Ithaca airline industry began on peach orchard By CAROL U. SISLER Special to The (Ithaca) Journal 11/16/02 New York state's second oldest airport was developed in a city-owned peach orchard on the northwest shore of Cayuga Inlet. While members of the Cornell Aeronautical Club, beginning in 1909, built and crashed several gliders, the linkage of the Thomas Brothers aviation interests with those of the Morse Chain Company in 1914 gave a great impetus to the aviation industry on Cayuga Lake. Oliver W. and W.T. Thomas were encouraged by the Ithaca Board of Trade to move their flying school and manufacturing business from Bath to Ithaca. An April 24, 1915, issue of The Ithaca Journal reported that a Thomas hydroaeroplane was flying on the lake and that it was being used by pupils in the Thomas Flying School. The Thomases built two wooden hangars along the lakeshore and a small marine railway to launch and retrieve the aircraft. As international pressures built toward World War I, the U.S. Navy ordered two flying boats at $12,000 each. The Thomas-Morse Aircraft Company began the manufacture of land-based planes, especially the popular trainer known as the Scout. In 1916 the peach trees were cleared to make a proper runway for the biplanes and pilots were trained to fly them. Frank Burnside was the first pilot in Tompkins County, having moved here with the Thomas brothers. He trained Ithacan Paul Wilson; "Tex" Marshall came north from Texas to join the Ithaca flying group. They became the test pilots for Thomas-Morse Aircraft Company. While Paul Wilson made the first parachute jump in the county, a fake parachute drop staged by the silent film company Grossman Pictures Inc. in September 1919 alarmed many Ithacans. Shoved out of a Thomas-Morse aircraft at 3,000 feet over the lake, the parachute slowly drifted toward the water. Observers thought surely the 'person' hanging from the shroud lines would drown on impact. To those who hastily called, the Grossman studio calmly replied they were just filming a daring sea rescue for a serial episode of "A Million Dollar's Reward," starring Lillian Walker. When the war ended, aircraft orders declined to the point that the aircraft company was absorbed in 1929 by Consolidated Aircraft Company of Buffalo. However, Herbert 'Pete' Peters in about 1927 established the Ithaca Flying Service at what was called the Ithaca municipal Airport. A flying boat mechanic during World War I, he was taught to fly by Paul Wilson. Moving the wooden hangars to the center of the field, Peters taught flying and offered a charter service. During the Depression, state relief projects benefited the airport. Dredged silt from the Inlet was spread over the airport to raise it above lake level, the runway was paved, and on Sept. 17, 1934, about 10,000 people attended the dedication of the improved airport with its new cinder block hangar. Cecil S. Robinson, a state park system engineer, began to realize the benefits of aerial photography. Outfitting two four-place Fairchild cabin monoplanes with mapping cameras, he filmed Cayuga Lake and, under contract to the federal government, most of the East Coast. After the war about 1945, he used these two planes as the nucleus of Robinson Airlines, flying passengers from Ithaca to Teeterboro, N.J. Adding twin engine DC-3s, Robinson enlarged the airlines' network between the major upstate New York cities and Newark. In 1948 the airport on East Hill, now Tompkins County Airport, became the hub of the airline. In 1952 it was renamed Mohawk Airlines by Robert Peach, who had gained control of it. In 1972 it became Allegheny Airlines through sale and was later absorbed by USAir, now USAirways. Carol U. Sisler is a local author and board advisor to the DeWitt Historical Society.