Spotted in the skies of Detroit, 1929-33

A few days earlier, on Oct. 22, the Graf Zeppelin had transmitted the first program ever broadcast from a zeppelin in flight, thanks in part to a short-wave enthusiast from Detroit. A Mr. Taylor called The Detroit News Radio department and told the engineer on duty that he heard the signal from the zeppelin. The information was relayed to NBC in New York, and several hours later, the program was heard over the NBC network.

When the Zeppelin Company was asked to fly the ship to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, the company had one condition: that the United States issue a special commemorative stamp and share the postal revenue with the company. The U.S. Post Office already had issued three zeppelin stamps, but reluctantly agreed.

When the Graf Zeppelin flew over Detroit and other U.S. cities, it always moved in a clockwise pattern so that people would see only the stripes of the tricolor German flag on the starboard fin, and not the swastika flag painted on the port fin — a symbol of the new Nazi government in Berlin. The Detroit News airplane flew on the starboard side of the zeppelin as it circled over downtown Detroit on Oct. 26, 1933.

Accompanying the Graf Zeppelin on its flight to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair was a U.S. Navy zeppelin, the Akron, seen above. It flies over downtown Detroit on Oct. 26, 1933.

Beginning in 1925, The Detroit News launched a balloon race to encourage ballooning and to increase knowledge of upper air conditions, essential to the development of commercial aviation. This was the 1931 race, beginning on July 25. The balloons contained enough gas for 18-24 hours of flight.

A crowd gathered at Ford Field in Dearborn for the start of the race. Members of the Women's Aeronautics Association of Detroit gave bouquets and boxed lunches to the pilots.

Entries in the 1931 race included the Detroit Balloon Club, WJR radio, the Cleveland Balloon Club, world record-setter Highball III, and Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. Each launched in 5-minute intervals from Ford Field in Dearborn. The balloon that flew the longest distance would be declared the winner.

All of the balloons made flights of 130-220 miles. The longest flight was by Detroit Balloon Club No. 2, which landed in Option, Pa., near Pittsburgh, just two miles farther than the WJR balloon, which landed near Marietta, Ohio. The winner received a $400 cash prize and possession of The News' Ballooning Trophy.

Before helicopters, there was a hybrid invention, the autogiro, basically an airplane with an unmotorized four-bladed rotor on top that aided vertical lift. The Detroit News bought the first autogiro to be flown commercially in the world, and demonstrated it on Feb. 15, 1931 at Detroit’s City Airport. This photograph, taken from The Detroit News' Lockheed airplane, shows the new autogiro hovering over the airport.

Thousands of spectators flocked to City Airport to get a look at the strange flying machine on Feb. 16, 1931.

Powered by a 300-horsepower Wright engine, the autogiro could take off in less than 125 feet and climb nearly straight up. It could hover like a helicopter, or fly at 123 miles per hour.

As it descends, the autogiro comes almost straight down, and could be landed within a circle 50 feet in diameter.

People packed the hangar at Detroit City Airport after the Feb. 16, 1931 demonstration for a closer look at The News' autogiro and Lockheed plane.

Detroit Mayor Frank Murphy, right, was one of the first passengers to fly in The Detroit News autogiro. Above, he is prepared for the trip by Frank Byerley, the newspaper's aviation pilot.

"It marks a new epoch in aviation," Mayor Murphy said after his trip, and insisted on flying again.

C.J Faulkner, left, was the test pilot for Pitcairn Aircraft, Inc., who flew the autogiro to Detroit from the factory in Philadelphia and piloted the new plane during its first exhibition in Detroit. William E. Scripps, president of The Detroit News, was a pilot himself and an aviation enthusiast. Frank Byerley, right, would be the Detroit-based pilot of the autogiro.

Detroit News photographer William A. Kuenzel, left, and pilot Frank Byerley would make dozens of flights in the autogiro, which could fly lower and slower than an airplane and provide the opportunity for superior aerial photos.

Photographer William A. Kuenzel holds his gimbal-mounted camera that was both stable and maneuverable in flight.

On Feb. 14, 1931, The Detroit News autogiro took a flight over Wildwood Farms in Lake Orion, owned by William E. Scripps, president of The Detroit News, which his father founded. The farmland was purchased in 1916 and the Norman and Tudor style mansion was completed in 1927.

The Scripps mansion has been a retreat center for the Catholic church since the 1950s. The rest of the farmland is now parkland, the Bald Mountain Recreation Area and Canterbury Village shopping center.

Despite the appearance of impending doom, we have no record of the autogiro flying into the radio tower of the Penobscot building.

