- America, even though we started aviation with the Wright brothers, we fell behind the curve pretty quickly.

- Aviation public's view was somewhere between a circus and a rich man sport.

- With what was happening in Europe, technology advanced so fast, we didn't even keep up.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Coming out of World War I, Army General Billy Mitchell saw foreign powers beginning to utilize aviation as an essential part of a holistic military approach, so he began to explore ways for the US military to do the same.

He was rebuffed by a Congress who didn't see the benefit in funding such grandiose plans.

- [Michael] There is somebody back east who was paying a great deal of attention.

Otto Prager, who was the assistant postmaster general for the United States Post Office.

- Well, I think Otto Prager was also a forward thinker and saw aviation as something that could be later utilized in a more effective fashion, which the Airmail certainly did.

- Once he saw that it was possible to fly aircraft safely across the United States, they decided that this is an opportunity that they just couldn't pass up.

- [Narrator] Otto Prager developed a route based on the available aircraft, terrain and weather.

He then solicited communities along the route to build airports to help facilitate his vision.

- [Steven] Post office didn't have any money, so he relied on the goodwill of local municipalities to establish airports.

- [Narrator] Prager targeted Cheyenne as an essential part of his proposed route.

Its surrounding topography had proven favorable for the Union Pacific Railroad route, and for similar reasons, it was ideal for the Airmail route as well.

- The city fathers, the Union Pacific Railroad, Laramie County, and others, decided to use an airfield that was approximately one mile out in the middle of nowhere north of the Capitol building that was owned by the city that should be used for an airfield.

And that's the location of the airfield that we have today, and that's where it was originated.

- [Narrator] Once the route was established, Prager and the post office were able to measure their success by the time it took to deliver mail from one coast to the other.

Their main competition, the railroad, was the standard they were racing.

- It took a train almost three and a half days to go from New York to San Francisco.

When the mail service finally got established on a regular basis, you could go from San Francisco to New York in 29 hours.

- [Michael] And of course, that was extremely valuable for businesses, banks, other people that had had priority mail packets that needed to be transported.

- [Narrator] With the limitations in technology during the early days of the Transcontinental Airmail System, Congress was convinced that using the railroad to transport mail was more reliable than the Airmail.

In early 1921, they threatened to cut funding for the Airmail, but Prager wasn't ready to give up just yet.

He planned a demonstration of the time advantage airplanes offered by flying mail from coast to coast on a cold night in February.

In 1921, pilots still used landmarks to find their way.

Flying at night was extremely hazardous.

- So they came up with this idea.

All along the route, they got the post office to try and find employees, volunteers, farmers, ranchers, what have you.

And what they would do on this night of February 22nd, they convinced these people to take their automobiles, leave their headlights on, pointing in the direction of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, or east and west, so that a pilot up in the sky would be able to see these things.

(airplane engine roaring) (tense music) - [Narrator] The test proved to be a difficult one.

Storms all along the route threatened the brave pilots and their mission.

Frank Yager flew the section from Salt Lake City to North Platte, Nebraska, testing his skills as he battled the rugged storm filled skies of Wyoming.

- And Frank Yager lands at North Platte, and here is Jack Knight waiting, and the storm is brewing and getting worse all the time.

And they trade off the mail.

And true to his word, without missing a beat, Jack Knight takes off to finish the last leg of his day to fly from North Platte all the way to Omaha, Nebraska.

Well, when he gets to Omaha, Nebraska, about eight o'clock at night, the weather is giving a little bit of a break there, but it's so bad all around Omaha that the pilot that was waiting for the Airmail at Omaha refused to go any further.

He thought it was far, far too dangerous.

- So everybody looks at Jack Knight.

He says, "Well, I think I'll do it.

"I'll give it a try."

And he says, "I need a coffee and cigarette.

"And you got any map around here?"

- [Narrator] Jack Knight bravely struck out towards Iowa City in the midst of horrendous storms on a portion of the Airmail route he had never flown before, all under the cover of a dark storm-laden night.

