PIA - A History: Big Hollow Airport

In the previous installment, we covered Peoria’s first airmail flights and the fact that they were flown by the soon-to-be famous Charles A. Lindbergh. Now we shift to Peoria’s next airfield, Big Hollow Airport, which was located along then-Illinois Route 30 (north of US 150 and west of Rt. 91 today).

There appears to be some disagreement over when this facility opened. Bill Adams wrote in his November 26, 1990 Yesterdays column that 

Big Hollow opened in the late summer of 1926 and Kellar Field was closed. 

Actually, that is when construction began on the new airfield, but it opened on December 20. Newspaper articles alternatively call it the "Municipal Airport," "Peoria Airport" or "Airport of Peoria." The map below appeared in the Peoria Evening Star on April 24, 1927. Shoppes at Grand Prairie occupies the present location. 

AN AIR SHOW AND SCHEDULE AIRLINE SERVICE
The Peoria Aero Club organized an air show here on June 10, 1928. It featured stunt flying and parachute jumps and some static displays. Although an incident with a balloon nearly killed a 15-year-old boy named Russell Staker, events such as this further spread the gospel of aviation to the public.

In March 1927, Robertson Aircraft Corporation (RAC) announced it would began offering scheduled passenger accommodations, but on the condition that air mail service becomes profitable. That summer, it looked like such service would begin in the fall, but this was not to be. Marketing campaigns, faster planes and new connecting routes at Chicago eventually made the air mail route profitable. 

RAC acquired Four Ford Stout Tri-motor aircraft for scheduled passenger service, which begin August 20, 1928.  This schedule, effective on that date, shows separate air mail and passenger flights. The same times for air mail flights can be found in the air mail schedule below, which appeared in the Official Railway Guide, April 1929 edition (*denotes daily service).

Interestingly, this May 1929 timetable shows that Peoria and Springfield stops on passenger flights had been dropped but continued on air mail flights, as seen on the back cover. By this time, Robertson Aircraft Corporation had become a division of the Universal Air Lines System. Further consolidation was around the corner.

Aviation Corporation was formed in March 1929 and quickly acquired interests in numerous aviation-related firms, including Universal Aviation Corporation, parent of Universal Air Lines. In January 1930, the Aviation Corporation broke off its airline subsidiaries into two carriers: Colonial Air Transport and Universal Air Lines.

So it was Universal Air Lines which assumed the Chicago-St. Louis air mail route using six-passenger Fokker Super Universal planes. This timetable dated February 10, 1930 shows American Airways' Universal Division operating Chicago-St. Louis. This one from October 15 that year shows both mail and passengers were handled.

This Summer 1931 timetable shows that Peoria had been dropped from the Chicago-St. Louis air mail route. Service here had ended April 30 that year because American Airways upgraded to larger Ford Tri-Motors. At only 80 acres, Big Hollow Airport was too small for the more modern aircraft being used for passenger flights and thus the Peoria stop was discontinued.

The solution was a new and bigger airport. Creation of the new airfield southwest of Peoria will be covered in the next installment.

– David P. Jordan