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Dunkel (Joseph R.) Personal Papers
SDASM.SC.10041
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
San Diego Air and Space Museum Library and Archives
Title: Joseph R. Dunkel Personal Papers
source:
Dunkel, Joseph R.
Identifier/Call Number: SDASM.SC.10041
Physical Description:
0.36 Cubic Feet
1 box, 15”x2.5”x11”.
Date (inclusive): 1896-2014
Abstract: Joseph J. Dunkel was a veteran parachute jumper and pilot, flying various aircraft from gliders to four-engine bombers. This
Collection includes photos documenting Dunkel's life in Aviation.
The collection is open to researchers by appointment.
Some copyright may be reserved. Consult with the library director for more information.
[Item], [Filing Unit], [Series Title], [Subgroups], [Record Group Title and Number], [Repository “San Diego Air & Space Museum
Library & Archives”]
Joseph J. Dunkel was a veteran parachute jumper and pilot, flying various aircraft from gliders to four-engine bombers. He
made what is perhaps the earliest known reference to an attempt at a stratospheric jump. Born in 1896 around Cleveland, Ohio,
Dunkel began parachuting from a very young age. During the 1930s, he was the leader of a large team of jumpers who gave demonstrations
of mass jumps at the Cleveland National Air Races. By the time he was 41, he was a veteran daredevil parachutist and had jumped
approximately 1300 times and had trained innumerable parachutists, including various women parachutists also mention in the
collection, such as Marie McMillen. In 1938 he announced an attempt at the world’ first stratospheric jump, however the stunt
never came to fruition. When the United States entered World War II, Dunkel was hired at Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation,
San Diego Division. He married Alice E. Hefner and they had one son, Russell Norman Dunkel.
Collection consists of 1 box, 15”x2.5”x11”. The collection contains over 200 mostly black and white photographs of stunts
and air races, racer aircraft, as well as newspaper clippings, sketches and schematics planning a jump from a Consolidated
B-24 Liberator, and materials largely from the 1930s and 1940s.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The materials in this Collection were donated to the San Diego Air and Space Museum.
Burton, Walter E. “Twenty-One-Mile Parachute Leap.” Popular Science, August, 1938. Accessed March 31, 2014. http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=eCYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=5&query=August%201938
Images from this Collection have been digitized and placed on Flickr
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Krakatoa
Stunt flying
Consolidated B-24 Liberator Family
Parachuting
Mcmillen, Marie
Dunkel, Joseph R.
Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation