Jane Rice, author of ‘Bob Fogg and New Hampshire’s Golden Age of Aviation’ visited the Aviation Museum of N.H. on Thursday, Aug. 7 for a book-signing and presentation on the pioneering Granite State pilot.
Attendees returned to a time 100 years ago when the sound of an aircraft engine overhead was a cause for excitement, when an airplane ride over Lake Winnipesaukee was the thrill of a lifetime, and a trip to the Weirs to see the floatplanes take off and land was a high point of the summer season.
Published in 2012, Rice’s book about Bob Fogg has become a well-known resource for info about one of the Granite State’s most notable early aviation pioneers.
Rice’s research for the book began with the knowledge that her grandfather, Thomas E.P. Rice, a World War I aviator, flew at the Weirs in the 1930s, just down the hill from her childhood home on Parade Road in Laconia.
As it turned out, Thomas Rice’s flying partner, Bob Fogg, was the man who brought aviation to the Granite State.
Bob Fogg brought New Hampshire’s first privately-owned airplane, a military surplus biplane trainer built of spruce, linen and wire known as a “Canuck,” to Concord in 1920, and established the airport there.
In 1923, he brought another war surplus airplane, a Curtiss flying boat called a “Seagull” to the Weirs summer resort and flew over the big lake each summer through 1938, carrying over 50,000 passengers, delivering air mail, and training many future aviators.
In an era when airports were few and far between, New Hampshire’s numerous lakes and ponds provided convenient landing areas, and Fogg visited many lakeside resorts around the state.
Other adventures in aviation included flying the mail into Vermont after the massive flooding of 1927 and flying newsreel cameras to Newfoundland and Labrador to record the arrival of the first east-to-west transatlantic flight.
Fogg holds the special distinction of making the first takeoff and landing from what is now Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, on Nov. 25, 1927. Fogg retired in 1957 and died on March 7, 1976.
In the summer of 2011, Rice met Bob Fogg Jr., who generously shared albums of historic snapshots from his father’s career. Combined with Fogg memorabilia at Dartmouth College and other libraries and museums, Jane Rice produced a book that recalls an era of Winnipesaukee and New Hampshire history that has largely been forgotten.
Thanks to her father, Jane Rice was exposed to antique airplanes from a young age. There was a grass airstrip in the backyard of her home in Laconia, and a variety of old airplanes in the hangar over the years.
Although she never learned to fly, Rice has always been interested in the historical side of aviation, which led her to investigate the history of the Weirs Seaplane Base, where her grandfather was in the seaplane business with Bob Fogg in the 1930s.
Rice retired recently after a long tenure of director of the Moultonborough Public Library in Moultonborough, N.H.
About the book
“Bob Fogg and New Hampshire’s Golden Age of Aviation” tells the story of the Granite State’s true pioneer of aviation, and includes many previously unpublished images of airplanes and aviators of the 1920s and 1930s. Bob Fogg brought aviation to Concord and the Weirs in the early ‘20s and he and his pilots introduced flying to a whole generation that grew up in that time period. For those interested in the history of the Lakes Region, it describes the seaplane base that was a prominent feature of the Weirs boardwalk from 1923 until the early 1950s, and the planes that hopped passengers from many lakeside resorts throughout New Hampshire. Classic Wacos, Travel Airs, Beech Staggerwings and Sikorsky amphibians that once plied the blue skies over Lake Winnipesaukee come to life again in the pages of this fascinating history. Copies of the book are on sale in the Aviation Museum’s store.
Photos from the presentation
Many thanks to volunteer Norm Beaudette for these images of Jane Rice and the many slides of her presentation. A video of the talk is posted on our Video Library page..
