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 When
we think of aviation, the names of Orville and
Wilbur Wright come to mind immediately. These
brothers are credited with making the first flight
with a heavier-thanair- machine. They accomplished
this phenomenal feat on December 14, 1903, near Kill
Devil Hill, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Three days later, on December 17, 1903, the Wright
brothers accomplished their most successful flight
of that year. Their plane flew for fifty-nine
seconds and traveled eight hundred and fifty-two
feet in the air. This experiment convinced the
brothers they had finally solved the problem of
flight. One month prior to this date construction
began on the Apache Trail below the Roosevelt Dam
site in the Box Canyon of the Salt River. This
sixty-two mile road would require almost two years
too build.
Sixteen years later, shortly after the end of World
War I, a Wilbur Wright was traveling around the
country demonstrating the ability of airplanes. It
was about this time a transportation entrepreneur
named Wesley Hill wanted to start an airline in
Arizona between Globe and Phoenix. Hill knew very
little about airplanes, but he had been involved in
motor transportation since 1910 in Arizona.
Hill, a transportation entrepreneur, owned and
operated the Apache Trail Auto State Company and was
interested in developing and promoting business
associated with aviation. Hill formed the Apache
Trail Aerial Transportation Company in December of
1918. He convinced men like Lt. D.S. Bushnell, a
retired U.S. Air Service aeronautical engineer and
Lt. J.F. Casey, a retired U.S. Army Air Service
pilot to become pilots in his new company.
Hill and J. Robinson Hall were convinced they could
operate an aerial stage service between Globe and
Phoenix and they convinced Arizonians to invest in
the aerial stage line. They planned on using a
converted Handley- Page bomber to transport
passengers and cargo along their line.
 The
Handley-Page was powered by two 400 hp Liberty
engines. Hill and Hall were convinced they could
open the skyways over Arizona. Their advertisements
of the day claimed a flight from Phoenix to Los
Angeles would require only three hours and a flight
to Globe from Phoenix would only require about an
hour.
Hall and Hill released stock in their new company
and the periodicals were filled with their
advertisements about aerial transportation in
Arizona and the Southwest. Sometime around the
middle of February 1919, Hall and Hill traveled to
New York to purchase their Handley-Page aircraft.
Once in New York they attended an U.S. Air Service
reunion and heard a lot of praise about the safety
record of the Handley-Page aircraft. Hall and Hill
flew in the Handley- Page and further supported the
testimony of the Air Service pilots. Hill pointed
out the 12,000 pound aircraft landed at 35 mph and
was extremely easy to control in flight. They
announced that the aircraft would be on its way West
within two weeks. Hill announced the Apache Aero
Line would start service on August 1, 1919, and the
story appeared in the Arizona Gazette on April 3,
1919.
While following the history of Arizona’s first
aerial transportation company, I noticed in the
Arizona Gazette another article where Wesley Hill
sold his Apache Trail Stage Line to another company
named Union Auto Transportation for $10,000. Hill
had pioneered the Apache Trail Auto Stage Line some
seven years prior.
Wesley Hill and Robinson Hall worked long and
tedious hours promoting their aerial transportation
company, but it never became a reality. Hill and
Hall reminded anyone who would listen that a flight
from Globe to Phoenix required less than an hour.
The company’s stock never sold like Hall and Hill
believed it would and the company eventuallyfaded
into obscurity.
While researching the aerial transport history of
Arizona I came across the following story. On June
16, 1919, the following article appeared in the
Arizona Gazette.
"Makes Record Flight over Apache Trail -
Piloted by Lieut. Wilbur Wright a Curtiss
plane came Saturday from Globe, making a record
flight of 100 miles in 52 minutes. Capt. F.L.
Darrow was a passenger. The flight was made
without incident over the beautiful scenery of
the mountains traversed by the Apache Trail.
Lieut. Wright made a flight up to Globe last
Tuesday, accompanied by a man from the local
recruiting station. During the short time spent
in the mining town an intensive recruiting
campaign gained nine applications for the air
service.
The landing Saturday was made in the small
oval field within the race track at the fair
grounds, as the larger field used by airplanes
previously is under irrigation at the present.”
 Ironically
this flight was not piloted by the famous Wilbur
Wright who first flew at Kitty Hawk Hill on December
17, 1903. Apparently it was another Wilbur Wright
who piloted the plane along the Apache Trail. Wilbur
Wright would have never piloted a Curtiss plane
according to aviation historians and secondly Wilbur
Wright had passed away by this time. Wesley Hill and
J Robinson Hall dreamed of flight across the Arizona
skies a decade to early. Wilbur Wright proved them
correct about the one hour flying time between Globe
and Phoenix. Did Hill and Robinson take advantage of
the fact Wright was in Arizona to demonstrate his
airplane? The answer to this question we will
probably never know. This story adds an interesting
transcript to the history of Arizona aviation, the
Apache Trail and the Superstition Mountain region in
general.
Many of the Handley-Pages were converted to
passenger planes after World War I. The aero company
originally built bombers for the British Navy during
World War I and after the war produced commercial
aircraft by converting the Handley-Page 400. The
plane capable of carrying 14 passengers.. However
none of Handley-Page aircraft saw service in
Arizona. Wesley A. Hill’s dream of commercial air
transportation between Globe and Phoenix never
became a reality until years later. Today, private
aircraft do fly from Cutter Airfield east of Globe
to Phoenix.
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