Harold R. Harris Papers

Brigadier General Harold R. Harris was born in 1895 in Chicago, Illinois. He moved to Los Angeles, California, early in his life, and in an early example of his love of aviation, he played hooky from school at age 14 to attend the first national aviation meeting at Dominquez Field, Los Angeles, during its run from January 10-20, 1910. He graduated from Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles and the Throop Polytechnic Institute (later known as the California Institute of Technology), where he played three years of varsity football.

In 1916, Harris became Engineering Officer of an Army unit called the "First Provisional Aero Squadron." When the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, he enlisted in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. Shipped out to Foggia, Italy, where he was given three hours of flight training, Harris quickly graduated to flying instructor and then to test pilot of some Caproni bombers being constructed at Milan for the U.S. Navy. He and his co-pilot George Lewis were the first to fly a heavy bomber on reconnaissance missions over the Alps.

After World War I, from 1918 to 1925 Harris served as Test Pilot Chief of Flight Test Research for the Army Air Corps at McCook Field. He played an active role in setting up and operating the first lighted airway, an 80-mile stretch of land between Columbus and Dayton, Ohio. On October 20, 1922, as the first pilot to test a pressurized cabin at McCook Field, Harris, then a Lieutenant became the first pilot in this country to resort to a parachute in an emergency when he bailed out of his disintegrating experimental pursuit plane near Dayton. He thus became a charter member of the Caterpillar Club (so named because the parachute canopy was made of silk). Also during this time, Harris competed in many Aviation meets, and in 1926 held thirteen world flying records.

In the early 1920s, Thomas Huff and Elliott Daland formed a company to manufacture airplanes. In an attempt to sell planes to the U.S. Army Air Services, Huff traveled to Dayton and met Harris. George Post, a World War I naval aviator who had aided the two men in securing contracts, met Dr. Bert Coad of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Louisiana, who had developed a method to control the boll weevil by spreading calcium arsenate powder from an airplane hopper rather than spreading it on the ground. In 1924, Huff persuaded wealthy friends to finance an Airplane Cotton Dusting company and to give the factory an order for the design and construction of twelve dusting airplanes. He then spoke to General Mason Patrick, the head of the Army Air Service, who agreed to give Harris, by that time a Captain, a year's leave to help organize a company to dust cotton. Harris left the Army Air Corps permanently in February 1925, and immediately began recruiting pilots for the dusting company, soon known as Huff-Daland Dusters. C.E. Woolman, (later founder of Delta Airlines of which Harris became at least on paper a vice president) a U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist, soon also joined the company.

In 1926, the dusting company was hired to eliminate the Peruvian army worms that were destroying the cotton crop. Flying along the western coast of South America to locate other areas that needed dusting, Harris began to sketch out the route of a possible airline from the United States to the Panama Canal down the west coast and over the Andes to Buenos Aires. Negotiating with Richard Hoyt, whose company had taken over Huff-Daland, Harris met with Juan Trippe who was planning an airline from Havana to Key West. In 1928, Peruvian Airlines was established with Trippe as president and Harris the vice president. Between 1929 and 1942, when Peruvian Airlines became Pan American-Grace Airlines (PANAGRA), Harris held the positions of Vice-President and Chief Operations Officer. Through careful negotiation with warring governments, the recruitment of skilled air crews, and help from both Pan American and the Grace lines in the acquisition of aircraft and landing sites, Harris was able to oversee the rapid development of the young airline.

In 1942, Harris accepted a commission as Colonel in the Army Air Transport Command, resigning his position with Pan American-Grace Airlines to do so. During World War II, Harris served as Assistant Chief of Staff, Plans; Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations; Commanding Officer of Domestic Transportation Division; and was Chief of Staff if the Air Transport Command, with the rank of Brigadier General when he left the service in 1945 to join American Overseas Airlines.

Harris was Vice President and General Manager for American Overseas Airlines until 1950 when the airline was incorporated into Pan American Airways. Working for Pan American Airways, Harris became Vice President in charge of the Atlantic Division. He remained with Pan American Airlines until 1954 when he resigned his position to become President of Northwest Airlines. Harris was President of Northwest Airlines until he resigned in 1955 due to a combination of ill health and irreconcilable differences between himself and the Northwest Airlines Board of Directors.

For the next decade, Harris was President of Aviation Financial Services, Inc., a company dedicated to helping infant airlines acquire adequate capitalization. He retired in 1965 at the age of 70. After retiring Harris began work on a book of the early days of PANAGRA (Pan American-Grace Airways), however it was never finished and remains unpublished. Harris passed away in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 1989 at the age of 92, leaving two children and five grandchildren.

Decorations which Harris has received are the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Air Medal (U.S.); Commander of the British Empire (Great Britain); Corona di Italia, Fatiche de Guerra (Italy); Abdon Calderon (Ecuador); and Orden del Sol (Peru).