Retracing the Roots of Aviation in San Diego

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 16, 2007 at 9:20 AM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

From John J. Montgomery to Claude Ryan to Reuben H. Fleet, a new documentary explores San Diego's prominent place in the history of aviation. Why were adventure seekers and aviation entrepreneurs attr

Retracing the Roots of Aviation in San Diego

(Photo: Theodore G. Ellyson (left), the U.S. Navy's first aviator, holds the controls alongside Glenn Curtiss, an aviation pioneer, 1915. Courtesy of San Diego Air and Space Museum )

Tom Fudge:
If you know just a little bit about San Diego history, you know that the history of aviation owes something to our region. This was where Charles Lindbergh's plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built. This is where the aircraft industry manufactured thousands of war planes that helped win WWII.

But that's only part of the story. KPBS producer Pat Finn says that the history of flight in San Diego allegedly goes all the way back to the late-19th century. Pat produced a documentary for KPBS TV called Flying West: History of Aviation in San Diego .

Flying West: History of Aviation In San Diego airs tomorrow (Oct. 17) at 9 p.m. on KPBS T V. It will re-air Oct. 17 at 11:30 p.m. and Nov. 4 at 10 p.m.

Guest

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Pat Finn, producer for KPBS TV who produced Flying West: History of Aviation In San Diego , a documentary about aviation in San Diego.