Hawks began to be in public eye when he joined the
Gates Flying Circus and was involved in a demonstration of the first in-flight refueling in 1921. Earl Daugherty in his JN4D Jenny had been touted as being able to stay in the air for 24 hours. Hawks flew his Standard J-1 World War I trainer carrying wing-walker Wesley May aloft to join up with Daugherty, circling over
Long Beach, California. May, carrying a five-gallon can of gasoline, stepped over to Earl's ship and poured the gas in the Jenny's tank. On May 7, 1922, Hawks landed his small Standard biplane within the grounds at the
Stadium Jalapeño at
Xalapa,
Veracruz,
Mexico, as part of the inaugural ceremonies. In 1924 Hawks was hired by
Compañía Mexicana de Aviación as a pilot flying special charter service routes, piloting his Standard J-1 two-place modified for five-place passenger service. While in Mexico, Hawks managed a large ranch and estate near
Tampico, using his aircraft to fly to Mexico City and back, to run errands such as carrying payrolls to the oil field companies operating around Tampico. By 1927, Hawks continued to eke out a living as a pilot but with money from his wife, he purchased a
Mahoney Ryan B-1 Brougham (NC3009) he named the "Spirit of San Diego."
Record breaking flights The notoriety that Hawks gained by his self-promotion led to a contract with Maxwell House Coffee and with their sponsorship, he entered the 1927
National Air Races in Spokane, Washington, where the now renamed "Miss Maxwell House" came in first for speed in
the Detroit News Air Transport Speed and Efficiency Trophy Race. Also on December 5, 1927, the Texas Company (
Texaco) hired Hawks to head up its own Aviation Division as a Superintendent to market aviation products. The "Texaco One", a custom-built
Ford Trimotor (NC3443) was delivered in January 1928 and Hawks was dispatched to advertise the company across the United States and abroad, beginning with flying a Texas delegation from Houston to Mexico City and back. It was the first goodwill trade extension air tour from the United States to Mexico and received wide coverage in American and Mexican newspapers. Later in the same year, Hawks embarked on a nationwide goodwill tour, visiting more than 150 cities and covering approximately . It was estimated that 500,000 people saw the "Texaco One". He described the tour in his autobiography
Speed: "In the course [of the tour]. I visited 175 cities, carried 7,200 passengers, and did 56,000 miles of
cross-country flying. All of this without a mishap to plane and passengers." He flew from the Lockheed factory in Burbank, California, to New York in 18 hours and 21 minutes. The aircraft accumulated some before being lost in a 17 January 1930 accident when Hawks attempted a takeoff from a soggy field in
West Palm Beach, Florida, destroying the "Texaco Five" in a spectacular crash that catapulted it into a row of three parked aircraft. Hawks walked away with no injuries. , postcard, c. 1930
Gliding In 1930, Hawks convinced Texaco to back a proving flight that would demonstrate the effectiveness of gliders. As a reserve officer in what was by then known as the
United States Army Air Corps, Hawks foresaw the military usefulness of gliders, and despite a lack of government support and critical reaction from seasoned glider pilots, Hawks mapped out a transcontinental flight. The appropriately named
Texaco Eaglet was a custom-made wingspan glider built by R.E. and Wallace Franklin. Designed to achieve a maximum speed of 125 miles per hour, it was fitted with a two-way radio and telephone connection with the tow plane, the "Texaco 7", a Waco ASO biplane, flown by J. D. "Duke" Jernigan, Jr., a member of Texaco's domestic sales division. The flight left San Diego on March 30, 1930, with Hawks being attached by a towline, taking eight days elapsed time and 44 hours, 10 minutes of actual flying time. Hawks also spent 10 hours in soaring exhibitions at scores of towns and cities along the route. Surmounting all the predicted obstacles, even the Rocky Mountains which German glider pilots had feared would jeopardize the flight, only occasional turbulence was encountered. Hawks arrived in New York on April 6, 1930, effectively proving the feasibility of long-distance glider-towing. c. 1930
Texaco 13 , c. 2007 is a testament to the 1930s "Golden era" of air racing and Frank Hawks. , Montreal. c. 1930 In 1930, Hawks proposed that Texaco replace the lost "Texaco Five" with a revolutionary new racing aircraft, the
Travel Air Type R Mystery Ship that had been debuted at the 1929 National Air Races where its turn-of-speed saw it best the latest United States Army and Navy fighters. While overseeing the construction of "Texaco 13" (NR1313), Hawks was involved in an accident on a test flight when the engine failed. Hawks tried to coax "Texaco 13" back but hit telephone lines at the edge of the factory field; the aircraft crashed nose-first and flipped onto its back. Repairs were carried out by the summer of 1930, when Hawks embarked on a series of exhibition flights and record-breaking flights across the United States including a new transcontinental west-to-east record on August 13, 1930, of 12 hours, 25 minutes, three seconds, the fastest crossing up to that time. The Travel Air Type R Hawks flew, was the fourth of a series of five racers and was configured for long-distance racing with longer wings and a full set of instrumentation, features that differentiated the aircraft from the rest of the series. Hawks raced "Texaco 13" as "race No. 28" in the 1930
Thompson Trophy Race at the National Air Races on September 1, 1930, using a set of "racing wings", a pair of shorter wingspan wings fitted out at the factory. Hawks pulled out of the race on the third lap when the engine began to falter at full throttle. It was revealed later that a piece of masking tape placed over the gas cap (for streamlining) caused a loss of pressure. Hawks used the media attention that was garnered by his record flights to promote aviation, especially demonstrating that fast courier air service was feasible. On October 7, 1930, with the completion of the final
World Series game at Philadelphia, Hawks flew to North Beach, Queens, delivering the game photographs exactly 20 minutes later, faster than wire service at the time. Each of his highly publicized flights served to illustrate the speed and safety of modern air travel. His autobiography
Speed was also published in 1930, documenting his life and aviation career. The book was well-written and became a highly popular title (still sought-after to this day). During his goodwill tour of Europe in 1931, Hawks established 55 intercity records in 12 countries and after returning from Europe in late 1931, continuing to set over 130 American point-to-point records in the "Texaco 13" until April 16, 1932, when the aircraft was heavily damaged in a crash.
