Frank Hawk’s 1931 European Tour, Part 1

To quote the April 1931 issue of U.S. Air Services, the monthly magazine of the Army and Navy Air Service Association:

Capt. Frank M. Hawks, recently chosen as America’s outstanding pilot for 1930 by the Ligue Internationale des Aviateurs, will spend the next three months on a flying tour of Europe. The object is business. He will consult with foreign airplane and petroleum technicians, inspect airport and transport lines, and attend the International Aircraft Show in Stockholm in May. He will use his beloved and unmatched Texaco 13. His headquarters will be the offices of The Texas Company, S. A. B., in Brussels.[2]

Captain Hawks and that Texaco 13

Frank Monroe Hawks was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, northeast of Des Moines, on March 28, 1897. His parents moved a few times over the following years before settling down in California, in Long Beach to be more precise, around September 1915.

As was the case with many young men of his generation, Hawks was fascinated by aviation. Some fine day in 1916, he approached one of the owners of a small local outfit, Christofferson Air Craft Company. Stating that he was a reporter, which was not true, Hawks asked one of the Christofferson brothers, Simon or, perhaps, Harry, if he could get a brief flight, free of charge, in exchange for an article that would undoubtedly improve business. The latter did not object. Hawks was thrilled by the experience and yet troubled by the fact that he had flown under false pretenses. He soon confessed to one of the Christofferson brothers who agreed to let him pay for his ride by working alongside them. Hawks even got to fly on several occasions.

Hawks’ flying career really took off in the spring or summer of 1917. Indeed, he put aside his plans to begin a course (in engineering?) at the University of California in the fall, to enlist in the U.S. Army, following the American declaration of war in April. He very much wanted to become an aviator.

Having sailed through ground school, Hawks went to Texas for training in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He soloed after only a few hours of flight with an instructor. The budding aviator’s dreams of flight and aerial combat in France were soon dashed, however, when his obvious talent led his superiors to make him an instructor. Hawks spent the final months of the Great War teaching young men who were no older than he was.

The recently married Hawks left what was by then the U.S. Army Air Service in March 1919. He tried his hand at farming and teaching, in part to please his spouse, Newell Hensley Hawks, born Lane. But the flying bug was still in his veins. Like many other former military pilots, Hawks turned to barnstorming to make ends meet. Among his passengers, a young social worker on her first flight – Amelia Erhart. He was, for example, one of the pilots involved in the world’s first inflight refueling demonstration, made over Long Beach, on November 12, 1921. Hawks also flew in Mexico for many months, before turning to various occupations in the oil industry of this country.
As exciting as this life as a flying gipsy was for him, Hawks realized that it was not a long-term solution to his need to earn a living. Wondering if flying for a large company might be the way to go and eager to make himself known, Hawks seriously investigated the possibility of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. When Charles Lindbergh did precisely that, in May 1927, Hawks put his project aside and decided that setting records might be another option.

Hawks got his chance as a result of the friendship he had struck with Burton Elias “Burt” Hull, the president of Texas Pipe Line Company, as he flew him to and from various oil fields in Mexico. This friendship led to an employment offer with the Aviation Division of The Texas Company. Hawks joined the staff of this major oil producing firm in December 1927, as a corporate pilot and superintendent of its aviation division. He flew company executives, but was soon off to the races.

In the spring of 1930, eager as he was to become the fastest man alive and set a new transcontinental speed record, Hawks kept a close watch as employees of Travel Air Manufacturing Company, Incorporated . . .