Article: A True Aviation Pioneer

Oct 31, 2025Clyde W. Ice

A True Aviation Pioneer

Young boys (like myself) seem to fall in love with airplanes and flying at a young age, and today even young girls aspire to becoming pilots. When I was 13 years old my dad took me to the Monroe County Fair in Monroe, Michigan, where I encountered my very first real airplane.

I remember it like it was yesterday - it was a brand new v-tail Beech Bonanza that had been placed on a slightly tilted rotating stand, the red fuselage beacon on top rotating and spreading its light like that from a lighthouse. The man standing by the aircraft asked me if I would like to sit in the airplane, and I was up there and in the cockpit in a flash!

While the fire in my belly to become a pilot burned deeply, it wasn't until years later when I was 19, and in the U.S. Air Force, that I finally got my chance to learn to fly. The base I was at had a flying club with a couple of Beechcraft T-34 Mentor aircraft in which I finally got my first airplane flight. Right after that first flight the club was shut down (much to my disappointment), but the bug had bit me hard, and I just had to learn how to fly. So, off to the local airport I went to take flying lessons, finishing my Private Pilot license just before I was shipped off to the next to the last island out on the Aluetian chain.

So, I identify with all the early pioneers of aviation. Last week I wrote a story about a young pilot by the name of Joseph Jacob Foss who became an Ace during the Second World War as a Marine flying an F4F-4 Wildcat and recording an astonishing 26 kills! As so often happens while researching Joe Foss's story I meet yet another pilot, Clyde Wilbur Ice, a true aviation pioneer from South Dakota.

Clyde Wilbur Ice

On May 18, 1889, a beautiful day near the town of Silax, Dakota Territory, a young man by the name of Clyde Wilbur Ice was born to his parents, homestead farmers in Hand County east if St. Lawrence. No school was available until Clyde turned 8 and his father and some neighbors moved an old building from town to create a rural school.

Later, his mother would take Clyde and his siblings to Miller during the winter months to attend high school. Clyde continued his education after high school by enrolling at Huron College during 1910-1911, and where he played on the college basketball team.

In 1914, at the age of 25, saw his first airplane and, just like me, fell in love with flying. By the time World War I was underway Clyde was married and had a family, so he stayed home and farmed his land. When the war was over Clyde sold tickets for the barnstormers who were passing through, and he noticed they were making a lot more money than he was, piquing his interest in airplanes.

In 1919 he heard of a farmer in North Dakota who had won an airplane, and not understanding that it needed to be tied down, found it blown over in the wind. Clyde had a couple of used cars he didn't need, so he traded them for the airplane. It was a Standard Aero Corporation Model J, which was a modified Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny."

A Standard Aero Corporation Model J, a modified Curtiss JN-4 Jenny.
Clyde Ice's Standard J with postwar Lincoln modifications of the nose radiator, Hisso
engine, and two-seat front cockpit with wide windshield..

The Standard J

This was one of the 1916 trainer aircraft family manufactured by Standard Aircraft Corporation. The Standard J is a two-seat basic trainer two-bay biplane produced in the United States from 1916 to 1918, powered by a four-cylinder inline Hall-Scott A-7a engine. It was constructed from wood with wire bracing and fabric covering. The J-1 was built as a stopgap to supplement the Curtiss JN-4 in production.

Specifications:

Crew: 1;
Passenger: 1;
Length: 27 feet 6 inches;
Wingspan: 43 feet 8 inches;
Engine: Hisso engine;
Max speed: 75 mph;
Service ceiling: 6,500 feet;
Endurance: 2 hours 15 minutes.

Clyde Learns To Fly

Now, having made the deal with the farmer, Clyde took possesion of the Standard J Jenny, took it apart, then put it back together again. His next problem was how to get it home. Since he was now in the employ of a barnstormer by the name of K.O. Schneider, he solved the problem by having Schneider fly it home.

Schneider, though, had a different plan. He flew the airplane to the field where Schneider was giving sighseeing flights. A short time later he took of with four men that had chartered him to fly them to a ball game in Aberdeen, South Dakota. By this time Clyde had taken a few rides in airplanes but had not yet taken any flying lessons, so he decided that while Schneider was gone he would "give it a try." After a number of attempts to get the Jenny into the air Clyde ground looped it, destroying one of the airplanes wheels.

Whilst the tire was being replaced, ol' Clyde climbed back into the cockpit and surveyed the instruments and controls. "Couldn't be that difficult, he thought," applied the power and off he went, up into the blue sky. After choosing an easy landing spot near his farm, Clyde put the Jenny down and went in for dinner. So , in 1919 Clyde learned to fly all by himself.

