HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) – The Western Maryland city of Hagerstown is marking 100 years of aviation history.
Mayor David Gysberts is proclaiming this the centennial year of the aviation industry at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.
The celebration continues Saturday with an airplane show at the Hagerstown Regional Airport.
Airplane manufacturing in Hagerstown dates to 1916, when the Maryland Pressed Steel Co. began making the Bellanca C.D.
An employee of that company helped found another airplane manufacturer that became Fairchild Aircraft after it was acquired in 1929 by a New York firm.
Fairchild’s military contracts made Hagerstown a thriving center of airplane manufacturing from World War II into the 1950s. The work tailed off until Fairchild ended production in 1984.
The Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics now trains aviation technicians at the airport.
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