base Hawthorne was named the number one contract school – out of six schools – operated by the Air Training Command in 1959. Also that year Hawthorne was the only primary school to receive two consecutive U.S.A.F. Flying Safety Awards (only twenty such awards having been presented during qualifying periods to flying units worldwide.)

Hawthorne grew to operate U.S. Army primary pilot training at Ft. Rucker, Alabama, and an Army aviation maintenance program for helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. All the while Hawthorne’s business aircraft sales and service operations – which employed about 1,000 people - were consolidated at Municipal Airport, Charleston, South Carolina.

In January 1971, Howard was named chairman of the board of Hawthorne Aviation Company.

In addition to his numerous aviation-related activities and association memberships, Howard had other business, professional, and civic involvements, as well. His company grew to have seven operations in five states including a shopping center in Atlanta, Georgia, two mobile home parks, an interstate trucking line in Hickory, North Carolina, and a Ford dealership in Summerville, South Carolina. He served on the board of the National Aeronautical Services Association and Associated Industries of Georgia, was a director of American Investment Life Insurance Company and American Investors Corporation of Nashville, Tennessee. An active member of Young Presidents Organization, Howard’s civic involvements included United Fund, Junior Achievement, Chamber of Commerce, and Young Men’s Christian Association as well as serving as a college trustee and advisory board member. He is listed in Who’s Who in The South and Southwest and Outstanding Personalities of the South.

The airplane with which Bevo Howard is most often associated is the red and white checked 1936 German Bücker Bu133 Jungmeister, which he purchased in 1946. It was while flying this airplane at an air show in Greenville, North Carolina, on October 17, 1971, that one of the wings struck a tree and the plane crashed killing Howard on impact.

Howard was married to Arden Ball of Charleston (his first female flying student) and they had five children – Beverly, Jr., Arden, Langhorne, John, and Amanda.

Vernon B. Strickland, Hawthorne’s president and a majority stockholder, purchased Howard’s Hawthorne Aviation Company stock held in trust for the Howard family after Bevo’s death.

A Beverly Howard Memorial Air Show was subsequently established to honor Bevo; and, in 1996, he was inducted into the International Council of Air Shows Hall of Fame. His beloved Bücker Jungmeister was also rebuilt/restored and is now on exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum of The Smithsonian Institution.

Source

"Bevo Howard Papers," Biographical Sketches, Folder 3, Box 1, Series I, Subseries 2, History of Aviation Archives, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.

Source

"Bevo Howard Papers," Biographical Sketches, Folder 4, Box 1, Series I, Subseries 2, History of Aviation Archives, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.

Source

"Bevo Howard Papers," Biographical Sketches, Folder 5, Box 1, Series I, Subseries 2, History of Aviation Archives, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.

Source

"Bevo Howard Papers," Biographical Sketches, Folder 6, Box 1, Series I, Subseries 2, History of Aviation Archives, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.

Source

"Bevo Howard Papers," Biographica Sketches, Folder 7, Box 1, Series I, Subseries 2, History of Aviation Archives, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.

Source

"Bevo Howard Papers," Biographical Sketches, Folder 8, Box 1, Series I, Subseries 2, History of Aviation Archives, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.

Source

"Bevo Howard Papers," Honors and Certificates, Folder 2, Box 20, Series I, Subseries 2, History of Aviation Archives, Special Collections and Archives Division, Eugene McDermott Library, The University of Texas at Dallas.

Source

Rebecca and Beverly... Publish Before They Perish. “Questions about “Bevo Sr.” https://bevhoward.com/index.html, accessed May 1, 2018

Source

Wikipedia. “Bevo Howard,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevo_Howard, accessed May 1, 2018

Source

Wikipedia. “Hawthorne School of Aeronautics,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_School_of_Aeronautics, accessed May 1, 2018

Source

Smithsonian Institution Archives. “Presentation of Biplane to the NASM.” https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_8396?back=/collections/search%3Fquery%3Dwashington%252Bdc%26page%3D1131%26perpage%3D10%26sort%3Drelevancy%26view%3Dlist, accessed May 1, 2018

Source

International Aerobatic Club. “Hall of Fame-1989-Bevo Howard.” https://www.iac.org/hall-fame-1989-bevo-howard, accessed May 1, 2018