The shadow of the autogiro crosses in front of a freighter on the Detroit River in 1931.

The autogiro flies over WWJ radio towers in Detroit on Feb. 16, 1931. The radio station was started by The Detroit News. The tower at left is on The News' building at 615 W. Lafayette; the one at right was on top of the newspaper's parking garage. Both rose 265 feet above street level.

The autogiro flies over downtown Detroit on Feb. 16, 1931. The aircraft was used for news gathering, aerial photography and emergency distribution of papers.

In this photo taken from the autogiro, the darker building with a tower at center was Detroit's Federal Building, which housed the post office, agencies and courts. It opened in 1897 in the block bounded by Lafayette, Shelby, Fort and Washington Boulevard. Too small for a growing 20th century city, the building's demolition began later in 1931.

Some landmarks are still recognizable from the Feb. 16, 1931 flyover of downtown Detroit: Fort Street Presbyterian Church at Third and Fort, and The Detroit News building behind it. Across Third from the church is the Union Depot, with its distinctive clock tower, which stood until 1974.

The autogiro flies in front of the Detroit Yacht Club on Sept. 7, 1931.

Three autogiros fly over the state fairgrounds at Woodward and Eight Mile on Sept. 12, 1931.

The autogiro was heralded as a great advance in aviation, but it was only in service a couple of years. In 1933, the aircraft was given to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

After 700 flights, on Nov. 27, 1933, The Detroit News presented the company's autogiro to the Henry Ford Museum. Posing with the autogiro at Ford Airport are, from left, an unidentified pilot, Detroit News aeronautics editor James V. Piersol, William J. Scripps, Henry Ford, William E. Scripps, Edsel Ford, and Detroit News executives W.S. Gilmore and Herb Ponting.

Army biplanes from Selfridge Field fly over Detroit on Oct. 29, 1930.

The sun shines through the clouds as Selfridge Field airplanes fly over Detroit neighborhoods on Oct. 29, 1930.

Royal Canadian Air Force planes fly in formation not far from Detroit on Oct. 17, 1930.

On Aug. 26, 1929, The Detroit News launched Michigan's first aircraft dedicated to news gathering: a Lockheed Vega, seen here flying over downtown Detroit.

Detroit News employees load the airplane plane with copies of the newspaper in July, 1930.

Inside the Detroit News' airplane, seen in 1929, a shelf supported a typewriter and a darkroom for photo development was set up on the opposite end of the cabin.

The instrument board of The Detroit News' Lockheed Vega airplane, seen in 1929.

Detroit News photographer William A. Kuenzel takes images from inside the Lockheed Vega airplane.

Kuenzel's accommodations were luxurious in 1929 compared to the time he took the first aerial photographs of Detroit in 1912, with William E. Scripps piloting a fragile, Burgess-Wright Flying Boat.

The Lockheed Vega could be fitted with pontoons for water takeoffs and landings.

In winter, the airplane's wheels were replaced with skis.

Selfridge Field pilots fly low over the Detroit riverfront in April 1931. The tallest building on the right is the Penobscot Building, erected in 1928.

The Selfridge Field pursuit planes — years later they would be called fighter planes — fly in formation during a practice run in Detroit on April 12, 1931.

A Buhl single seater sportplane is piloted on Jan. 7, 1931. It must have been cold in that open-air cockpit.

Lionel Stephenson, a parachute jumper of note, drops from a plane at 2,500 feet over Wayne County Airport on April 18, 1931.

On July 6, 1931, this Ford Tri-Motor plane carried mobsters Theodore Pizzino and Angelo Livecchi to prison in Marquette. They were to serve life sentences for second-degree murder in the death of rival gangster William Cannon outside the LaSalle Hotel in Detroit (across Woodward from what is now Little Caesars Arena).

The Goodyear blimp Columbia flies over Ford Airport on July 25, 1931.

Selfridge Field pilots fly in formation in rehearsal for the July 16, 1933 flyover by 24 giant seaplanes from Italy's armed forces. The Italians, fresh from the world's first transatlantic squadron flight, were on their way to Chicago for the Century of Progress exposition.

The Selfridge planes practice for their role, which was to fly with the Italian group from Detroit to Chicago. Detroit's large Italian population had made a successful appeal through the consulate to reroute the Italian squadron through Detroit. Thousands watched and cheered the flyover from the city's streets and rooftops.

Capt. Wolfgang Von Gronau's flying boat 'D' 2053, from Germany, lands on Lake St. Clair in 1933.