Airplane Filling Station:
Working—
like a butterfly in the
Cocoon!
Thales,
the ancient Geek
philosophizer wrote:
“Everything Changes,
Nothing Abides.”
Come Wan,
Co-Mall! Mingle and mangle on the
Work-Daze:
Saddy, 13 October, 2007.
Bring food for Ate Aim:
(Eight A.M.) until Noon.
T-Shirts and Photographs
promote our projection
of this Fun-Raisin!
Every change
involves a contradiction, wrote Heraclitus.
James Bay Co. of Fountain City,
and Bryan Christian,
the skilled and energetic
restoration specialist
is Changing the Airplane,
to preserve it— the Same way
the old folks— remember when.
Many of us believe in Miracles;
and the excellent work accomplished by him
and his talented crew, seems miraculous!
Construction
is the complement of Destruction.
U.S. Senator Roman Hruska
remarked:
Mediocrity
has its place.
Fortunately, that is behind us now.
Joseph Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction
was propounded on the “Ugh!” gleeful
demolition of the green block
shed of obstruction!
Crown College
students are the very model
of modern major generous community outreach!
Their hands, some Digital skills exerted,
for Hera-clean finagling
and flushed the Agean Stables!
Every effort counts, and those efforts enumerate
the sequins of restoration.
Our emphatic encomium exudes:
Thank you
for the help!
Summary
of the Annual Meeting:
Airplane Filling Station
Preservation Association (AFSPA)
held Wednesday,
20 September, 2006,
to elect officers and
Members of the Board of Directors.
(The meeting was
“Well” attended.)
Mr. Joe Inman was elected president.
He is very enthusiastic about restoring the “Airplane”
to the way that the
“young at heart” remember
when we grew up
in Powell. Mr. Inman
is quite experienced with restoring
Studebaker classic automobiles.
Mr. Tom Milligan
has accomplished so much;
from the idea, to completing the purchase of this
important landmark, that he deserves our appreciation
by volunteering to continue the work of restoring this
unique handiwork of our community.
Mr. Roch Bernard was elected Vice President.
Roch Bernard has served as Treasurer
since the AFSPA was chartered in 2003.
He has dedicated careful attention to recording the (piddling)
transactions during this time of fundraising and
completing work on the buried fuel tanks
(to address environmental concerns).
My worst fears— that he had
absconded to South America with the donated funds,
were pleasantly calmed when I attended the closing of the
purchase transaction,
at the title company
last year.
Ms. Amber Witte was elected Secretary/Treasurer.
She has served as Secretary,
and was rewarded for the good job
she has done,
by another good job to do!
Elected individuals will serve in their positions,
beginning January 1, 2007,
and ending
December 31, 2007.
Mr. Tom Milligan, President of AFSPA,
continues to whale at this preservation effort
as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Thoroughly modern Milligan
is pleased that Mr. Inman has volunteered
to become the new president,
after being swallowed up like Jonah,
in this historic preservation project.
To order Tea shirts
(“Tea Room” —
in front of the Airplane),
and volunteer, please call
Roch Bernard at:
(865) 933-7158.
People—
(Unlike You and
PBS enthusiasts),
have been supporting the airplane restoration project.
Stop Eur-apathy,
Help the APB:
Abe Econ.
Tour proud peep: Ellen Powell !
[ Stop your apathy— help the
Air Plane Be -
A beacon to our
proud people
in Powell. ]
Keep up with plans and progress
on the Airplane internet web site:
powellairplane.org
History of the Airplane:
The Historic
Airplane Filling Station was planned by
Henry and Elmer Nickle.
They grew up on their family’s farm on Nickle Road,
South of Black Oak Ridge.
Henry Nickle was a
Deputy Sheriff in Knox County,
and his brother
Elmer Nickle
was a mechanic.
Elmer Nickle’s service station
was on Western Avenue,
which was the original U.S. 25W highway,
before the New Clinton Highway
was completed in 1930.