- Well, people in their thousands were coming out to see what would happen.

And sure enough, at six o'clock in the morning, they heard an engine (airplane engine roaring) of Jack Knight's mail plane coming out of the darkness from the swirling fog after the storms.

Just as the sun broke over the horizons, Jack Knight circles the Chicago airfield and then brings his plane in for an almost perfect landing on an ice covered landing field.

And then they had to cut Jack Knight out of his plane.

His flight suit had frozen solid inside the aircraft.

- [Narrator] Prager's demonstration proved successful.

Congress agreed to continue funding for the Airmail service, but the dangers Jack Knight and others faced that night showed the post office that they needed to push the boundaries of technology to make flying safer for their pilots, especially at night.

They worked with many private contractors to develop lighting and navigation technology.

- So in July of 1923, the airway was lit from Cheyenne to Chicago, but it developed a whole new technology specifically for airways because the pilots had to operate in three dimensions.

So it's one of those rare times where technology and opportunity and vision all came together and made history.

- [Narrator] One aspect of the Airmail system was the intermediate airfields all along the Airmail route.

In Wyoming, 14 emergency airfields allowed pilots refuge when they had mechanical problems or the weather prohibited them from flying.

These sites included remote places like Knight, Granger, Bitter Creek, and Medicine Bow.

- Congress eventually had it in for the Airmail service anyway.

They just bided their time.

Realizing that the Airmail service had been so successful, it wasn't something that Congress wanted to quite eliminate.

And they passed the Kelly Airmail Act in 1925, which basically stated that the Airmail service would eventually be phased out in favor of privatized companies that would then be contracted to fly the Airmails instead.

- [Narrator] This privatized Airmail service quickly evolved into what we know now as commercial passenger airline service with companies like Boeing, United and others, starting with commercial Airmail routes and seeing the potential for carrying passengers as well.

- When we talk about the Airmail, it seems like this archaic old thing where you have guys flying around, but technologically, it was probably one of the most meaningful things that happened in aviation history.

When we think of aviation history and progress, we think of NASA and the military.

It was the post office that started a lot of things with the Airmail.

Without the Airmail, we're talking about innovations like radio stations at every airport.

We're talking about lighted runways, we're talking about night landings, multi-engine aircraft, long range service.

All of those things came into being because of the Airmail service.

And so, even though the Airmail only existed for less than a decade, the technological advances were phenomenal.

The early pilots of the Airmail were some of the bravest souls ever known to mankind.

When we talk about cowboys of the sky, these guys didn't ride horses.

They flew airplanes that crashed a lot.

- [Steven] The early pilots got about $4,000 annually, which is really big money in the '20s.

- [Mike] It was not unusual for an Airmail pilot on one flight to land four times to make adjustments to his own engine just so he could finish the flight out.

- [Michael] They all had a certain panache.

They all had a certain very strong developed sense of adventure and rugged individualism, very daring aviation pioneers.

These guys are the epitome of a modern version of the rugged individual that Americans seem to hold in such very high regard.

So yes, I think that having the same spirit, cowboy attitude about trying to get it done is exactly the way they flew.

(epic music) (gentle music) - Well, that was a long time ago, but I always had dreams of flying.

I think if I ran fast enough I could get up in the air and fly.

And when I finally had the chance to do it myself it just became a part of me.

I was a really, really shy kid.

And that's why I got into hang gliding 'cause it's something I could do by myself, and I didn't have to deal with other people.

But getting into competition forced me to get past that shyness.

When I started competition, the funnest ones for me were just open distance.

They'd just say go, and you'd take off, and you can just go as far as you can possibly go.

And you do that for five or six days in a row.

And I just loved doing that.

So I got drawn into the cross country aspect.

(wind whooshing) We have a lot of wind in Wyoming.

And so I discovered a mountain out here called Whiskey Peak.

And I was the first person to fly off of Whiskey Peak.

And I knew that world records were possible out there.

