Pearson Air Field, Front of E. Reserve Street, Vancouver, Washington, is the oldest landing field in the Northwest. And the oldest continually operating U.S. airfield dating back to dirigible landing (balloon flight) in 1905. It was originally a Hudson's Bay Company cultivated field, later Hidden's pasture, and then later Barracks' Air Field. During World War II, the air field housed Italian prisoners of war.In 1908 Silas Christofferson and his wife used the air field in an early flight. The field was dedicated as Pearson Air Field in September 1925, in honor of Lt. Alexander Pearson, a University of Oregon graduate and an Army pilot, who died in a crash in September 2, 1924 in a Pulitzer air race. Pearson had been a member of the first “flying circus” on the Pacific Coast. During the festivities, a pilot threw a dummy out of his plane, causing panic among the horrified spectators.
The first air mail was flown from there by Vern C. Gorst’s Pacific Air Transport on September 15, 1926. The field was a division point when airmail was inaugurated in 1926.
“Land of the Soviets” two-motored diesel bomber in which the Russians circled the earth, landed at Pearson on October 10, 1929. On June 20, 1937, three aviators from the Soviet Union made a historic first non-stop flight in the huge ANT-25 monoplane from Moscow over the North Pole and then landed unexpectedly at Pearson Air Field. Valery Chkalov, pilot, Grergiy Baidukov, co-pilot and instrument pilot, and Alexander Belyakov, navigator, became instant celebrities throughout the world for their daring long-distance record flight. The aviators completed the Moscow to Vancouver flight in 63 hours, 10 minutes covering 5,288 nautical miles.
Pearson Air Field is one of the oldest Army air fields in the West. The Army Reserves trained at Pearson until the outbreak of World War II. In World War II the Air Corp built a graveled runway which was still in use in the 1960s. During World War II, Vancouver’s Kaiser Shipyard built a variety of craft that contributed greatly to America’s war effort. The air field housed Italian prisoners of war. After the war, the air field was declared surplus by the U.S. Army and transferred the title to the City of Vancouver.
Pearson Field continues to service Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon as an important general aviation center.
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