Bendix Airfield

[LouYoung 0]

I spent a weekend in South Bend, Indiana a little while ago to help out during a data networking implementation at the Honeywell plant there.

This Honeywell plant was built way back in the late 19-teens by Bendix Manufacturing. They built aircraft landing systems and I believe you can still buy Bendix brakes today. The Honeywell plant there still builds landing systems. They had a bunch of old newspaper articles on a bulletin board showing the history of the plant.

Apparently, Mr. Bendix was an avid flyer and there was an airfield right next to the plant: Bendix Airfield. Passenger flight must have been very rare in those days as there were articles that said nothing more than "Four passengers arrived at Bendix airfield today..." then stated their names and origination cities. Four or five days later an article would come out saying, "Four passengers left via Bendix airfield today..." Tough to find news, I guess.

Here's the skydiving history part:

There was also an article from the early 1920's, if I remember right, talking about an airshow that was to happen at the Bendix Airfield that would include "wing walking and a delayed opening parachute jump." Woo! Delayed opening!? Those crazy bastards! There was also a nice picture up there showing a man landing under a round canopy with the huge Bendix sign in the background. Pretty cool.

Lou