I just had to be the first one, so I had to keep my mouth shut.

There was only one other guy in the world that had flown 200 miles.

And I figured a 350 mile flight was possible.

So I got certified, and got ready, and just started trying to set world records.

My first world record was 224 miles.

And nobody really paid much attention to that because the previous world record was 221 miles.

And I came back on August the second, and it was a amazing day.

I took off at 9:30 in the morning, got clear out into South Dakota, and I knew I'd beat the world record, but not by very far.

And I just needed one more thermal.

I was just like, one more thermal.

And I looked a little bit to the north, down below me, and there was an eagle circling.

And the eagles, when they're circling, they're in a thermal.

So I just beelined it over right on top of that eagle, and I climbed back up to about 12,000 feet.

I got lucky and landed at 287 miles.

And everybody took notice of that one.

(dynamic music) I set those world records foot launching, where you don't have any power input, and you have to run off of a mountain.

Nowadays, everybody that seriously wants to fly long distance flies by towing up.

Once they figured out how much easier tow launching is they've pushed the records out almost to 500 miles.

But, I don't think anybody's ever foot launched anything and beat my record.

(wheels rattling) (engine rumbling) (laughs) Trikes are so easy.

I can walk out here, punch a button, the door goes up, do a pre-flight, fire it up, warm it up, in five minutes I'm flying.

So that's a powered hang glider.

They fly exactly like a hang glider does, just a lot more pressure to do it 'cause you're swinging so much weight and everything.

But it's a weight shift, so all you gotta do is step on the throttle to go up.

And it's just a much easier way to get in the air.

And plus I can share it because I can give rides.

Somebody that's flying for the first time ever, they're just like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I just love giving that experience and sharing it with people.

Put your nose down, run hard.

So I've probably taught 25, 30 people how to fly hang gliders.

And I don't make a living out of it, I don't make money out of it.

I just, I love to fly so much that I just share it.

The thing about it is, you progress through your life.

When I was young, and selfish, and all about me, I wanted to set the records, and I wanted all that myself.

As you grow older, you realize it's not all about you.

It's about other people.

And now that's the point of time in my life.

I still, don't get me wrong, I still love a great thermal.

Flying into a hang glider and feeling those straps tightening, and up you go.

And just the feel of coring a thermal is one of the most amazing things in the world, it really is.

But I love sharing.

But I fly sail planes, and airplanes, and these trikes, and everything.

But hang gliding is the most pure form of flight that I could ever think of.

It's as closest to the dreams that I used to have when I was a kid that you can possibly get.

When I get in a hang glider, I just feel young.

I just feel it's just me.

I just, I'm there.

It's like, here I am again.

There's no age, there's no problems, there's nothing.

I just, hang gliding is such a pure way to fly.

(gentle music) If you've ever driven through Greybull, you may have noticed a small fleet of planes parked behind the rest area.

Wander back there.

It's a museum dedicated to the trade of aerial firefightin and Hawkins and Powers.

Well, the whole company started more or less back in 1947.

Mel Christler, when he first got out of the military, started to come to Greybull met a guy in Greybull by the name of Morris Avery and start a flying business, which amounted to small airplanes like Super Cubs or Cubs, for spraying and then also training.

They named the company Christler and Avery Aviation.

Christler and Avery Aviation started buying up aircraft in the 50s and 60s to use for spraying contracts, which was their main business at the time.

Christler split off to start an aviation company in Thermopolis But Morris Avery remained in Greybull to run Avery aviation.

1964 is when my dad, Dan Hawkins, was hired by Morris Avery as a helicopter pilot.

Gene Powers went to work for Morris as a big airplane pilot.

And then, of course, in 1965 is when Morris passed away.

So my dad and Gene were made managers of of Avery Aviation, and they did that until 1969.

And then in 1969, they they bought it and renamed it Hawkins and Powers Aviation.

Hawkins' and Powers used their aircraft to fulfill spraying contracts.

