Early Southeast Missouri aviation

By Sue Vogelsanger

This column originally ran in the Oct. 25 edition of the Banner Press.

Early pilots in Southeast Missouri had their eyes on the skies, and earned a place in aviation history. Dr. Frank Nickell, president of the Kellerman Foundation in Cape Girardeau outlined local aviation history recently at the Heritage Museum in Cape Girardeau. The Kellerman Foundation is dedicated to historic preservation of Southeast Missouri.

During his speech, Nickell pointed out how some area aviators contributed more than their fair share of important history.

For instance, Ira Oris Biffle, born in Patton, taught Charles A. Lindbergh to fly. The Ira Biffle Memorial Airport is located in Marble Hill. Biffle later became a First Lieutenant in the United States Army.

As early as 1915 Biffle became a skilled pilot. He was known as a leading aviator when airplanes were called "crates" and "sky coffins." He first went to Lincoln, Nebraska, became an instructor and an early airmail pilot. In his book "We," Charles Lindbergh referred to Biffle as "the most hard-boiled instructor the Army ever had during the war."

Paul Vance was born July 22, 1919, on a small farm in Zalma. Between 1941 and 2009 he logged about 23,000 hours as a pilot. As a student at Missouri State College he graduated with a teaching degree as a chemistry major. In 1951, he joined Monsanto as a chemist and corporate pilot, and flew company officers across the nation. He once flew over the top of Pike's Peak in a small, open-cockpit airplane, made a forced landing on a highway near Elkins, West Virginia. He was a close friend to Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, and Barry Goldwater. Rumor once had it he was the first pilot to fly through the St. Louis Gateway Arch.

Major Patrick Frissell was from Cape Girardeau. At one time he was Commander of the 28th Bomb Squadron. In 1919, while flying a de Havilland airplane near Port Jervis, New York, accompanied by Lt. G.E. Ballard, their airplane struck a tree in passing over Prospect Mountain. Frissell was instantly killed and Ballard was injured.

John T. Seesing was born in Leopold. During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps as a liaison pilot. In 1950, he co-founded Cape Central Airways, becoming sole owner of the company in 1971. He sold the company in 1976. He was also the founder and charter member of the Missouri Pilots Club and founder/charter member of the Cape Girardeau Pilots and Owners Association.

Seth McKee was from Cape Girardeau, Missouri and became a four-star general. At the time of his death, he was the highest-ranking survivor of the D-Day invasion of France during World War II. France awarded him the rank of Chevalier (Knight) in the National Order of the Legion of Honor, that nation's highest honor. He also earned many other military honors and awards. However, McKee did not like war and was quoted as saying, "When man has to resort to war to resolve his affairs, he's reached about his lowest level. We're back to the cave-man days where you grab a club."

Although Tony Jannus was not a native of Southeast Missouri, he piloted the plane when Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane near St. Louis, Missouri on March 1, 1912. That same year Janus also arrived in Cape Girardeau on the river in a hydroplane. Other exploits included setting an overwater flight record following the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers from Omaha, Nebraska to New Orleans, Louisiana while flying a Benoist Land Tractor Type XII mounted with floats.