01-20-2022 HPC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Vandie Ludvik was working as a tinner and plumber by the late 1920s, but he had spent much of the prior decade in the air. In June of 1911 he entered an aviation school in Chicago and six weeks later he was a pilot. Planes of this era were typically of the variety known as “pushers” because the propellor, positioned behind the pilot, did just that. The single seat design of these largely wood and cloth aircrafts required new aviators to learn what they could on the ground before taking to the skies alone, where they were at the mercy of strong winds and dependent upon on a 50-horsepower engine. After completing his training Ludvik was hired as an exhibition flyer, travelling the Midwest to perform for audiences. Pusher planes were only capable of a few stunt maneuvers, but in the early days of aviation even routine demonstrations presented a risk. One incident occurred when Ludvik’s plane hit a rough patch of air two hundred feet above a county fair in Iowa and a rough patch of rough ground shortly after. Fortunately for Ludvik he was able to walk away from the wreckage, and fortunately for the Elk River Aircraft Company he continued flying. In 1914 he enlisted in the military where he worked for an aviation school during World War I. He eventually moved to Elk River in 1923 and became the Elk River Aircraft Company’s chief pilot five years later. With an airport established and team assembled it was time for the company to introduce itself to the community. Advertisement from the Sherburne County Star News, August 30, 1928 A few months after Amelia Earhart had become the first woman to cross the Atlantic, two women landed in Elk River after a much shorter flight. The Silver Cloud Harmony Girls of Minneapolis made the Elk River Air Derby