OTHER RESOURCES

A very readable volume about the Grand Central Air Terminal is this book:

Underwood, John. 1984. Madcaps, Millionaires and 'Mose'. Heritage Press, Glendale, CA. 144pp.

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Thanks to Guest Editor Bob Woodling for help researching this page.

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I'm looking for information and photographs of pilot Gove and his airplane to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.

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ORMOND MILLS GOVE

Ormond Gove is recorded once in the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT) Register, on Saturday, April 18, 1931 at 11:45AM. He was solo in the Curtiss Fledgling he identified as NC8675. Tower Operator A.J. Lygum identifed the owner of the airplane as the "Curtiss-Wright Flying Service."

Gove was born December 10, 1907 in Salt Lake City, UT. The 1910 U.S. Census places him at age 2 living with his family in Los Angeles, CA. His father, Erding (or Edwin) (age 34) was a "Driver" for an "Ice Company." His mother, Myrtie (32; 1878-1910) was not employed. He lived with an older brother, Kingdom, age 4, a sister, Marion, age 7 months, and his paternal grandfather John W. Gove (63).

In 1920, the Census placed Gove in Los Angeles under completely different living circumstances. At age 12, he was now living with his widowed father and sister Marion (10) as boarders with the Newcum family in a rented home at 1026 East 39th Street. His older brother, Kingdom, was not with them. I do not know if he and his mother might have been killed in a common accident, or died of a common disease.

Gove-Bryant Nuptials, October 21, 1936 (Source: NYT)
Gove-Bryant Nuptials, October 21, 1936 (Source: NYT)

 

Gove had a documented interaction with fellow GCAT Register pilot Harlan Hull. They shared a flight from Agua Caliente, Mexico on September 7, 1929. The documentation for that flight is exhibited at Hull's link. They flew by themselves in NC455E, a Fokker F-10A. Gove had been with Western Air Express (WAE), a parent of T.W.A., for about two years as a co-pilot mechanic. His career with WAE, and then T.W.A. through 1940, is nicely summarized in an article that appeared in the October, 1941 issue of Flying & Popular Aviation. You may download the article (4 pp.; PDF 770kB) at the link.

According to this REFERENCE, page 164, Gove learned to fly in Los Angeles during 1925. He enjoyed a fairly typical transport pilot career during the Golden Age. He joined WAE as a mechanic and crew chief in 1927 and worked in that capacity until 1929. Then he was a flight mechanic and copilot for 1929-1934. It's in this capacity that we see him documented with Hull, above. He became a captain in 1934 for T.W.A. and flight superintendent in 1936. He had logged 5,000 flight hours through 1942, the date of the reference cited. His career through the 1940s-1960s is documented below.

The 1930 U.S. Census places him at age 22 living in Los Angeles with his father as head of household. His father, Edwin T., age 54, was cited as a "Contractor" for an "Ice Company." Gove was cited as a "Co-pilot" at an "Aviation School." The school was the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service. He lived with two sisters, Marion (20) and Evelyn (18). They were both cited as not employed.

Gove was married October 20, 1936 to Irma T. Bryant (b. 1909). The New York Times (NYT) of October 21, 1936 documented their union, right. On September 27, 1937, Gove (age 29) and his bride of almost a year, Irma Bryant Gove (28) departed on the S.S. President Monroe in San Francisco, CA westbound to Honolulu, T.H. This could have been a delayed honeymoon voyage, or perhaps a first anniversary celebration. At the time, their address was 140 EIghth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.

Ormond Gove, T.W.A. Trans-Atlantic Itinerary, March 31, 1956 (Source: ancestry.com)
Ormond Gove, T.W.A. Trans-Atlantic Itinerary, March 31, 1956 (Source: ancestry.com)

 

An interesting finding as I researched his history was a series of customs declarations for scheduled airline trips overseas made by Gove, his staff and passengers. There were a couple of dozen different itineraries (e.g. Paris, France to Washington, DC, the Middle East to New York, Frankfurt to Boston, etc.) on immigration documents ranging from 1948 through the 1950s, which spans the time T.W.A. was a major player in modern trans-Atlantic passenger carriage. Gove was a regular on the Atlantic routes, both as pilot and as a check pilot for pilots new to the routes. This time period would place Gove at the peak of his career, between age 38 to 58 or so.