The Airplane was designed by
Wayne Smith, County Engineer,
and close neighbor (Pleasant Ridge Road).
Dated pictures show that the
Airplane and the new road were completed in 1930.
The autogyro— top rotor with four blades,
was not added until a year later.
Drawings in the McClung collection
of the East Tennessee Historical Society
show this design, which was submitted for a patent.
Wayne Smith was very proud of this work,
and he kept the original drawings in his personal papers,
said his younger brother,
Wade Smith.
The Airplane Propeller
in front was attached to half of an
axle-differential from an old car.
This was only recently revealed,
when paneling was removed
to begin restoration.
The picture made on
opening day in 1930,
shows a Propeller of different shape
from the one removed after the Auction Sale
conducted by Mr. Sam Furrow
in 1972.
Mr. Gene Monday out-bid
Mr. Roy Lambert,
and took that Propeller home to preserve it,
after he bought the Airplane
that day.
His sons were very gracious to allow the
Preservation Association to display the propeller
while raising funds to buy the Airplane property.
The original Propeller blades were shaped like a
kayak paddle,
and the newer blades are curved,
with brass covers which protect the
leading edges.
The Autogyro rotor
was a cutting-edge development in airplanes
from 1920, and improved to fly with great economy
and landing stability, in 1929 — 1931.
Improvement of this design made possible
the modern helecopter which was developed by
Mr. Sikorski.
We are all curious to learn
why this design for the Airplane
was chosen. Perhaps the Nickle brothers chose the
idea of the Airplane, and the engineer,
Wayne Smith, designed the structure
to accomodate the function of a
filling station?
Skilled craftsmen built the Airplane.
The quality of the sheet-metal work
(and receipts) confirm that conclusion.
But the choice of the Airplane shape,
and the addition of
the Autogyro rotor, remain a mystery?
I was told that the Nickle brothers saw an Airplane shaped
building in Kentucky, but no explanation
or details were given.
The heavy axle shaft on top is bent,
and the rotor was removed— another mystery?
Was it damaged by a wind storm?
Did vandals climb out on
a rotor blade
and bend the axle?
And why was Z 13
painted on the
Airplane,
as an identification?
These things have been out in plain view
since 1930 — 1931,
yet Helen Keller was
better informed than fiends and neighbors of
the Nickle brothers and
Wayne Smith.
The four blade
Autogyro rotor on top was turned by
the wind.
The axle and bearings for the top rotor
include a sheet metal bracket for a
wood insulating board and copper slip-ring.
This was used to conduct electricity to lights
attached to the four rotor blades
which turned above the wings.
This added a carnival ambiance to the Airplane,
which seems to be styled similar to the
Spirit of St. Louis, flown to Paris
by Charles Lindberg in 1927.
The larger, boxy shape
is also similar to a Ford Tri-Motor,
which landed at the first McGhee Tyson airport
on Sutherland Avenue
(documented by photographs—
Earl Lambert).
Where was the electricity generated
in 1930 for the Airplane?
The Nickle brothers used electric lights,
before the first TVA generating plant—
Norris Dam, was completed
six years later, in 1936.
Gill Lumber Company had a steam engine,
which was brought to Powell by horses and wagon.
Water for Powell was pumped by a steam engine
at the lumber mill, next to the spring house
on Emory Road.
George Gill told me that the Knoxville Public Service Co.
built lines out to Powell in 1924.
William G. McAdoo helped to found the Knoxville
street car lines, and a steam power plant was built
next to Standard Knitting Mill, to provide electricity for
the street cars, and the city of Knoxville.
I was told by Mr. DeBusk, that a line was built from
a hydroelectric dam near Madisonville, to supply
additional power to Knoxville.
Mr. McAdoo was active in financing railroad construction
to connect Knoxville with other cities.
