Captain Sture V Sigfred (deceased)
*Signature Value : £25
| Captain Sture V. Sigfred was born to Swedish immigrant parents John August and Sophia Sigfred on August 29, 1900. Beside the shores of Lake Adley in Parkers Prairie, Minnesota, Sture spent his youth working the family farm and exploring the forests of northern Minnesota. Faced with his father's illness in 1914, Sture quit school in the ninth grade to assume his father's postal route and help support his family. In December of 1918, only fifteen years following the Wright brothers' first flight, and with only $5.00 to his name, Sture boarded a train to Minneapolis. In early 1919 he joined the United States Navy. Sture was assigned to the Navy's 3rd Squadron in Pensacola following his Aviation Machinist Mate training in Great Lakes, Illinois. At Pensacola he was assigned to the Navy's infant fleet of flying boats as a flight engineer. Although he was disappointed that disarmament would prevent him from attending Navy flight school, Sture learned to fly on his own time. He gained the reputation of being a pilot who understood an airplane like a trusted friend. Following his honorable discharge from the Navy in 1923, Sture bought a half interest in a Standard J1 aircraft, and served as a pilot and partner in a barnstorming venture. In 1925, as a founding member of the Chicago Flying Club, Sture helped select the group's first flying strip, which is the current site of Chicago's O'Hare Field. In 1926 he began work with the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics and participated in the development of an engine cowling which allowed the nation's fledgling air fleet to attain greater fuel economy, higher power, and longer flight duration. While working with the NACA, Sture was hired by Ralph O'Neill to serve the pioneering New York, Rio & Buenos Aires Line. He remained with the small airline as a Chief Mechanic and Airport Manager until it was acquired by Pan American Airways in 1930. As an expert on the workings of the Sikorsky S-38, Sture was personally selected by Andre Priester (Pan Am's wizard of operations) to remain with the company. Rising quickly through the company's ranks, Sture was assigned to Pan Am's Pacific operations based in Alameda, California. Flying the famous Pan Am Clippers, Sture would fly a total of 48 round trips over the Pacific, and was made full Captain. In 1942 he transferred to Pan Am's Eastern operations in Miami flying DC-3s. When WW II broke out, Sture served with the Air Transport Command. He piloted one of the fifteen aircraft which flew the American delegation to the famous Cairo Conferences in late 1943. At these conferences the Allies plotted strategy for victory in the Pacific theater. Following the War Sture returned to Pan Am's passenger service operations in Miami. When he retired from Pan Am in 1951, he was number nineteen on Pan Am's seniority list for its three thousand pilots. Sture Sigfred lived in Norfolk, Virginia with Mildred, his wife of fifty-five years. Sadly, Sture Sigfred passed away on 8th August 1998, aged 98. |
