Oral history interview with Harold W. Shangle, 1980 February 22

This oral history interview with Harold W. Shangle was conducted by Patrick Harris on February 22, 1980, at Shangle's home in in Oak Grove, Oregon, as part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library's oral history program. Howard Hagerman and Bill Forviss were also present, and occasionally contributed to the interview.

In this interview, Shangle discusses learning to fly and working as an airplane mechanic at the Swan Island Airport in Portland from 1928 to 1933. He speaks about the airports in the Portland area at the time, about early aviation culture, and about airplanes available to recreational fliers in the 1930s. He talks about women aviators in Portland, including Dorothy Hester; about Portland flight instructor Tex Rankin; and about pilots he learned from. He describes navigation instruments in early airplanes, and talks about airplane crashes in Oregon. He closes the interview by speaking about the careers of other early Oregon air pilots, and about the types of airplane engines he worked on.