As an example of a 1950s U.S. immigration declarations form and route itinerary and crew listing, I include the document at left, signed by Gove as pilot-in-command of the flight.

On March 30-31, 1956, Gove acted as check captain on a T.W.A. trans-Atlantic, mid-ocean flight plan. Their airplane was N6021C, a Lockheed Constellation, assigned to fly scheduled flight number 987/30.

The Constellation departed Rome on March 30th and proceeded to Madrid then Lisbon and Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal. From there they flew to Gander, Newfoundland for "clearance," and on to New York on the 31st. Note that an insecticidal aerosol bomb was deployed while the aircraft was aloft (probably over the Atlantic).

There were 10 crew members on board (an 11th member was offloaded somewhere along the route) and 59 passengers. All the crew were U.S. citizens, with passports to prove citizenship. Forty-three passengers were U.S. citizens and 16 were not.

Lockheed Constellation N6021C, Flight Number 987/30, Date & Location of Photograph Unknown (Source: Link)
Lockheed Constellation N6021C, Flight Number 987/30, Date & Location of Photograph Unknown (Source: Link)

 

The airplane they flew, N6021C is pictured, right. At the link, the fate of the airplane was described as follows, "Still wearing its basic TWA livery this aircraft was seized by authorities in Panama city for drug running, the aircraft was later damaged beyond repair during landing in the Dominican Republic in 1988."

I reviewed a similar declaration document, signed by Gove as check pilot-in-command, for a 1952 flight in a different Constellation (N6011C) over the same route and itinerary.

About the same time as the itinerary, above, Gove appeared in a T.W.A. advertisement as exhibited below from the Pasadena (CA) Star-News of March 19, 1957.

O.M. Gove, Advertisement, Pasadena (CA) Star-News, March 19, 1957 (Source: Woodling)
O.M. Gove, Advertisement, Pasadena (CA) Star-News, March 19, 1957 (Source: Woodling)

 

 

T.W.A. Skyways, April 23, 1962 (Source: Woodling)
T.W.A. Skyways, April 23, 1962 (Source: Woodling)

 

Low by today's standards, the fares cited are probably one-way from Los Angeles. According to the ad, Gove's home at this time was on Long Island, NY, living with his wife and two children.

In 1962, Gove celebrated his 35th year as a T.W.A. employee. He was fĂȘted at a ceremony described in the April 23, 1962 issue of Skyways, the T.W.A. internal magazine. The article is displayed at right. He would have been about 55 years old in this photo.

This celebration was a big deal, because he was the first line pilot to achieve 35 years of service at T.W.A. and its predecessors (1927-1962). A brief summary of his flying history is given in this article. He flew every model of T.W.A. transport aircraft, including the first jet airliners. Another Register pilot to achieve 35 years, only with American Airlines, was Hap Russell. Please direct your browser to his link over on the Davis-Monthan Airfield Web site. Russell was mentioned in the 1941 article in Flying & Popular Aviation, linked above.

O.M. Gove, Obituary, December 25, 1968 (Source: NYT)
O.M. Gove, Obituary, December 25, 1968 (Source: NYT)

 

I could find no reference to U.S. Census data for 1940 or later for Gove. I know very little of his family life, what he did for fun, or what he was like as a friend. A half-dozen or so news articles focus on charitable work performed by Mrs. Gove during the 1950s and 60s. If you can help fill in the blanks, please let me KNOW.

Gove died December 15, 1968 in New Jersey. His brief obituary appeared in The New York Times of December 25, 1968, left. His left his children, named Fred and Carol, his wife and sisters, Marian and Evelyn. He is the namesake of the Ormond M. Gove Memorial Endowed Aeronautics Scholarship at Dowling College, Long Island, NY. He flew with Transport pilot certificate T8367.

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