You know, a lot of crop spraying and stuff like that was what it started out to be to begin with.

Typically, it was a government contract and it could be anywher from anything like spraying sagebrush, fire ants, mosquitoe spraying was another one.

As the company grew, they would hire more pilots and aircraft for them to fly, most every airplane, large airplane that we owned was ex military.

There's a big boneyard for the military down Davis Monthan in Tucson, Arizona.

And that's where a lot of the aircraft come from You would bid on them to acquire them from the military.

The company had to retrofit the military planes to suit their needs first for spring and later for firefighting.

You know, to convert an airplane, you know, you'd have to, for the most part, put some sort of a tank system in it for the spraying have to put spray booms on them pump systems in them.

And, you know, you have to have emergency dump system on them.

So the emergency dump system could be used for the firefighting part of it In the late 50s, Christler and Avery approached the Forest Service about using one of their spraying aircraft to help with the firefighting operation And he just put water in it and they allowed him to do it.

So he put water in it and went up and dumped on fire up there.

So that was probably the first firefighting that our company had anything to do with.

Using aircraft to help fight fires was a novel idea.

Pilots tried developing different systems, but the ability to dump a lot of liquid quickly was what made aircraft a feasible tool for fighting fires.

Well, after Gene went to work for Morris in sixty five, well then that's kind of when the firefighting started for Avery Aviation at that time.

And we started acquiring contracts in Alaska in the lower 48 to fight fires.

Typically on a like a helicopter contract, you were considered the initial attack, what they was trying to do is once they have a start, well then the helicopter could get people out there or drop water on the on the fire to maybe keep it at a smaller containment, the helicopters or airplanes.

Neither one are going to put the fire out, probably, but it's just part of the equipment needed to fight a fire to help the people on the ground.

In 1974, after I got out of the military, well, I came back and went to work for my dad and Gene and I ended up getting the rest of my ratings, you know, multi engine rating, instrument rating, helicopter rating.

And so that's when I basically got into the business for flying part of it.

Bob followed his father's footsteps and learned the helicopter portion of the operation.

While Duane Powers joined the company and specialized in the fixed wing aircraft portion of operations like his father, Gene and Hawkins and Powers, and at the height of everything we probably run about 60, 70 aircraft.

You know, that be little airplanes, helicopters and the large airplanes.

And that then in 2002.

Timeframe, we had about 200 people working for us just in the Greybull Office.

In 2002, within a month of each other two Hawkins and and Powers, planes experienced structural failure and crashed while fulfilling firefighting contracts.

So after that happened, while the Forest Service wasn't willing to use that type of aircraft anymore on their contract, so they canceled those type of contracts, which was probably 70 percent of our fleet.

So then we went for another two years and tried to finish up contracts that we had and stuff like that.

But after that, we could see that, you know, without a big change and a lot of money if we weren' going to be able to go forward.

So we just decided to get out of the business and .

That was the end of it.

Well, the museum basically got started by Duane and myself in in the late 80s.

They talked me into opening it back up again, and we moved it to this area where we're at now.

Behind the rest area.

And that's been since 2015.

All of these somewhere or another either were firefighting aircraft or are the type that we use for firefighting.

Hawkins And Powers was at its height a World-Class firefighting operation.

Their work helped to pioneer aerial firefighting and their legacy will live on.

We were considered the world's largest for several years, their privately owned firefighting operation.

- [Andy] Most people find a balloon ride to be a very scenic adventure.

It's a little different than being in an airplane.

You can turn around 360 in the basket.

There's no separation between you and the atmosphere.

- [Pilot] My natural passion is to talk about balloons and how they work and how they function.

That's what makes my day happy.

(gentle music) - [Andy] We're looking at some pretty good weather today.

Who's happy about that?

- Yeah, woo!

- Yeah.

It's looking like eight knots.

The pilot community is really a tight-knit group of friends.

So, we look forward to going to the next rally where we can go and talk balloons and talk piloting and learn from one another at these different rallies.

