Clifford DeGaynor, Sr. - Menominee, MI
Roy DeGaynor - Menominee, MI


By:  Howard Emich - p40, City of Marinette Centennial Program and History, 1887 - 1987

"If there were excitement and motors involved, you could be sure one of the DeGaynor would be around.  And Clifford DeGaynor, Sr., of Menominee, MI was not to be kept our of the fun for lack of a plane. He build one.  His brother, Roy - soon to retire as Menominee county treasurer after 20 years in the office - loaned us a clipping and picture involving Cliff's flying machine. (Pusher type plane.)

It certainly drew a crowd.  For DeGaynor not only constructed the plane but taught himself to fly it.  It took a year and a half for him to build this chain driven flying job at a cost that kept him doubling between his regular job and playing in an orchestras.  It was a two-winged machine with a wingspan of 38 feet and square ends.  The open fuselage was 24 feet long with cramped space for the cockpit.

The bulky bird weighed about 750 pounds and was powered by a two cylinder 22-horsepower air-cooled Spacke motor.  The picture shows the propeller in front of the wings was driven by a chain-drive from the crankshaft hub, which was later changed to a direct-drive from the crankshaft.

Cliff flew the plane on-and-off for five years from various fields before it was wrecked by a windstorm.  He even attached railroad wheels at one time and took off from a siding near 14th Avenue, his brother Roy recalls.  The crowds that gathered whenever he warmed up the engine marveled at the flights that reached 200 feet or more.  Roy reconstructed the wreckage into a power iceboat but it proved unstable and he went back to sail.

Not discouraged by the crash, Cliff DeGaynor later acquired an old Curtis bi-plane of World War I fame and flew this and other aircraft for a number of years."

Alfred Sporrer - Chicago, IL (former Menominee, MI resident)
Arle Emmes - Menominee, MI
Earl Gustafson - Marinette, WI

By:   Howard Emich - p40, City of Marinette Centennial Program and History, 1887 - 1987

"Arle Emmes of Menominee and Earl Gustafson of Marinette, entered the aviation picture in the 1920's.  The government was disposing of its World war I surplus planes and Emmes purchased one of the famous Jennys flow by the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker and his comrades against Baron Richtofen's German aces.

Emmes became a parachute jumper and wing walker and sat on a trapeze beneath the plane after teaming up with Al Sporrer, Menominee grocer, who caught the flying fever from Emmes.  He piloted Emmes' plane in exhibitions throughout northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, plus selling rides.

The act became a regular feature of the Fourth of July weekend celebrations at Henes Park in the 1920's.  However, on July 5, 1926, a boat standing by to pluck Emmes and his parachute out of the water (bay of Green Bay), did not reach him in time and he drowned in full view of the horrified spectators.   He was 21.

Gustafson, who is retired and lives in Menominee, told the writer that he learned to fly from Howard Morey at the Madison, WI airport in the late 1920's and soon bought a Velie monocoupe sold by Morey.   Gustafson and Chester Clements of Marinette flew sightseeing rides out of the Menominee airport for seven years and also visited many other communities, large and small.  He recalls that a short ride cost $.50 and $1.00 and a flight over the twin cities (Marinette and Menominee) or other population center was $2.50.  Customers usually opted for the longer ride after getting into the air.

Gustafson said he later owned a three-place Curtis-Wright Robin and that other local fliers before World War II included Alfred Bretl of Menominee, who also owned a Velie monocoupe, Roy Emmes of Marinette, brother of Arle, who acquired a bi-plane and Larry LeMieux of Menominee, who has a Ford-powered plane which crashed with LeMieux in a fatal accident on June 5, 1940."

By:  Donn Williams - Staff Writer - Marinette-Menominee Eagle-Herald. Friday, April 30, 1999

"He was and aviation pioneer.  In fact, one of his early pilot's licenses was signed by Orville Wright.

Not the late Alfred Sporrer of Chicago, a Menominee native, has been immortalized by being inducted into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame.

Evelyn, his wife of 57 years, and three generations of his family gathered Thursday night  in Springfield, IL, where the induction ceremony was held.

In 1924, at the age of 19, Sporrer piloted his first airplane in Menominee - a wood-and-cloth biplane.  That first flight was as a student with his friend Arlie Emmes giving the instruction.

Their airport runways and landing strip was the frozen surface of Green Bay. "It was winter and the bay was frozen over," Sporrer later recalled.  "Arlie had a set of skis on the plane, so our landing field was 120 miles long and 20 miles wide."

The experience so intrigued the young man just out of high school that he left Menominee for Chicago where he could rub elbows with other pilots at Ahsburn Field and help then tinker with the engines and flight controls on their airplanes.

Times were tough in the late 1920's, so in order to make a living, Sporrer and Emmes resorted to barnstorming, giving short rides in Emmes airplane.

Later the two men did exhibition flying.   Sporrer would fly the airplane and Emmes would do daredevil stunts.  "He would hold himself by his teeth, which of course was a cable under the turtle neck sweater he was wearing, but everything else, walking ion the wings and all that stuff was authentic, " Evelyn Sporrer recalled.

But during a 1926 Fourth of July stunt show in Menominee, their routine ended tragically.  Emmes had completed his wing walking and the show was ending with him parachuting down into the water of the bay.   Something got tangled up in the parachute and the wind carried him further out into the bay.

"Al was up above circling, wondering what was going on," Sporrer said, "Finally he could see that he was disconnected from the parachute completely." When the rescue squad arrived at the spot where Emmes had landed in the bay, they found that he had drowned.

Sporrer headed back to Chicago and found a job flying a mail route between Chicago and Minneapolis.  At the same time, Charles Lindberg was flying the Chicago to St. Louis route.

Later Sporrer became a corporate pilot working for the president of Hieleman and Berghoff brewing companies.  Here he embarked on one of the great adventures of his life.  "The two of them were both daredevils, loved sports and hunting, so they decided to go to Alaska." Sporrer said.

There they toured wild land by air and flew over Mt. McKinley.  "They were in the sky for about two and one half months," Sporrer said.  "They had to carry their own gasoline cans and any time they found gas they would fill up the cans.  And when they needed fuel they would land, put the gas in and take off again."

In 1942 with World War II raging, Sporrer was the corporate pilot for the Chicago Bridge and Iron Co. until the United States government requisitioned the airplane.  "I'll always remember how Al specified their telegram read," Sporrer recalled.  "Request that you surrender your plane voluntarily."

Out of a job again, Sporrer signed on with Pan American Airlines as a captain.  He was assigned to flying bombers across the ocean and delivering them to Russia and Africa.

After the war he returned to Chicago and retired as a pilot.

Alfred Sporrer died three years ago at the age of 92."

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