Aviation historian Gary W. Hyatt introduces to skycontrol.net his website www.dmairfield.org . “My site is built around one of the most significant Golden Age aviation artifacts in the United States.” says Hyatt.  The artifact is a folio-sized, leather-bound transient Register, signed by pilots visiting the Davis-Monthan Airfield in Tucson, AZ between 1925 and 1936. Hyatt’s website exhibits color images of all 218 pages of the Register.  “Each page includes signatures of many pilots, some famous; some not,” says Hyatt.  The site features a database of 3,689 pilot signatures and associated information compiled by Hyatt from the Register.  Dynamic menus enable site users to investigate each pilot, their vintage airplanes, and passengers.

“While the database is the core of the website,” says Hyatt, “more and more the driving force is becoming the contributions from site visitors of images, old movie films, anecdotes and memorabilia.  They offer me information to put online to commemorate their ancestors and friends who landed at the Airfield so long ago.  Their responses are very gratifying, and I try to do respectful justice to the flying spirits of their kin when I add them to my site.”

There is a strong personal side to his website.  Hyatt says, “I have spoken with four signers of the Register.  These are wise people.  When you hear them speak of Golden Age history in the first-person, you sit up straight and take notes as best you can.  I’ve also been contacted through my site by daughters, nephews, nieces, granddaughters and grandsons of signers.  I’ve learned from them that their elders were, and continue to be, forces of nature, each with fascinating stories to tell.”

Museums and other archives have also contributed to the site.  “I’ve researched the archives of the National Air & Space Museum a dozen times,” says Hyatt, “I always find useful, and sometimes surprising, information there that is especially relevant to my website.”

Since its global release eighteen months ago, Hyatt maintained the site and added, on average, one new history per day about the people, airplanes, places and events recorded in the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register during the Golden Age.  “My website is the result of six years of hard research, interviews, writing, photography, computing and flying around the country.” says Hyatt.  “It brings my work to life as a tribute to the people and airplanes that helped give us modern aviation.  They all will fly again on my website.”  For more information, please contact Hyatt on his website at www.dmairfield.org .

Source: Davis-Monthan Aviaition Field
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