Norman has a place in state aviation history

Norman has been at the forefront of the state’s aviation history, an Oklahoma Historical Society official said.

Bill Moore, a producer and broadcast researcher with the society, outlined milestones in the city’s aviation history in remarks to the Norman Chamber of Commerce Aviation Committee.

“I found three names in Norman aviation history that stand out,” he said: “Jimmie Haizlip, Mary Haizlip and Roy Hunt.”

Jimmie Haizlip was a World War I aviation instructor in France, Moore said. Later, Haizlip opened a flying school in Norman while attending the university. He went on to become a pilot for Halliburton’s Safeway Airline, spent time at Spartan Aviation in Tulsa and then joined Jimmie Doolittle at Shell Oil.

“Mary signed up for flying lessons in Norman with Jimmie,” Moore said. “She would eventually become the second woman in the U.S. to receive her commercial pilot’s license.”

Jimmie Haizlip “won the prestigious Bendix trophy in 1932. Not only did he win the race that year, but Mary flew the same plane in the women’s event and set a new speed record of 255 miles an hour in the plane.” She placed second in seven other races, Moore said.

In the 1930s, Roy Hunt managed the Norman Flying Service and was an air service representative with the Oklahoma Highway Commission. He began as a “barnstormer” in 1926. “In California, he set about to set records in the air,” Moore said. “He stayed aloft for 292 hours in an attempt to establish an aerial refueling record.” In Iowa, Hunt set a record for continuous outside loops in an aircraft – 124.

In 1932, Hunt won the Transcontinental Sweepstakes Derby. He received a $3,000 cash prize and a new Cord automobile.

Hunt and Jimmie Haizlip, who formed an aviation fraternity at the University of Oklahoma also are credited with the idea of establishing an OU school of aeronautics. “The dean of the engineering school announced plans to do so,” Moore said. “The group established an aeronautical library and had an outreach program for high school students.”

Moore said Jerrie Cobb, born in Norman, was another aviation champion. She began flying at age 12, and received her commercial license at 18. She was a flight instructor and flew crop dusters and pipeline patrols. She set two world aviation records in an Aero Commander and became the aircraft company’s corporate pilot.

In 1960, Cobb was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to be an astronaut trainee. “She passed every test with flying colors, but couldn’t pass the gender test of the times,” Moore said. “She never went into space.”

Moore said the Gemini 6 spacecraft flown by Oklahoma astronaut Jim Stafford will be exhibited in the society’s Oklahoma History Center scheduled to open in November of next year.

A Historical Society video with former Oklahoma City Mayor James Norrick outlined the history of the Navy air bases established in Norman during World War II. The bases were opened in the summer of 1942, with training programs of four and eight weeks. The North Base trained Navy pilots, Norrick said.

After the war, the Navy turned the training bases over to OU. The bases were reactivated briefly during the Korean War.