THE DAVIS-MONTHAN AIRFIELD REGISTER
is what this Web site
is all about...
WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?
What I am trying to do is provide you with the stories behind
handwritten entries made in a fragile paper Register 80 years
ago (click
for a sample of a Register page). I encourage you to explore
the stories via dropdown menus on the home pages for THE REGISTER,
PEOPLE, PLACES, AIRPLANES and EVENTS.
I supplement your menu queries with information from a searchable
database
that mirrors the Register page images. Then I guide you toward
other interesting and relevant information via links, either
internal to this site, or to external Web sites or other
resources.
If you would like your own copy of the Register, in a wire-bound
book (340 pages) with three chapters of useful tabulated
cross-references from the database, click
here.
WHERE TO BEGIN?
You can enter the database in many different ways. By year
is one way, which you can do with the dropdown menu below.
You'll soon want to refine your searches by focusing particularly
on one aspect of the database. For example, you may also search
the Register by PEOPLE, AIRPLANES, PLACES and EVENTS. Click
the buttons above right to explore those options.
If you're like me, as you search through the Register and
play with the menus available on this Web site you'll hear
round engines in the distance and smell dust, oil and old
leather. You'll feel desert heat and low-altitude turbulence,
and overhear quiet, considered, confident conversations between
and among the aviation pioneers who signed this register so
long ago where it sat in the office on the northwest corner
of the old airfield. Above, your Webmaster holds the original
register, 2002.
As you read this today, this site is still under development.
It'll probably never be finished. That's why, as frustrating
as it may sound, you may get different, and new, answers if
you come here next week. Notice the "What's
New on the Site?" button at the bottom of the page.
Please bookmark this site, and come back to see what's new
from time to time. The site changes almost daily.
SOME OTHER DETAILS ABOUT THE REGISTER
AND THE DATABASE
The register contains 3,689 records, which I transcribed
into a Microsoft Access database. My database is on the server,
and it is the driver behind the drop down menus on the main
pages that enable you to view records. The database is essentially
what makes this Web site work: this site is database-driven.
Additionally, you may download the database (begin that
process, below, right) and use it locally on your computer.
You need Microsoft Access on your computer to use it. Once
resident on your computer, the database enables sorting,
filtering and formulation of queries. It compels questions
and enables answers to questions about the people, aircraft,
places and events recorded in the register.
I have performed some routine, "big picture",
descriptive analyses of traffic numbers by year, origins
and destinations, categories of pilots and aircraft, and
times of arrival and departure via simple sorts and queries.
These results are cited where appropriate throughout the
Web site. Those queries are available with the download.
Some queries are works in progress, so have patience if errors
show up to you.
THINGS YOU CAN DO TO CONTRIBUTE TO
AVIATION HISTORY
MOST IMPORTANT, if you are a Microsoft Access afficionado,
PLEASE SPEND SOME TIME WITH THE DATABASE, perform your own
queries, then share them with the world through this Web site
via CONTACT US. I will review
your findings and post them to the server.
If you are an academic type, and find, as I found, interesting
and original topics to excavate, polish and render for publication,
I encourage you to publish results from using my database.
Please CONTACT US for citation
courtesies, and please send a file (PDF) to upload to this
site (or send a link).
Need some ideas? I have performed no historical analysis
of military pilots from the register. There are many junior
flight officers (Eaker, Tunner, Spatz, etc.) who flogged the
atmosphere in the southwest between the wars who later became
famous. But, what were they doing when they landed at the
Davis-Monthan Airfield? Can their activities that brought
them to Tucson be cross-referenced with data from various
Army Air Corps archives?
And the passenger list is mostly virgin territory for analysis.
Who were the 2,061 unique passengers who landed 4,048 times,
mostly in open cockpits, and trusted their pilots, unseen,
behind them?
More ideas? There are 99 Golden Age aircraft marques represented
in the register; over 2,000 individual aircraft with registration
numbers just begging to be traced and investigated. Do any
of the aircraft still exist? If so, where? Does someone out
there have the skills to cross-check my database with the
current FAA aircraft registry?
"Mash-ups",
which combine various Web-, PC- and cellphone-based utilities,
are wide open territory for the data that drive this site.
What would the mapping capabilities of Google Earth applied
to the geographical data offer? What would a map of pilot
origins and destinations look like? Or what would a Yellow
Arrow matrix of Davis-Monthan
Airfield data look like? Got the idea?
---o0o---
TECHNICAL DETAILS REGARDING THE REGISTER PAGE IMAGES
One of the key features of this Web site is you may view
high-quality, color images of each of the 218 pages of the
Register.
The good news about this is, each page is rendered in its
original color. Signatures in blue, red and black inks, pencil,
and the smudges, blots, tears and patina of age are there
for you to enjoy.
The not so good news is, for older computers or dialup connections,
image download times may be long (in the minute + range).
I have done everything I can do to speed things up, given
today's Web design and communications technologies.
One thing I've done, in order to reduce transmission times,
is used PhotoShop CS to "slice" the whole page images into
five slices per page (a slice takes less time to download).
Slices are called out and displayed, for example,
when you choose to look at a specific person, place or airplane
from a dropdown menu. Databased information is juxtaposed,
and links are established based on that slice of information.
You always have the choice to download the entire page,
however.
I calculate that a page slice should take you about 3 seconds
to download using a broadband connection and a computer
with a relatively current processor. Figure on maybe 5 times
that duration to download a whole page. Your results may
vary, but I'll bet most of you will be pleasantly surprised
with download speed and image quality.
As luck would have it, a few of the slices partially cut
through some of the names and other information. The solution
is to download the whole page, then you'll be able to see
everything.
The site and graphics were designed for a 1024x768 screen
aspect ratio. Older computers may use the scroll bar at the
bottom of the screen to move the display left and right.
Let's all be grateful to the Office of Natural/Cultural
History at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for providing
the color images for our enjoyment. This site wouldn't be
as meaningful without them.
Finally, the contractor commissioned by the Air Force to
photograph the Register crafted a Web site that provides hints
of what the book reveals. That site is available here (not available as of 12/30/08).
---o0o---
UPLOADED: 05/05 REVISED: 02/10/06, 02/14/06, 06/15/06, 12/30/08
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