Crash Time magazine on April 18, 1932, wrote: Stocky, grinning Capt. Frank Monroe Hawks, famed publicity flyer, holder of nearly all informal city-to-city speed records in the U.S. and Europe, was not grinning one day last week when attendants at the
Worcester, Massachusetts airport pulled him from beneath his crashed
Travel Air "Mystery Plane" Texaco 13. Day before he had hopped from Detroit (in 3 hr. 5 min.). lectured the Worcester Boy Scouts on the necessity of developing foolproof planes, but had delayed his departure until the next morning because of a soggy field. An escort plane had nosed up when it landed just ahead of Capt. Hawks. After attempting to take off from a short dirt road which cut diagonally across the airport, he headed his low-wing monoplane down the field, less than 700 ft. in length. Oozy ground sucked at the wheels, kept him from attaining the 70 m.p.h. required to zoom off. Toward the end of the runway, going about 50 m.p.h., the ship bounced off a low mound, cut through heavy undergrowth, somersaulted over a stone wall. Hawks cut the motor in time, and saved himself from cremation. Capt. Hawks's nose and jaw were fractured, his face badly battered, several of his big, white teeth knocked out. He lay unconscious in the hospital for hours. Said
Harvard Medical School's famed plastic surgeon, Dr.
Varaztad Hovhannes Kazanjian: "I do not think his speech will be affected. The operation for restoring his face should leave scarcely a scar." Capt. Hawks's good friend
Will Rogers wired: "Sure glad nothing broke but your jaw. That will keep you still for a while. If I broke my jaw, I could still wire gags. What's the matter with you anyhow; are you getting ... brittle?" Following its repair, the aircraft was subsequently acquired in 1938 by the
Museum of Science and Industry in
Chicago,
Illinois, where it remains on display.
More records In June 1932, Hawks left the United States Army Air Corps Reserve, exchanging his commission for that of a
United States Naval Reserve lieutenant commander. Texaco purchased the first
Northrop Gamma 2A as the replacement for the "Texaco 13". The new aircraft was the first of the Gamma series and was specially designed for Hawks, fitted with then-new Sperry automatic pilot. This sleek, all-metal, high-speed mail and cargo aircraft was powered by a , 14-cylinder
Wright Whirlwind twin-row, air-cooled radial engine and was first called "Texaco 11". The name was later changed to "Sky Chief" when Hawks had been honored by the
Sioux Indian nation as a chief. "
Texaco Sky Chief" became linked to all Northrop Gammas and was adopted as the name for Texaco's premium gasoline. Hawks continued to set records in his new aircraft, and on June 2, 1933, he set the west-to-east
transcontinental airspeed record in "Texaco Sky Chief", flying from Los Angeles to Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York, in 13 hours, 26 minutes, and 15 seconds at an average speed of . After setting a bevy of new intercity marks, Hawks resigned from Texaco in 1935, but remained active as an aviation consultant and a test and demonstration pilot.
Northrop hired him to fly the Gamma 2E attack bomber, a conversion of the original Gamma 2A. He demonstrated the aircraft to the Argentine Navy and effectively demonstrating the long-distance capabilities of the new type by flying from
Buenos Aires to Los Angeles in three days. Taking off on May 3, 1935, with Gage H. Irving, Northrop's chief test pilot in the gunner's seat, Hawks broke 10 intercity speed records on the way to Los Angeles, with the resultant publicity ultimately responsible for orders of 51 Gamma 2E attack aircraft.
Designing his own aircraft In 1936, Hawks approached Howell W. "Pete" Miller, chief engineer for the Granville Brothers and their famous Gee Bee racers, to create a racing aircraft to his own design. Hawks obtained sponsorship from the
Gruen Watch Company and named the aircraft "Time Flies". The
Hawks Miller HM-1 design featured streamlined lines including the unusual feature of "burying" the cockpit with a curved windshield contoured to fit the fuselage top extended in takeoff and landing but retracted in flight, with the pilot's seat lowered and the windshield flush with the fuselage. After its first flight on October 18, 1936, Hawks flew "Time Flies" on April 13, 1937, from Hartford, Connecticut to Miami, Florida, 4 hours and 55 minutes later. Short of funds, Hawks decided not to rebuild the aircraft which was sold to Tri-American Aviation where Miller rebuilt the aircraft as a two-seater, renamed the Miller HM-2, then the MAC-1 and
Military Aircraft HM-1, to become a fast attack/observation aircraft. The aircraft was not successful in its new configuration, and after the sole example was destroyed in a crash, the project was abandoned. ==Popular culture==