Oral history interview with Harold W. Shangle

Collection

Identifier: SR 9131

Staff Only

Oral history interview with Harold W. Shangle

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Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Harold W. Shangle was conducted by Patrick Harris on February 22, 1980, at Shangle’s home in in Oak Grove, Oregon, as part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s oral history program. Howard Hagerman and Bill Forviss were also present, and occasionally contributed to the interview.

In this interview, Shangle discusses learning to fly and working as an airplane mechanic at the Swan Island Airport in Portland from 1928 to 1933. He speaks about the airports in the Portland area at the time, about early aviation culture, and about airplanes available to recreational fliers in the 1930s. He talks about women aviators in Portland, including Dorothy Hester; about Portland flight instructor Tex Rankin; and about pilots he learned from. He describes navigation instruments in early airplanes, and talks about airplane crashes in Oregon. He closes the interview by speaking about the careers of other early Oregon air pilots, and about the types of airplane engines he worked on.

Dates

Creation: 1980 February 22

Creator

Shangle, Harold W. (Harold Wilfred), 1904-1982 (Interviewee, Person)
Harris, Patrick, 1954- (Interviewer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Biographical note

Harold Wilfred Shangle was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1904, and became a pilot and airplane mechanic. He worked for the MacKenzie Morrow Aviation Company in Portland from 1928 to 1933, and later at the Albany Airport. In 1942, he married Lena Alice Chalfant. Shangle died in 1982.

Sources: Vital records in Ancestry.com; information provided by Shangle in his interview; “Wings over Willamette,” by Evelyn Burleson, Albany Democrat-Herald, November 21, 1940, Page 4.

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (1 audiocassette (1 hr., 4 min., 13 sec.))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Harold W. Shangle, conducted by Patrick Harris on February 22, 1980. Shangle discusses learning to fly airplanes and working as an airplane mechanic at the Swan Island Airport in Portland from 1928 to 1933.