My dad gave me a burnt envelope for Christmas a couple of years back and I jumped up and down with excitement. For the envelope had been burned when Norman Potter crashed into a tree at the Fort Crook airfield in 1929. The envelope and explanatory note from the Post Office mentioned the date, I found the details in the Omaha World Herald. We all have those things which trigger an incomprehensible and irrational excitement. The envelope happens to be one of mine. And it led to the usual questions, particularly who is Norman Potter? He was not one of my regulars: those pilots mentioned by newspapers time and time again crossing the Great Plains. So the tracking begins.
Potter was born in San Francisco in 1895 to Steven and Elizabeth Potter. His father was a court stenographer/reporter and his family was sufficiently wealthy to employ at least one servant, based on census records. He had a brother who became a doctor and a sister who was serving as a city librarian in 1920. He apparently liked doing puzzles. The San Francisco Chronicle had a childrens’ section, and he is mentioned as one of several winners at least five times between 1901 and 1904. In May of 1913 Potter and his brother attended a Pi Delta Kappa dance. In August of 1915 the family spent some time at Bartlet Springs resort, 100 miles north of San Francisco. When the time came to register for the World War I draft, he was a student at Berkley.
Potter joined the army, and apparently remained in the service until 1926. An 1925 article for the San Francisco Chronicle refers to him as Captain Potter, and a June 1926 article in the Tampa Tribune says that he had been out of the service for a month. According to his tombstone, he reached the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.
After leaving the service, Potter teamed up with World War I Ace Reed Chambers and started Florida Airways, where Potter served as the chief pilot. They had 3 planes and flew between Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville. Later stops were added in places like Macon, Georgia. Potter’s obituary from the Tampa Tribune credits him with being the first pilot federally authorized to fly over the Everglades which he did in 1925. He also joined Miami’s optimist club.
Around 1928, Potter returned to California. If I was writing this as a movie “based on a true story” I would say that he got homesick. He didn’t want to face another Florida summer. He missed his brother. So when he found an opportunity to head west, he took it. I don’t know of course, but not knowing is half the fun.
At any rate, Potter spend a brief period of time working for Western Air Express. In May of 1928 he flew a 12 passenger plane from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than three hours. The plane was equipped with radio, both for the pilots and the passengers. The pilots could communicate with the ground the entire way, and the passengers could get their entertainment radio stations. In June, the San Francisco Chronicle said that he was now working for Boeing. Over the next three years he made several trips for Boeing, including a high profile trip in November of 1928. He took a record 735 pounds of mail along with some VIPS to Chicago for an aeronautical exposition. It was not his only time making the trip, as the crash in Omaha in January 1929 (without passengers) testifies to.
Potter apparently kept his had in other pies as well. In September 1929, he is mentioned as being on the board for Western Aviation, Incorporated.
Unfortunately Potter’s life ended tragically, as many did, in the mountain snows. In November 1931, he was flying from San Francisco to Salt Lake City when he hit a blizzard. He radioed in that everything was fine, but the airport lost contact with him shortly thereafter. The plane was found a couple of days later. Potter had apparently crashed into the ground nose first. Did something break? Did he just become disoriented? Did his instruments fail him? He was married by this time, and either living in Reno or Salt Lake City. But his brother came to help with the funeral arrangements, and Potter returned to San Francisco to be buried.
Potter’s story touches on a lot of important subjects in the “post seat of your pants” flying world. The rise of small airlines, before larger companies gobbled them up. The development of radio communication. The move from military to civilian flying. And the reminder that although flying was continually getting safer, tragedy could still occur…especially in the winter. Flying was safer, but there remained more to be done.
Tracking Aviation's Trailblazers 
Leave a comment