Pan American Airways Blind Flying School
Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The development of Mexican oil fields by North American corporations during the 1920s led to a need for reliable transportation into Mexico's interior. As a result, Brownsville soon became a pioneer training center for the now highly technical craft of blind flying, or piloting an aircraft by the use of navigation instruments. In 1929, the Mexican division of Pan American Airways opened a school for instrumentation flying at the Brownsville Airport. The training course was later extended to all divisions of the company.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As North American companies developed Mexico's oil fields in the 1920s, the need to fly reliably into the country's interior grew urgent — and Brownsville became a pioneer training ground for "blind flying," the then-new art of piloting an aircraft by instruments alone. In 1929 Pan American Airways' Mexican division opened an instrumentation-flying school at the Brownsville Airport, and the course was soon extended across all the company's divisions.
Why it matters
Instrument flight freed aviation from the limits of clear skies and daylight, and this school marks a key step in transforming flying from a fair-weather stunt into dependable modern transportation.
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