Signal Corps Pilot (See photos, below)
J. Parker Van Zandt, 96, Aviator and Developer
J. Parker Van Zandt, who founded Scenic Airways at the Grand Canyon and established what is now Phoenix's main airport, died of complications of pneumonia on Sunday at a retirement home in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 96 years old.
Mr. Van Zandt was formerly a consultant for the Civil Aeronautics Board, director of aviation research at the Brookings Institution and, in the late 1940's, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. He wrote widely on aviation.
He began flying as an officer with the Signal Corps in World War I and remained an Army pilot until 1926.
In 1927 he flew over the Grand Canyon to deliver a plane for the Ford Motor Company and later established Scenic Airways. Scenic, which Mr. Van Zandt sold in 1935, still operates.
Later he bought three farms on the outskirts of Phoenix and built a landing strip, a hangar and an office for Scenic. The city of Phoenix kept the name Sky Harbor when it bought the airport in 1935. (A version of this obituary appeared in print on Thursday, June 7, 1990, on section D page 23 of the New York edition).
These postwar photos include Parker on far right in first photo:
Signed photo:
Newspaper article and letters:
29 April 2009, 08:41 AM
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