The next morning had high winds, so Clyde sought the help of Schneider to take his airplane over to the airfield from which they were barnstorming. The arrangement was that Clyde would sell tickets while Schneider alternated flights between the two aircraft. That was, until Schneider needed a cup of joe, and headed off for town.

A few minutes later a fellow on a motorcycle came by, paid his $ 5.00, and Clyde put him in his aircraft, gave him some googles to wear, chocked the wheels and waited for Schneider to come back. Clyde waited a little while, but soon Clyde felt the passenger might get nervous and they would lose the $ 5.00.

So, Clyde climbed into the airplane, turned the magneto switch on, showed the passenger the throttle and said "Now, don't touch that lever because I'm gonna take the chocks away from under the wheels." Clyde removed the chocks after starting the engine, and took the passenger for his flight!

Clyde simply did what needed to be done, without any lessons, and when it came time to land he just repeated what he had done landing at his farm. Clyde gently eased back on the stick, settled until the wheels were turning on the ground, and shut the engine off, completing his second flight as pilot in command, without the benefit of formal instruction.

Clyde told the passenger that "he had been his first passenger, and that it had been his second flight." The passenger didn't think much about it, though, Clyde recalled. Clyde continued to barnstorm and building flight time by given children free rides, which provided an additional benefit by attracting adults for paying flights.

From 1919 through 1921 Clyde worked the barnstorming circuit, doing wing-walking, aerial trapeze stunts, and the occasional parachue jump. In 1921 he moved to Rapid City, South Dakota where some Rapid City businessmen, Walter and Russell Halley, convinced Clyde to form Rapid Air Lines, as South Dakota's first airline. Clyde continued barnstorming with the Ford Trimotor, starting in the Buffalo, NY area. Flying always supported Clyde, the pioneer pilot.

In 1927 Standard Oil Company ran ads all over the Dakotas, featuring a Ford Trimotor airplane called the Stand-O-Lynn. Clyde was fascinated with the sleek and powerful Trimotor, and that built a desire within him to own one. Eventually Rapid Air Lines purchased one, Ford Trimotor 4-AT-B c/n $-AT-20, which became the first Ford Trimotor used for barnstorming.

A photograph of Clyde W. Ice's Ford Trimotor he used for barnstorming.
Clyde Ice's Ford Tri·Motor. Registration number 5093. A model 4·AT·B. Taken at the Ford factory May 28, 1928, upon delivery to Clyde.

Initially Clyde operated the Ford Trimotor by barnstorming in the Buffalo, New York area. The last day he flew in Buffalo he flew a total of 510 passengers 15 at a time, and netting a profit of $ 13,500 in his first 10 days of barnstorming with the Rapid Air Lines Inc Trimotor.

After he sent the proceeds to his partners back in South Dakota he received word from them that they wanted him to return to South Dakota, a decision Clyde was not in favor of. Clyde felt he should barnstorm in higher population areas, but his partners insisted he return to South Dakota. Shortly after that the airline was bankrupt.

World War II

Despite business problems Clyde Ice always was supported by flying airplanes. He made money by giving rides, putting on aerial performances, hunting coyotes for the sheephearders, spraying crops or teaching student pilots.

During his barnstorming years one of his passengers was a young teenager by the name of Joseph Jacob Foss. Foss became an Ace during the World War II with 26 confirmed kills while flying in the Pacific Theater. Foss went on to become the governor of South Dakota after a successful military career.

Clyde spent time being a consultant for Charles Lindbergh before his 1927 flight from New York to Paris, France. He also is the pilot who flew Gutzon Borglum over the granite peaks of the Black Hills while Borglum was scouting for a location for Mount Rushmore.

In 1940 CLyde leased the Lawrence County Airport in Spearfish, SD. Soon it became apparent that the United States would find itself involved in World War II, and the U.S. Army Air Force was going to need a lot of pilots. Clyde borrowed $ 75,000 to buy enough airplanes to teach civilians to fly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the CPT (Civilian Pilot Training) program.

Soon Clyde found himself instructing 150 students at a time, and eventually was responsible for over 400 students, and is credited with training more than 2,000 students at the Spearfish airport. Over the years Clyde Ice received numerous awards and honors for his pioneering years in South Dakota aviation.

Clyde W. Ice never had an accident in his 62 years of flying, and when he stopped flying planes in 1981 at the age of 91, he had accumulated between 25,00 and 30,000 hours of flying time, about the same amount of flying modern day airline pilots accumulate during their careers.

On July 17th, 1992, Clyde passed away at the age of 103. He is buried in the Rose Hill Cemetary in Spearfish, Lawerence, South Dakota.

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of sunglasses. If you enjoyed this trip, and if you are new to this blog, sign up to receive your own weekly blog post here: Subscribe here!

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!