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| Landmark #711 | San Diego County | Visited: April 21, 2013 | Plaque? NO. 🙁 |
| What is it? | The wing of a huge World War II Liberator bomber! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: At Otay Mesa, in 1883, John Joseph Montgomery made the first flight in a heavier-than-air craft 20 years before the Wrights. Montgomery made many more glider flights before accepting a professorship at Santa Clara College, where he continued his interest in aviation.
OTHER TIDBITS: Mr. Montgomery got his inspiration from watching a part-blimp, part-motored aircraft called the Avitor Hermes, Jr. in 1869. His first aircraft, which he tested here at Otay Mesa in 1883, was a wing-flapping monoplane glider that failed terribly! The next year, he tried a curved wing glider with hinged wing surfaces that maintained lateral balance and performed much better! Over the next 27 years, Mr. Montgomery refined and designed gliders, some being launched by balloon and others from hilltops! The publicity from these events drew public attention to the very real possibility that humans would one day fly like the birds! Mr. Montgomery himself never lived to see actual powered flight, though, dying in a glider crash on Halloween, 1911! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: Montgomery-Walker Park NE corner of Coronado Ave and Beyer Blvd South San Diego, CA 92154 ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~132mi (213km) — 2.2hrs |
| When should I go? | Whenever the mood strikes you! |
