bjgreen
Keep those tourists coming to Santa Barbara – by land and sea, and someday by air! (Image: Air Service Journal, January 31, 1918)
By Betsy J. Green
In September 1918, Santa Barbara already had the Lockheed/Loughead brothers with their seaplane giving rides to tourists on the beach, so it was only natural to dream of the next step. “Soon the air tourist will be as common to our sight as the man who today comes popping along in his Ford,” wrote the local paper. “It is predicted … that before another year has elapsed, any aviator with an ordinary powered plane will be able to make a transcontinental flight without difficulty or inconvenience.”
My next Way Back When book — 1918 — will be available in local bookstores in November, and at Amazon.com. This will be the fifth book in my series of the history of Santa Barbara, one year at a time.
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