Rolly Pictures

Classic Mansfield Photographs

MAC member Rolly Poth shares some of his aviation pictures, taken from the 1930's through the 1950's. They show the Mansfield, Ohio area the way it was during the early years of aviation.

The captions were taken from captions in the photo album, and from interviews with Rolly.

Click on a picture to see a larger image.

This is a plane Rolly bought right after World War II. It was a military surplus Fairchild PT19. It has an inverted Ranger 175 engine. Pictured are 2 friends of Rolly's, Mel Marvicsin and Mel's dad. Rolly gave them a ride; they were posing for a photo.
Rolly's plane taking off. The field shown is roughly where the Mansfield T hangars are now.
Rolly and a friend at the tail end of the airplane.
A skydiving club, circa 1958. From left to right: Rolly, Bob Spears, Ken Jones (Ken had a jumping school), Mel Mavicsin. Rolly flew the plane for the club. The drop zone for the jumpers was a field near Shelby, OH. The parachutists would sometimes take off from the drop zone field, sometimes from the Shelby airport. The airplane is a Cessna 180. It had a crosswind landing gear feature.
A P26, forced down at the Mansfield airport with engine trouble. Circa 1935.
Curtis Wright Blanca that brought a crew of mechanics in from Dayton to fix the P26 at the airport.