| LAKELAND TAKES TO THE AIR: EARLY AVIATION HISTORY OF THE CITY
| | Lakelanders George Haldeman and Ruth
Elder in front of the "American Girl"
readying for their transatlantic flight
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INTRODUCTION
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The City of Lakeland has a long and proud aviation history. Most residents of the city are aware of the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport, the modern, municipally owned airport in south Lakeland. The airport is nationally and internationally known as the home of the Sun 'n Sun Fly-in, that annual celebration of aviation and aircraft that takes place every Spring.
Few people today, however, are aware that Lakeland Linder had a previous incarnation as Lakeland Army Air Field. It was home to a variety of squadrons of B-17's, B-24's and P-51 Mustangs. Fewer still are aware that Tiger Town, the current spring training home of the Detroit Tigers, once bustled with American and British cadets eager to learn the basics of flying to serve in their respective air forces in World War II. Even fewer still are aware that Lakeland was home to a male and female pair of flyers who, in 1927, made a much publicized, if ultimately unsuccessful, attempt at a transatlantic flight only months after Charles Lindbergh's successful solo flight.
The small exhibit which follows documents in words and pictures Lakeland's early flirtation with aviation in the years before World War II. The following collections have records relating to the training of pilots in Lakeland during World War II:. Albert I. Lodwick Papers, the Albert I. Lodwick Photo Collection, and the Lodwick/Photo Memorabilia Collection.
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