1931: Opening of Auburn-Opelika Airport

• Other Authors: Coates, Midge
• Format: Still Image
• Language: English
• Published: Auburn University Libraries 1931
• Subjects: Auburn (Ala.); Auburn University; Airports > Alabama; Airplanes > Alabama; Automobiles > Alabama; Business & Industry > Transportation; Geography & Environment > Human Environment > Transportation Routes; History > 1929-1945: The Great Depression and World War II; Alabama; Orleans; Barrow; Point Barrow; Alaska
• Online Access: http://content.lib.auburn.edu/cdm/ref/collection/village/id/233

This image is a photograph used in the book Auburn, a Pictorial History of the Loveliest Village by Mickey Logue and Jack Simms, 3rd edition, 2013, depicting the history of the city and the university. From page 149: Pilots Wiley Post and Harold Gatty and their famous plane, the Winnie Mae, attended the opening of the Auburn-Opelika Airport in December 1931. The airport served as an emergency landing field for mail planes on the Atlanta-to-New Orleans route. In 1933, despite having only one eye, Post made a record-breaking solo flight around the world. In 1935, he and humorist Will Rogers died in a plane crash on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow, Alaska. Photo source: Glomerata, Auburn University Archives.