HENRY DORA -1977

Dora & Wright Plane, 1912

Henry Dora

 

NEW MEMBERS      Henry Dora is presently retired from active business and resides at 302 Woodside Avenue, Essexville, Michigan. He started in the aviation field as a mechanic, working for Lionel DeRemer and trading his services for flying instructions. As a result he made his first solo flight in August, 1912 on the Curtiss Farm which is now the site of the James Clements Airport, Bay City, Michigan.      He continued to fly, and after service in World War I in the Field Artillery, he bought a war surplus Jenny and made a career in aviation. From then on he did barnstorming in the Michigan area and operated a flying school while helping to build the James Clements Airport. He was manager of that airport for 15 years and did much to promote aviation in the Bay City region. He later operated a machine shop for eight years.      Mr. Dora holds Pilot's License 3695, Airplanes and Engine License 1796, Federation Aeronautique Internationale License 6499 and Flight Instructor's License F-9 From The Early Birds of Aviation CHIRP, April, 1958, Number 59

 

Administration Building at Bay City's James Clements Memorial Airport 614 River Road, Bay City, Mi. 48708 (Doug Dodge, Manager) Courtesy of Geraldine Higgs, 1-20-04

 

OSCAR F. WESTOVER MAJOR GENERAL U.S. ARMY JULY 23, 1883 - SEPTEMBER 21, 1938 This is one example of about 135 photos of Bay County Military Pilots, from WW I to Desert Storm, which are in arranged in two rows around the circumference of the main room in the Administration building. Geraldine Higgs

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Henry Dora +aviation", using the Google search engine, (1-20-04), you will find about 9 links. Perhaps the most helpful is the following.

 

JAMES CLEMENTS MEMORIAL AIRPORT      From this field in 1912, Bay County's first pilot, Lionel DeRemer (FAI License No. 115), flew his Wright "B" Pusher plane, the fifteenth built by Orville and Wilbur Wright. One of Lionel's students was Henry Dora, another Early Bird.      You can read the whole interesting full story by clicking on the title above.

 

RECOMMENDED READING

ALOFT! BAY COUNTY MICHIGAN PIONEER FLYERS, FLIGHTS & AIRFIELDS 1912-1962   BY GERALDINE T. HIGGS   Product Details Hard Cover: 220 pages List Price: $18.87

In addition to stories about Lionel DeRemer, you will find vignettes of other local figures including Henry Dora, Hulda Mueller and ex-World War II pilot Harry Smiley.      The book is published by the Bay County Historical Society and may be obtained directly from Museum Store of the Historical Museum of Bay County by clicking on the name. To find the book entry, you can scroll down to nearly the bottom of the page. Ordering instructions will be found near the top.

 

MUSEUM RESOURCES via email from Geraldine Higgs, 12,11,03 Dear Ralph, I am so IMPRESSED with your web site! Imagine getting all that information available to the public. Thanks so much for doing it.      You wil be interested to know that we have an audio tape that was made on the 50th anniversary of flight. It is an interview with Lionel in which he describes, among other things, buying his plane from Orville and Wilbur in Dayton. We have also made a video tape about the history of James Clements with some film clips in it. There are several pictures of Henry Dora. Any discrepencies with your history are too minor to mention. Keep up the good work.      There is at the airport my collection of 125 8X10 framed photos of Bay County Military Pilots- from WW I to Desert Storm, plus artifacts of Henry, and Lionel. Just thought you'd like to know! Best wishes, Gerry

 

 

Henry Dora died in 1977 From The Early Birds of Aviation ROSTER, 1996   Back