(machine whirring) - In 2011, I moved to Reno, Nevada, and I had four kids and we were looking for things to do.

If there was something to do, we got up and did it.

And there's this thing called the Great Reno Balloon Race.

It's an event much like this event.

There's between 75 and a hundred balloons.

And we went out and just walked amongst the field and saw the balloons and I was just in awe.

I was like, "Wow, these things are so cool."

I think everybody should have the opportunity to fly in balloons.

(machine whirring) - One of our pilots who came from Utah this year said, "This is one of the top 10 balloon rallies in the nation."

And so he made the trip just to Riverton for this purpose.

We've got 30 positions in our rally.

It was a fully sponsored event.

We've gotta really throw a thank-you out there to all of our local businesses who've pitched in this year.

(gentle music) - It is literally almost 100% volunteers.

There might be one or two paid people, but, you know, the sponsorships go to the equipment on the field and the volunteers are the ones who put that on.

I met a local student pilot who offered to teach me how to crew and the balloon event came and I volunteered and crewed for the balloons.

When you're a volunteer, you also get to do the fun things like parking cars and taking out the garbage.

(machine whirring) - The Riverton community loves the balloon rally.

We have a great local support here.

People have just really enjoyed coming out, being around the balloons, being able to talk one-on-one with the pilots.

Our landowners are very friendly.

Most all of them welcome balloons with open arms as they come in and land on their property.

They pack up.

We usually offer the landowner a bottle of champagne as a thank-you.

And we've got these balloon traditions that have really, they're really entrenched here in the Riverton area.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Pilot] (indistinct) Have their tie-off line hanging.

- We have a red zone map.

Anything that's red on here, we're not supposed to land in.

Some of these are farmers with cows and stuff.

They don't want you on there.

But other than that, anything else that's green is definitely, you can land at.

Real calm days, you can find a cul-de-sac or a wide road like this and no power lines on it, you can actually land in the street, but it has to be a pretty calm day to do that, so.

- [Pilot] You could send one of the gazelles over here so I can get my crown line.

- 10-4.

- People say, "I'm afraid of heights.

I'm scared of heights."

I'll tell you a secret, probably about a third of these pilots are afraid of heights, but we know our equipment, we understand.

I put it all together this morning.

I'll take it all apart this afternoon.

- They are pretty great.

- I was going to (indistinct).

- So cool.

- [Andy] For the first time, we're offering paid rides at our rally.

We've had a lot of people in the past years who have said, "How do I get a ride?"

You know, they ask how you can get a ride on one of the balloons, and the past years, we've had to turn them down and say, "Well, they've all been sponsored months in advance, and so you can't actually purchase a ride."

Well, this year, we have decided to offer paid rides during the actual event.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) We usually get 500 to a thousand people each morning.

The evening of the glow, Saturday night, there's anywhere from 2 to 3,000 people.

As long as the weather cooperates, we'll stand all the balloons up if it's light winds.

If not, we'll do what we call a candlestick, and that's just where we get the baskets out and we'll put the burners together and we'll just burn propane and make big flames.

They'll glow like lanterns.

We'll have a band and we'll have food trucks, snow cones.

We'll do twinkle burns and we'll do an all glow where all the balloons glow at once, sometimes like a wave.

It's just a longstanding tradition.

A lot of people plan their family reunions around this weekend, along with the car show and other city celebrations.

Class reunions are all on this weekend.

And so the community, they kind of count on us as a fun weekend and a good event.

We really like the Riverton community, all the businesses that help out.

We couldn't do it without them.

(upbeat music) The sport of ballooning is an incredible one.

It's different than other forms of aviation because we can't steer.

We have altitude control.

We can go up and down, but we can't maneuver or go back to the airport and land also we have to have a crew in order to launch.

So with having a crew and landing just out in the community, we end up becoming exposed to a ton of new people.

So we meet people from all walks of life.

and it's the the people you meet in ballooning is really the magical part of it.

(upbeat music)