Lincoln Park Airport

425 Beaver Brook Road

Lincoln Park, NJ

“NJ In the Great War; Our Native Sons in the Air”

Featuring noted aviation historian, Mike O’Neal.

Our February MAPA meeting will feature noted aviation historian Mike O’Neal.  Mike will be presenting a 45 minute slide presentation entitled “NJ In the Great War; Our Native Sons in the Air”.  The presentation follows the careers of eight New Jersey natives who served in the Air Services of the Allied nations during WW I.  Because the US Air Service was ill prepared for the War, many US citizens enlisted in the Air Services of the Allied nations.  NJ residents served with the Royal Flying Corps & Royal Naval Air Service, (later combined into the Royal Air Force), Italian Air Service, French Air Service, US Signal Corps and US Naval Air Service.  Many of these early volunteers later transferred to the US Air Service to provide an experienced core of pilots for our own squadrons then arriving in France.

The presentation accompanies an exhibit currently at the NJ Aviation Hall of Fame at Teterboro, NJ which includes original aviation uniforms and memorabilia dedicated to the 8 pilots  in the presentation.  The exhibit closes on Sunday , February 11, 2001.

Our speaker, Mike O’Neal, is no stranger to aviation history and aviation art.  His interest in early aviation, particularly WW I Aviation goes back to his childhood.  Mike started flying at age 16 (two years before he took his driving test!) and while still flying as a student pilot, he began interviewing surviving WW I pilots.  He then earned his Private ticket when he was 18 and decided to compile the biographies of all the NJ pilot/observer residents who served in the Air Service in WW I. The project which started with 35 names has grown to over 630 biographies.   He is hoping to have these published in the next two years.

Mike is also an artist member of the American Society of Aviation Artists and is fortunate to have earned awards for some of his WW I paintings, including: 1997 Best of Show ASAA International Show, Seattle, Washington; 1997 Simuflite Horizons of Flight Competition; 1997,1998 and 1999 Thorton Hooper Award for best WW I  artwork from the League of WW I Aviation Historians; 1998 Award of Merit, Simuflite show and 2000 Par Excellence Award, EAA Aviation Art competition.  His paintings have been published in several magazines, including Aviation History and Over the Front, and as book covers in the US and Soviet Union.   Today, his artwork focuses primarily on NJ natives and their excellent combat record during WW I.

Currently Mike is the ASAA Scholarship Chairman and on their Board of Trustees, he’s a Chairman on the NJ Aviation History Subcommittee of the NJ Aviation Advisory Council and Director of the Princeton Flying Corps Foundation.

This will be a very enjoyable presentation and we are pleased that Mike has volunteered to share this with the MAPA membership.