The presentation by J.D. Clarke scheduled for Thursday, May 8 has been postponed to a future date. When it gets rescheduled, we’ll update the listing. Below is the description of the planned program. We apologize for any inconvenience.
What do you do when you’ve put time and effort into researching the early years of aviation, including spending many hours seeking out and interviewing flyers from the early decades of flying?
You don’t keep it to yourself. You talk about it, and have it recorded for posterity! And that’s just what longtime Aviation Museum of N.H. member J.D. Clarke will do in a presentation called ‘First Person History’ on Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Aviation Museum.
As far back as the 1980s, Clarke, now a retired pilot for Trans World Airlines, sought out veteran pilots from the first decades of aviation to record interviews about their experiences, with a special focus on early instrument flying. Among his subjects: legendary pilot Jimmy Doolittle, whom Clarke cornered in his office in San Francisco without an appointment near the end of the famed flyer’s life.
However, in a turn of events that Clarke will recount during his presentation, the recordings are now no longer available to him, and may be lost for good..
So join Clarke on Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m. as he recounts the stories and memories that were told to him from pilots who were among the first to fly using instruments, and many other adventures, in what we’re billing as a special ‘interactive’ lecture and presentation. Part of our ‘Exploring Aviation’ lecture series, the program is open to the public. Members are admitted free; non-members $10 per person.
The program is ‘interactive’ because Clarke will encourage attendees to question and quiz him about his knowledge of aviation history, which will help him bring out stories and lore that he otherwise might not cover. We’ll all help him remember! And the whole thing will be recorded for posterity, preserving some of Clarke’s extensive first-person knowledge of a vanished era of flying.