Charles Bernard (aviator)
| Charles E. Bernard | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 29, 1893 Beaverton, Oregon, United States |
| Died | October 7, 1979 (aged 86) Oregon, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Charlie Bernard |
| Occupation | Aviator, businessman |
| Known for | Bernard's Airport |
| Spouse(s) | Vivian (m. 1919–79) |
Charles E. Bernard (July 29, 1893 – October 7, 1979) was an American aviation pioneer who developed Bernard's Airport, in Beaverton, Oregon, United States.
Charles Bernard was born in 1893 in Beaverton, Oregon. He lived on his family's hayfarm in Beaverton, on land that amounted to 60 acres (24 hectares) at least as early as the mid-1920s. He developed an interest in aviation as a teenager. In the mid-1910s, he became friends with some students at the Adcox School of Aviation, in Portland, and after learning that they were assembling an experimental glider, he invited them to his family's hayfield for test flights in which a galloping horse would launch the glider for flights of up to a thousand feet. Bernard's father had been unaware of these activities, which he considered immature and not good preparation for any career, and when he learned of them in 1916, he put a stop to them; the glider strip closed. Bernard finished school and began working as an automobile salesman. He opened a Chevrolet dealership that year, with Elmer Stipe. Until his father's death in 1928, Bernard kept his interest in aviation to himself.
About one-half mile to the south of the Bernard farm, an airfield known as Watts Field was opened around 1926 on the 33-acre (13 ha) former site of Premium Picture Productions (1922–25). Beaverton's second airfield began to take shape in 1928, as Charles Bernard erected the first hangar along what is now Cedar Hills Blvd. (then Cedar Street), to the northwest of the center of Beaverton. As Watts Field began to run out of space for expansion, the nearby field that had come to be known as Bernard's Airport grew. In 1932, Watts Airport was still the larger of the two, occupying 60 acres (24 ha) of land, with 10 airplanes based there (and room for 40 aircraft), and was the third-busiest of nine airports then operating in the Portland metropolitan area, while Bernard's Airport occupied 30 acres (12 ha) and had only three aircraft based there at that time. Both were privately owned, non-commercial airports.
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