He and Mr. Carter Glass
served as U.S. Treasury Secretary
for Pres. Woodrow Wilson.
Mr. McAdoo was also influential in creating the
Federal Reserve Banking system.
The 162 KV
transmission line which goes through Powell,
and across the ridge behind the Airplane,
was built to connect Norris Dam
with the Alcoa Aluminum Company
(the largest aluminum smelting plant in the world).
Andrew W. Mellon, was a major stockholder
of Alcoa, and was the
primary influence to reverse the
tax increases
of these previous Secretaries of the Treasury.
The original powerplant of the Niagara Cataract project
was also used to power an Alcoa Aluminum Co.
smelting plant in Buffalo,
New York.
The steel towers of the transmission line
are stamped “Carnegie USA”.
Carnegie Steel was combined with other companies
to create the
U.S. Steel Corp.,
thirty years earlier, in 1901.
The original “Dixie Highway”
was routed along Western Avenue,
across the Asylum Avenue Viaduct,
in front of the
L & N depot.
The Louisville and
Nashville Railroad
was known as
“The Old Reliable”.
[ Perhaps this was Mussolini’s
inspiration for the improvement of
Italian train service? ]
This reputation was demonstrated by
delivering the
advertised
on-time performance
of
Train 99 (and 100):
“PAN AMERICAN”
passenger train from Cincinnati
to New Orleans
(NOLA).
The National Life and Accident Insurance Company
advertised
on their WSM
radio station:
Home of the
“Grand Ole Opry.”
James Agee wrote about the
Asylum Avenue Viaduct, which was named after the
Tennessee Asylum for the Deaf. There was a
brass plaque, cast into the concrete, along the
sidewalk, which documented the name,
and date of construction. This was likely removed
when the viaduct was rebuilt in recent years
for the express tunnel to Henley Street.
Tennessee School for the Deaf was later moved
South of the river to Island Home.
The Asylum building was then used as our City Hall.
That seems consistent with the quoted remark about
South Carolina: “Too large for an insane Asylum,
Too small to be a separate country.”
Knoxville does not have limited government,
or they would not have outgrown that facility.
That viaduct was built over
Southern Railroad tracks to the Tennessee River bridge
near Henley Street bridge.
The
Carolina Special
blasted up the Saluda
grade to climb from Charleston, up the eastern slope
of the Appalachian Mountains to Asheville,
and along the French Broad River gorge to Knoxville.
This train, and the Dixie Highway
connected Knoxville, to
Cincinnati, Ohio.
THE
TENNESSEAN,
was the first class passenger train of Southern Railroad,
which ran from Washington, D.C.
to NOLA.
Mr. Willie Moore, was the senior Engineer on that train.
He lived with his wife, who was blind,
on a farm next to New Gray Cemetary.
This is across the road from Mr. Elmer Nickle’s service station
on Western Avenue.
Before the new Clinton Highway,
was built and completed in 1930,
the original highway from Western Avenue,
which is behind the Airplane Filling Station,
was known as “Old Clinton Highway.”
The Principal of Pleasant Ridge School,
Ms. Irene Easterly worked to name the old road
after the school.
“Old Clinton Highway” was changed to
Pleasant Ridge Road,
from Western Avenue — to the Airplane FIlling Station.
[ The original road down Hines Valley
from Pleasant Ridge Road to Beaver Ridge Road
(near Solway Highway),
was near the present Northwest Park Drive,
through the industrial park behind Wal*Mart.
Follow your nose along this road to the newest olfactory
of Merita Bread, and
RURAL
METRO
Firetruck Repair Garage.
The road turned south at the top of the next hill,
behind the office and new shop of
Air Components & Systems,
ran past a lake built by the Civil Conservation Corps
(CCC) during the 1930s, to intersect
Schaad Road, at the creek.
Since the road is named after Mr. Joe Schaad,
the section which continues straight,
to Pleasant Ridge Road, was most likely built after he
acquired the farm.
