HOME MOVIES: GLIDER DESIGNER HAWLEY BOWLUS

Genre: home movie

Year Published: 1967)

Format: 16mm

Description: This fascinating, silent 16mm movie comes from the estate of William Hawley Bowlus (May 8, 1896 - August 27, 1967) or someone who was close to him. Bowlus was a designer, engineer and builder of aircraft (especially gliders) and recreational vehicles in the 1930s and '40s. The film begins showing Bowlus buildling a balsa wood model of an airplane, most likely a P-61 Black Widow. At 2:00, Bowlus shows off another model, this one of a midget racing car. At 3:10, Bowlus is seen looking at a calendar with a pin-up girl image on the months. At 3:17, the film transitions to the dry lakes, possibly Muroc Dry Lake outside Los Angeles where Bowlus often went for flight tests. His new Mercury sits on the lakebed near a woody station wagon at 4:00 while his girlfriends play with Speed Graphic cameras. At 6:00, Bowlus and his friends sit by a small lake or lagoon and sun themselves. At 7:50, a surfboard is brought out for some paddle boarding. At 8:44, some work is performed on a car with its hood open. At 10:00, a man poses in Ray Bans or similar sun glasses, looking cool and composed. At 10:20 an old style Ford is seen riding down the street. At 10:30. work continues on the car seen earlier. Today Hawley Bowlus is most widely known for his key role in the design of Airstream travel trailers, which followed his prior famed work as the Superintendent of Construction on Charles Lindbergh's aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis. Bowlus was an expert at soaring flight and at building gliders, established numerous records, trained many of America's earliest glider pilots, and gave gliding lessons to both Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In 1930 he and Lindbergh glided at various locations in California. Most notably Point Loma in San Diego California where Bowlus conducted many of his flights and tests. Charles Lindbergh established a regional distance record for gliders by flying in a Bowlus sailplane from Mount Soledad in La Jolla to Del Mar, making use of the lift at the Torrey Pines Gliderport. Anne Morrow Lindbergh also flew in a Bowlus sailplane from Mount Soledad and became the first woman in the United States to receive a "first class" glider license (Maxine Dunlap had preceded her in becoming the first woman in the United States to receive a glider license of any kind (a "third class" glider license). Bowlus was also the first American to break Orville Wright's 1911 soaring duration record in an American designed and built sailplane. Bowlus was inducted into the Soaring Hall of Fame in 1954.

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