ALABAMA AVIATION HALL OF FAME
ED LONG
On June 23rd, 19 89 Ed long broke the world record of 52,929:40 for total flying time at the controls of an airplane. He is still flying more than 100 hours each month and now has well over 53,400 flying hours. Every time he flies, he breaks his own world record.
Ed was born on November 10, 19 15 in Montgomery, where he has lived since then except for military service time during WWII. He started flying in 193 3 at age 17, soloed in 1936 after accumulating a grand total of one hour forty minutes of instruction in an E-2 Cub. During his time as a flight instructor, charter pilot and patrol pilot he has had three forced landings and has never damaged an airplane, which is another pretty good record since most of his flying has been below two hundred feet above the ground. A story that has followed him throughout his career is about his first attempt to fly. He strapped his mother's ironing board on his shoulders and rode his bicycle down the Sayre Street hill as fast as he could get it to go, but it never did get off the ground. Ed says this is not true, it wasn't an ironing board...it was just a plank. Today, assuming an average speed of 95 miles per hour, he has flown more than five million miles. He has spent 2,224 twenty four hour days flying, which is more than six years.
Ed long has seen, and in many cases been a part of all the history of aviation in Montgomery and the South since the early thirties and can recall most of it from memory and in detail. After solo he continued to fly and do maintenance work at Gunter field, where he qualified for membership in the very exclusive OX-5 club. He later became State President of this organization. To qualify one must have either worked on or flown an OX-5 powered aircraft before 1940. Ed long had done both. Turned down for flight training at the beginning of WWII because of his weight (he only weighed slightly over a hundred pounds) he wound up serving his country as a mechanic, later an inspector and then as Crew Chief on a B-24. He was discharged from the U. S. Army Air Corps in October of 1945 and three days later went to work as a pilot and mechanic at the Norman Bridge airport. Except for a very short leave of absence he has been employed by the same company and has been a part owner and Vice President of Montgomery Aviation
As a boy he built model airplanes, ten foot kites which he flew with a rope and once sent the family puppy up on a kite. Long has flown most of the modern light planes and many that we now consider antiques, such as the Curtis Robin, the J-5 Travelair and the Golden Eagle.
He has served three times as President of the Montgomery Air Safety Council and has been active in the Montgomery Aero Club, Quiet Birdmen, Silver Wings Club and is a member of the National Aeronautics Association, thru his company he has been affiliated with the National Business Aircraft Association, the National Aviation Trades Association and the United States, state and local Chambers of Commerce. He is married to the former Frances Meriwether Flinn, has a son, a daughter and one granddaughter.
Ed long never planned to attain the world record for flying time. He just loves to fly and has never missed an opportunity to do so. We'll bet that he will be flying more than a hundred hours a month for many more years and we'll bet that no one will ever come within striking distance of the record that will ultimately be his.
Ed was born on November 10, 19 15 in Montgomery, where he has lived since then except for military service time during WWII. He started flying in 193 3 at age 17, soloed in 1936 after accumulating a grand total of one hour forty minutes of instruction in an E-2 Cub. During his time as a flight instructor, charter pilot and patrol pilot he has had three forced landings and has never damaged an airplane, which is another pretty good record since most of his flying has been below two hundred feet above the ground. A story that has followed him throughout his career is about his first attempt to fly. He strapped his mother's ironing board on his shoulders and rode his bicycle down the Sayre Street hill as fast as he could get it to go, but it never did get off the ground. Ed says this is not true, it wasn't an ironing board...it was just a plank. Today, assuming an average speed of 95 miles per hour, he has flown more than five million miles. He has spent 2,224 twenty four hour days flying, which is more than six years.
Ed long has seen, and in many cases been a part of all the history of aviation in Montgomery and the South since the early thirties and can recall most of it from memory and in detail. After solo he continued to fly and do maintenance work at Gunter field, where he qualified for membership in the very exclusive OX-5 club. He later became State President of this organization. To qualify one must have either worked on or flown an OX-5 powered aircraft before 1940. Ed long had done both. Turned down for flight training at the beginning of WWII because of his weight (he only weighed slightly over a hundred pounds) he wound up serving his country as a mechanic, later an inspector and then as Crew Chief on a B-24. He was discharged from the U. S. Army Air Corps in October of 1945 and three days later went to work as a pilot and mechanic at the Norman Bridge airport. Except for a very short leave of absence he has been employed by the same company and has been a part owner and Vice President of Montgomery Aviation
As a boy he built model airplanes, ten foot kites which he flew with a rope and once sent the family puppy up on a kite. Long has flown most of the modern light planes and many that we now consider antiques, such as the Curtis Robin, the J-5 Travelair and the Golden Eagle.
He has served three times as President of the Montgomery Air Safety Council and has been active in the Montgomery Aero Club, Quiet Birdmen, Silver Wings Club and is a member of the National Aeronautics Association, thru his company he has been affiliated with the National Business Aircraft Association, the National Aviation Trades Association and the United States, state and local Chambers of Commerce. He is married to the former Frances Meriwether Flinn, has a son, a daughter and one granddaughter.
Ed long never planned to attain the world record for flying time. He just loves to fly and has never missed an opportunity to do so. We'll bet that he will be flying more than a hundred hours a month for many more years and we'll bet that no one will ever come within striking distance of the record that will ultimately be his.