 |
| By Carmelo Turdo |
 |
"Chub" Wheeler with son Jim and
Daughter Mary Kay
|
 |
"Chub" Wheeler with Mark and Elaine Harter
|
 |
Mark Harter taxis out from the museum ramp with "Chub" Wheeler,
son Jim and daughter Mary Kay
|
Flight in the 1937 Waco YKS-7 over St. Louis:
 |
Guests gather around the Lockheed Jetstar once owned by
Howard Hughes
|
 |
Museum Founders "Chub" Wheeler and Fred Roos
|
 |
Birthday cake with Ford Trimotor topping
|
 |
Wheeler receives photo of Union Electric Ford Trimotor that he serviced
as a line boy in the early 1930s at Curtiss-Steinberg Airport
|
The following biography was prepared by Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum President Mark Nankivil for "Chub" Wheeler's nomination to the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame:
Carl “Chub” Elliott Wheeler
- Born
October 1, 1911 in Murphysboro, IL
- Moved to
East St. Louis, IL (Chub’s father was a railroad engineer with the M&O)
after the 1925 Tri-State Tornado nearly destroyed all of Murphysboro, IL,
killing 450 people there.
- In 1928,
Parks Air College opens and construction of Curtiss-Steinberg Airport starts
(full operations in 1930) in East St. Louis, IL (now Cahokia, IL)
- Chub earns
his flight instructor’s certificate and teaches his first student, Roy Crouse,
in an OX-5 powered Travel Air 2000, NC6085.
- Chub and
partner Bill Hart set up a flying school at Curtiss-Steinberg and used the
Curtiss Robin to offer flying lessons during weekends (while continuing to work
at Mobil Oil during the week), putting 400 hours on the Robin before selling it
in 1939 to purchase a Luscombe 8F. In
May, 1939, Chub had 555:15 hour total flying time, earned his ATP rating by
1940 and by May, 1941, had a total of 1,617:45 hours in his logbooks.
- In 1940, Chub and Bill Hart move their flying school
to Lakeside Airport (near Collinsville, Illinois) when Parks Air College
expanded its pilot training to Curtiss-Steinberg Airport as part of the expansion
of the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), which was created in response to
the impending war in Europe. Before
long, Chub closed his flying school and went to work at Parks Air College as a
flight instructor. Over 37,000 cadets
passed through the program at Parks operated facilities, including
Curtiss-Steinberg, with 24,000 becoming commissioned pilots during the war.
- With the
declaration of war after the attack at Pearl Harbor, Chub, as a civilian
instructor, was drafted into the Army Reserves.
This was done by the military to keep the civilian instructors from leaving
to join the Army Air Corps and going off to the war fronts. Their assigned rank was one rank above the
students they were instructing. Post
war, their inactive reserve status kept them from receiving any of the benefits
provided to active duty military personnel.
- Chub was a
primary flight instructor throughout the war and served at all four of Parks Air
College flight schools during the war, at the end of the war being responsible
for operating the flight school at Cape Girardeau, MO. Aircraft types he flew for
training were the PT-13, PT-17, PT-19 and PT-23. Chub was flight leader for the “Thunderbolts”
which was a demonstration team showing off the capabilities of the flight trainers
being used at the time.
- After the
war was over, Chub came back to East St. Louis to become the Airport Manager at
Curtiss-Steinberg (later called Parks-Metropolitan) Airport during 1946 and
1947.
- Chub
became a corporate pilot in 1948, first with the Monsanto Company flying
Douglas DC-3s and Beech D-18s for the President of the Board of Directors. After Monsanto downsized their staffing, Chub
went to work for Peabody Coal flying DC-3s and later, worked for the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch flying the DC-3 there as well.
When the Post-Dispatch transitioned to new equipment in the late ‘50s,
Chub retired from corporate flying and went to work for the Defense Mapping
Agency, Aeronautical Chart and Information Service, and finished his flying
career with them.
- Chub flew
until he gave up his medical at the age of 92, the last aircraft he personally owned
being a 1946 Fairchild 24. Total flying
time in his career was over 15,000 hours.
- Aircraft Chub has owned include the Curtiss Robin, Fairchild 22, Travel Air J-5 Speedwing, BT-13s, PT-23, J-3 Cubs, Piper Pacer, Aeronca Champ, Aeronca 7AC, and his final aircraft, a 1946 Ranger powered Fairchild 24.
