Twice a year during the Wings and Wheels Fly-In in Kingsbury, World War I-era aircraft with deep-throated engines fill the sky at the Old Kingsbury Aerodrome. Biplanes, triplanes, and other airplanes land on the grassy airstrip while volunteers dressed in early 20th-century clothing drive antique Ford Model Ts, Indian motorcycles, and Triumph motorbikes around the 75-acre property.
The free gatherings, held in the spring and fall, come courtesy of the Pioneer Flight Museum, a nonprofit located on the aerodrome’s grounds that’s dedicated to aircraft and other vehicles built between the period before the Wright Brothers’ historic flight (1903) and just before World War II. For owner Roger Freeman, that was aviation’s most exciting period.
“There really was quite a lot of aviation before the Wright Brothers, but they were the first powered controlled flight,” Freeman says while walking me through the museum’s main showroom, itself a piece of Texas aviation history. Originally the frame from a pre-World War I hangar at San Antonio’s Dodd Army Airfield (then at Fort Sam Houston), it houses restored and reproduced classic military and civilian planes, including an original 1917 Thomas Morse S-4C Scout. Colloquially called a “Tommy,” it’s remembered as “America’s First Fighter Plane.”
Freeman, who dreamed of having an aviation history museum when he was a child, explains that most WWI aircraft were sold as surplus after the war. “I love these old planes because there are not many left,” he says. “The movies saved a lot of them. Hell’s Angels [1930] and Dawn Patrol [1938] used a bunch of surplus airplanes.”
Growing up in Torrance, California, Freeman shared a passion for aviation history with his father, an airline pilot who restored old airplanes as a hobby. Freeman was flying solo by age 16, and after high school, he went to work for one of Hollywood’s top stunt pilots, Frank Tallman. He traveled with him to Texas in 1973 for the production of The Great Waldo Pepper (1975).
Set between 1926 and 1931, the movie stars Robert Redford as an ex-WWI pilot scratching out a living by stunt-flying for small town crowds, often called barnstorming. Tallman designed the aerial sequences, filmed at Zuehl Airfield near San Antonio, while Freeman helped build and service the planes used throughout the production, which also filmed in Lockhart, Seguin, and Elgin.
After returning to California and completing aircraft mechanics school, Freeman flew commercially but never shook those fond Texas memories. “I got furloughed from one of the airlines and decided I was gonna chase my dream,” he says.
Freeman moved to the Guadalupe County town of Zuehl in 1979 to begin building and restoring vintage aircraft. In 1997, he purchased the 75-acre site, 25 minutes away in Kingsbury, to expand his business, Vintage Aviation Services, and establish a permanent museum. It’s also where he lives now with his partner, Charlotte Parker. A few years after settling in, Freeman began hosting fly-ins.
Bill Dawson of Barbarosa has been visiting the museum since it opened. He grew up with similar interests for building planes with his father. “My dad did a lot of machine work for Roger,” says Dawson, pointing out the specific challenges of restoring pre-World War II aircraft. “You can’t buy any of those old pieces; you’ve got to build every piece. Roger’s got an extensive library where he can research parts for any old airplane. He’s an excellent airplane builder.”
Dawson’s a good judge, too: In 1997 his hand-built Hatz Classic biplane was awarded Grand Champion of America’s preeminent airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Also a vintage car enthusiast, Dawson and his car club are regular aerodrome visitors because Freeman also restores and displays early 20th-century terrestrial vehicles.
Kurt Maurer of League City visited the museum in 2009 to see Freeman’s hand-built replica of a 1917 Fokker DR, the triplane of Germany’s Manfred von Richthofen, the “Red Baron,” but he left thrilled by another vehicle. “They taught me to drive a Model T—it blew me away,” he says. “The aircraft attracted me, but the Model Ts cemented the deal.” He’s been volunteering at the museum ever since.
After showing me the museum’s Willys-Overland Whippet and Model A, Mauer drives me around in his 1923 Model T Runabout, which he rebuilt piece-by-piece. The cylinder, 20-horsepower engine chugs deeply and smoothly.
Freeman still occasionally works behind the scenes for the entertainment industry, including providing Model Ts for the Yellowstone spinoff 1923, which filmed in Lockhart this past summer. There is one movie, however, where Freeman went in front of the camera. He shows it to me in his office.
On-screen appears a 1910 wood-and-aluminum biplane with fabric-covered wings. Known as a Farman III, it’s the first heavier-than-air plane to fly into Hong Kong, in 1911. After meticulously reproducing every detail himself in Texas, Freeman disassembled the plane, reassembled it in Hong Kong, and made a commemorative flight in November 1997 at the Chek Lap Kok airport. He’s right there at the stick in the exposed pilot’s seat, the wooden propeller chops the air behind him. There are no close-ups, but from the ground it’s easy to spot Freeman’s smile—nearly as wide as the 40-foot wingspan of the box kite-configured Farman. (The plane remains on display at the Hong Kong International Airport.)
Because the movie is a personal digitized copy of a VHS tape, it’s not to be found on IMDB or the internet. Perhaps at the next Wings and Wheels Fly-In on Nov. 8, Freeman can be induced to a public showing of the clip. After all, like Freeman, it’s become part of Texas aviation history.
