US Route 1 Wall of Aviation

This section of Historic Route 1 had two private airfields that began operating in the mid 1920s. In Hybla Valley, interest in dirigible aviation grew after Dr. Hugo Eckener and First Officer Captain Ernst Lehmann flew the Graf Zeppelin LZ-127 to America in October 1928 and promoted airship technology in the Washington area. Seeking a United States base for dirigible airships, they announced that Hybla Valley Airport was the ideal site for passenger and mail service between Germany and the United States. Elvin W. Robertson, president of Mount Vernon Airways, Inc., pursued the project, and in February 1929 Hybla Valley Airport became the first airfield in Virginia to receive a permit to operate an airport. By 1934 Robertson had bought the land and greatly improved the field, which eventually expanded to four runways, three of them 5,000 feet long, but the airship terminus was never realized because of the world political climate and the outbreak of World War II. After World War II, commercial and private pilot training resumed there until the airport closed in 1955. Farther north, Beacon Field Airport in Groveton occupied 204 acres on the City View tract with an antebellum mansion, dairy farm, gas station, and restaurant. Beginning as an informal gathering place for pilots on a sod field known as the cow pasture, it hosted flying service groups that offered rides, aerial photography, acrobatic shows, and exhibitions by stunt pilots. As barnstorming declined under government pressure over public safety concerns, the owner, W.F.P. Reid, turned the field toward pilot training, and the Virginia State Corporation Commission granted Beacon Field Airport a license on April 11, 1932. Many airline pilots later trained there under the GI Bill in the Lehman and Reid Aviation Program, and H.J. Lehman served as chief flight instructor until the airport closed in 1959.

Hybla Valley, Virginia · United States