John Orville Beckwith Personal PapersSDASM.SC.10207

Contributing Institution: San Diego Air and Space Museum Library and Archives

Title: John Orville Beckwith Personal Papers

Identifier/Call Number: SDASM.SC.10207

Physical Description: 1 Cubic Feet The collection includes correspondence, promotional material for the Pilots Handbook and other Beckwith inventions, and memorabilia from Mr. Beckwith's military and commercial aircraft careers. The collection is contained in two flip-top archival storage boxes, one 15-1/2" x 2- 1/2" x 10-1/2", and the other 12-1/2" x 7" x 10-1/2".

Date (bulk): 1920-1950

Abstract: The collection includes correspondence, promotional material for the Pilots Handbook and other Beckwith inventions, and memorabilia from Mr. Beckwith's military and commercial aircraft careers.

Physical Description: Description: The collection is contained in two flip-top archival storage boxes, one 15-1/2" x 2- 1/2" x 10-1/2", and the other 12-1/2" x 7" x 10-1/2". Content notes: The collection includes correspondence, promotional material for the Pilots Handbook and other Beckwith inventions, and memorabilia from Mr. Beckwith's military and commercial aircraft careers.

Language of Material: English .

The materials in this collection were donated to the San Diego Air & Space Museum in April 2018. The collection has been processed and is open for research with no restrictions.

John Orville Beckwith was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa on February 14, 1904. His parents were Orville Beckwith, 1867-1920, and Louisa Ketcham Beckwith, 1871-1958. The family moved from Iowa to New Mexico in a covered wagon when John was an infant. They then moved to La Jolla, California in about 1910. John worked at Ryan Aircraft as a mechanic in the 1920s. He knew "Wrong Way" Corrigan, Harold Gatty, and Col. Charles Lindbergh. John received his pilot's license in the 1930s and was a member of the "Early Birds." In 1940, he lived in Oakland, California, with his wife, Dorothy, and was a sales manager for a venetian blind company. He joined the Navy in 1942 at age 38. He was considered too old to become a pilot, so served as an Aviation Ordnance man 1st Class Petty Officer, and flew air-sea rescue missions in PBYs to Tokyo Bay to pick up downed U.S. B-29 crews. In the 1930s, Mr. Beckwith was Manager of the Pilot's Handbook Publishing Company, which published The Pilot's Handbook, that used the Weemes System of Navigation, developed by Lt. Cdr. Philip Van Horn Weemes, U.S. Navy. In the mid-1930s, John and his brother bought the rights to the Bullseye Company. Among the items Beckwith invented there was a Sharp Shooter rubber band powered BB gun, patented in 1937 and manufactured by Bullseye. He also invented vintage pocket lighters that were well 2 known for their coin-like shape. They were manufactured in Los Angeles in about 1957 by the Beckwith Manufacturing Company. Beckwith was a friend of Col. Ed Carey, former CEO of the then San Diego Aerospace Museum, and he donated many aviation items to the San Diego Aerospace Museum that were, unfortunately, destroyed in the Museum fire in 1978. He was an avid gun collector, and operated an antique gun store in Encinitas, California until 1985 when he retired. He was widely known as "The Sage of Encinitas." Mr. Beckwith died on November 26, 1992 in La Jolla, California.