The American Aviation Historical Society, the first 50 Years

     The American Aviation Historical Society and its Journal were born on Sunday, January 29, 1956, at 3038 Bridge Street, Hayward, California, the home of Willis Nye. Three people met and formed the germ of an idea that has lead to more than fifty years of continuous cooperative effort to research and preserve the history of American aviation. You are now reading the two-hundredth product of this trio’s vision. Those three people were Willis L. Nye, Chalmers A. Johnson and William T.
Larkins.
     Willis Nye had a connection with aviation that went all the way back to witnessing one of Louis Paulhan’s flights at Tanforan Race Track in 1910. He worked for air services, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, authored aviation trade school books and over one hundred magazine articles. At the time of the January 29 meeting he also had seven years experience with one of the two organizations that inspired the idea of an AAHS, the Nautical Research
Guild.
     Chalmers Johnson was a graduate student in political science at the University of California, Berkley. He started taking and collecting photographs as an air crewman on TBMs in the Naval Reserve at
Oakland.
     Bill Larkins was an audio-visual specialist working for the University of California, Berkley. His interest in aviation started in 1934 with ten-cent balsa kits and "Dare Devil Aces" and "War Birds" pulps. Like others, his interest in aviation led to an interest in photography. He was an
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