Aero-Linx!

Scouring the information super airways can sometimes be a tough, if educational, task for the Aero-News staff... but it also allows us to check out some truly neat and exciting sites, so it's not that bad a gig. On any given day, we may check dozens (and often hundreds) of different sources for story ideas, and facts confirmation. And, as is the nature of our business, much of this is done on the Internet.

The ANN gang decided we probably shouldn't keep some of the neat sites, info resources, and organizations we've discovered to ourselves... so we decided to bring you Aero-Linx. These are the sites that WE check out -- when we need added perspective, a new spin on a day's topic... or just want to escape into cyber-aero-space for awhile.

Look for some of our favorite sites, coming each day to ANN via Aero-Linx. Suggestions for future Aero-Linx segments are always welcome, as well.

Aero Linx: The Early Birds of Aviation, Inc.

The Early Birds of Aviation, Inc., was an organization of aeronautical pioneers who flew solo before 17 December 1916, which was the thirteenth anniversary of the Wright brothers' groundbreaking flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Justin Gruelle's mural contains not only portraits of many of these aviation pioneers but also their aircraft, and all are depicted with an eye toward detail and historical accuracy that would be difficult to exceed.
Justin Gruelle established his reputation as a muralist by work he did in the 1930s for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. Between 1936 and 1939 he executed several murals exhibited at the New York World's Fair. In 1940 aviation pioneer Clarence A. deGiers commissioned Gruelle, his longtime friend, to do the requisite historical research and then paint four companion murals for the Long Island City, New York, headquarters of the Liquidometer Corporation, which deGiers had founded after World War I to market patents for measuring fuel in aircraft. One of the murals was The Early Birds, painted in oil on stretched canvas and mounted directly on a lobby wall at Liquidometer. Today only The Early Birds.is known to exist; the location of the three other murals is lost to history.

FMI: www.earlyaviators.com