Column: Airplanes took off in a hurry in Hall County Johnny Vardeman
Hall County went “flying mad” in the early 1900s after the Wright Brothers’ successful flying machine launch in 1903.
People weren’t mad at flying, they were mad for it.
Eyes pointed skyward and necks craned whenever an “aeroplane,” as airplanes were called at that time, were spotted over Gainesville or began to set down in cow pastures or the fairgrounds off Shallowford Road.
As planes started to be manufactured and proliferate to some extent across the country, exhibitions were staged, mostly in the larger cities. Southern Railway offered train excursions to Atlanta when an aeroplane was scheduled to put on a show.