Joe Schaad was married to Blanche McClain.
Her father, Mr. McClain,
originally owned that farm. I presume they were
related to the McClain family, which owned a large farm
at Merchant Road and new Clinton Highway.
McClain’s Nursery was located there, and
“Colonel” W. T. Thrasher and Kent McClain are the
proud grandparents of the extraordinary
Tina Wesson, of the Survivor
television show. ]
Henry Nickle
and his wife, Irene Nickle,
lived in a house located on the original highway,
down behind the Airplane.
Mrs. Irene Nickle ran the Tea Room diner
in front of the Airplane, and Henry was a
Deputy Sheriff in Knox County.
Elmer Nickle
and his wife Margaret Nickle,
owned a service station located on Western Avenue
(above), when the new highway was being planned.
They lived in a stone house
on the section of Nickle Road which was
later re-named Sullivan Road
(Pleasant Ridge to Nickle Road).
These neighbors were alert to
the opportunity of the new road intersection,
just across the ridge from their family farms.
Their expertise as County Engineer, Deputy Sheriff,
and Service Station owner, was a unique combination
which can explain the unusual business that they created.
After Henry and Irene Nickle moved back
to their old home place,
their house was rented to a black family named Blanton.
This is the same family name of the original owners
of the farm which extended from the top of Beaver Ridge,
adjacent to Mr. Lonnie Harris’ nursery,
down the ridge to Judge Johnson’s Lakewood Swimming Pool.
I was told that the Blanton family owned the land
where the Airplane was built.
The Bassett family
on Schaad Road was the only other
black family
in the neighborhood.
They are an exceptional family, who lived on their farm
until recently, across from Tekoa Baptist Church
where Blakewood Condominiums are now built.
I visited the aunt of John Bassett, who told about
her father’s encouragement for his children to get a
good education. She attended some of the first
schools for black children, including the school
founded in Greeneville by President Andrew Johnson,
and was the first black woman in the state of Tennessee
to earn a college degree.
The oldest daughter, Beaulah, married
Mr. Isaac Hardin. He and his brother were also
very exceptional gentlemen.
I learned that Mr. Hardin (Isaac’s brother)
had been active in Knox county politics,
and had attended three presidential inaugurations.
I recently learned that Mrs. Hardin is a very capable
musician and teacher, who has been able to
encourage many exceptional children to pursue their goals
and become remarkable examples for all of us.
This sleepy community of Powell, was known to travelers
from Toledo, Ohio, to the Gulf of Mexico,
because of the Airplane Filling Station.
We take it for granted that it is dull and boring here.
Consider all the reprobates who were able to proceed
on their journeys, because of the supplies and
service they received at the Airplane.
Recent news about local gunslingers:
Tim Burchett and Greg Lambert,
emphasize the safe, peaceful community,
which we have taken for granted all these years.
Mr. and Mrs. Lyons walked in front of
Powell High school each morning,
to Lyons’ Store at the corner of Brickyard
and Emory Road.
I remember that Mrs. Lyons
carried a small basket
with a white towell folded neatly on top.
They were always courteous,
but did not stop to talk
when they walked past me.
One day I mentioned to a friend,
that she always carried the wood basket,
and was curious what could be under the white towell?
The basket was a small fruit basket,
and I was told that she carried the money
to make change at their grocery store.
And— I was told: she had a pistol
underheath the white towell.
Every evening the Lyons walked home with the cash
from sales that day. Every day they risked the
fate of Mr. Lambert
and the Walgreens delivery driver.
But Powell was a boring, sleepy community
because they prepared for
those who were less pleasant and virtuous than
they were.
How much we take for granted: We do not
experience nightmares of death threats and robbery—
because of people like
Mr. and Mrs. Lyons.
Cleveland, Ohio, newspaper headlines
proclaimed one year
in late February:
“First Week this year—
No Bank-Robberies! ”
sleepy Powell
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