U.S. Aviation Pioneer will be Honored with Monument at USU

A World War I aviation hero who went on to make a number of record-setting flights in the early days of American aviation history will be honored on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, when a monument is unveiled in Logan, Utah.

World War I hero Russell Maughan made aviation history on June 23, 1924, as the first man to fly “dawn-to-dusk” in a transcontinental flight across the United States. Flying solo in a Curtis PW-8 aircraft, he completed his record-breaking flight in 18 hours and 20 minutes with an average speed of 150 mph.

 

“Colonel Maughan’s achievements made news across the nation in his day,” said Dode Rees, the 98-year-old chairman of the monument planning committee. “In addition to his record cross country flight, he also set a new world speed record. Colonel Maughan is one of the dedicated, heroic pilots who pushed the limits during what is known now as the ‘Golden Age of Aviation.’”

 

On the 50th anniversary of Maughan’s dawn-to-dusk flight, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., added his achievement to its prestigious Milestones of Flight, which highlights the most important moments in the history of aviation.

 

Maughan, a Logan native, graduated from Utah State Agricultural College, now Utah State University, in 1917. He served in France during World War I, where he shot down four enemy planes and received the Distinguished Service Cross for saving the life of another pilot by flying between his crippled aircraft and an attacking enemy plane.

 

“Colonel Maughan is an American hero in every sense of the word,” Rees said. “He was a man of great valor in the skies during both war and peace, and he deserves a special place of honor in American aviation history.”

 

Maughan had a long and illustrious career in aviation. In 1922, while working as a military test pilot, Maughan established a new international air-speed record to win the Pulitzer Flying Cup.

 

Maughan also served as the Secretary of Aviation, and he surveyed and selected airfields for the first secret ferry routes through Greenland and Iceland to Great Britain during 1939. He also led both troop carrier and bomber groups on combat missions over Europe during World War II. He retired in 1946 and died April 21, 1958. Maughan was the grandson of Cache Valley, Utah, pioneer Peter Maughan.

 

The dedication of the granite and bronze monument is scheduled for Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. on the Utah State University campus at the southeast entrance of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. The program will follow a military format, including a 21-gun salute and a flyover by Hill Air Force Base. Cache Valley Veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq will participate in the monument unveiling.

 

Contact: Vern Buehler, 753-1950