History of the Thompson Flying Club

The Thompson Flying Club, Inc has been a part of Harrisburg history for more than 53 years. As such, the history of the club has much to tell us, not only of the Harrisburg area and the people who made up the club over the years, but also about the history of General Aviation in Pennsylvania.

Fortunately, the founders of TFC left a bounty of information which can be used to reconstruct the history of the club from its inception in 1956. Minutes, legal documents, correspondence, bills of sale, and various reports provide a rich source of information. Naturally, the internet helped to flesh out some of the details. This brief history of the club will serve to at least in part document the history of aviation in Harrisburg only 53 years after Kitty Hawk, and less than 13 years after the end of WWII - the heyday of General Aviation in the USA. In so doing, the TFC captured the growth of GA in America, from cloth covered tail draggers, the growth of the CAA, instrument flying, and the metamorphosis of GA aircraft from simple, bare-bones flying machines to the highly complex technological products which they are today.

However, a brief disclaimer is in order. Documents, like the people who create them, are imperfect and in some cases subject to interpretation. Since they were for the most part written for the present and not the future audience, it is sometimes difficult to draw accurate connections. Despite diligent efforts to get all the facts and nothing but the facts, only those who were there can be the ultimate judges of the accuracy. Unfortunately for us, missing are the thoughts, recollections and personal observations from the Club’s founders.

Thompson Products, Inc began business as the Cleveland Cap Screw Company and was founded in 1901 by Charles Thompson. Their original specialty was screw-in automotive valve stems.

They gradually moved into the emerging aviation industry, where they made the sodium cooled valves for Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis. In 1958, Thompson merged his company with Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge to form Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Inc. In 1965 the name of the company was shortened to TRW, a world wide leader in the aerospace industry.

TRW led the development of the USAF ICBM program, built the Pioneer I satellite as well as Pioneer 10, the first man-made object to leave the solar system.i

In 1956, Elvis was King, Eisenhower was President, and the employees of Thompson Products, Inc, Harrisburg Works organized a company-based flying clubii. Minutes and corporate documents of TFC, Inc seem to indicate that the club was more than just a group of TPI employees. The relationship seemed much closer than that. For example, correspondence communicating the drafts Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws was between the law firm hired to do the work and the TPI Personnel Director. Also, early minutes record that meetings were held in the conference room of the TPI personnel office, and even mention receiving a $100 donation from TPI. TFC was apparently an officially sanctioned activity for TPI employees.