Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing administrative materials created before, during and after the interview.
Accession No. PA.2000.0045: William S. McCormick, 2000 March
[identification of item], William S. McCormick Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0050, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Devon Boerman, 2020 January; Finding aid written by: Devon Boerman, 2020 January
William S. McCormick was an autogiro pilot during Byrd Antarctic Expedition II (1933-1935). An autogiro, also known as a gyroplane or gyrocopter, is an aircraft that uses a rotor that is powered by the passage of air through it and a propeller to fly. McCormick learned how to fly autogiros and airplanes from his older brother while he was in high school and became a commercial pilot when he turned 18. The automobile parts company Pep Boys purchased an autogiro from the Kellett Autogiro Corporation that they donated for use during Byrd Antarctic Expedition II. McCormick was selected to be the pilot of that autogiro during the expedition. While in Antarctica, McCormick made meteorological flights where he observed and measured the weather in his aircraft as well as short flights where the autogiro could land and take off in locations that airplanes could not. After the expedition, he went on a lecture tour for a year and attempted a career as an actor in California. McCormick returned to aviation where he did work with a link trainer, a type of flight simulator used during the 1930s and 1940s, before becoming an airplane pilot for American Airlines in 1940. He remained at that job for 33 years.
The William S. McCormick Oral History, dated 2000-2002, contains audiocassettes, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between McCormick and Ohio State University Polar Archivist Laura Kissel that took place on March 8, 2000 regarding McCormick's experiences as an autogiro pilot during Byrd Antarctic Expedition II. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics found in this oral history include McCormick's early flight experiences such as learning to fly from his older brother while in high school and how to operate autogiros, his selection for Byrd Antarctic Expedition II (1933-1935), and the challenges of living and working in Antarctica. Some of these challenges included the problems that ice flows caused to supply ships, and how cold weather and whiteout conditions impacted repair projects and personnel relationships. The oral history also contains McCormick's recollections on Admiral Richard E. Byrd's personality and his relationship with others, Byrd's rescue from Advance Base, the Congressional Medal of Honor given to the expedition by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, McCormick's lecture tour and attempts at becoming an actor, and his later aviation experiences as both a link simulator trainer and an American Airlines pilot.