Have you ever wondered where Jeppesen charts come from? Here’s a mini history of the man behind the charts, which have been helping keep pilots safe for nearly 100 years.

Jeppesen and Jenny

Elroy Borge Jeppesen was born in 1907 in Louisiana, USA. History has it that as a child he would spend hours sitting outside watching eagles soaring overhead, and flying became his obsession. In 1921, aged fourteen, he paid $4 for a ten minute flight in a Curtiss JN-4.

The “Jenny” as they were known, was a WWI training aircraft – a twin-seat biplane with a top speed of 75mph, and a service ceiling of 6,500’. After the war ended, thousands were sold to the civilian market for as little as $50 (just under $1000 today), and they became the most popular ‘barnstorming’ aircraft – flown around the country, landing in small towns where they would perform aerial tricks, and take folk up for rides.

In 1925, aged 18, he signed up for Tex Rankin’s Flying Circus where he worked in various jobs including as a prop turner and a wing walker, all the while learning to fly. He soloed after just two hours and fifteen minutes and started working as an aerial acrobat, before buying his own aircraft for $500 – a surplus OX-5 Jenny.

In 1928, he started working for Fairchild Aerial Surveys, operating a de Havilland DH-4. These were designed specifically as a bomber, but were often used for aerial reconnaissance as well. Jeppesen was employed as a pilot, flying photographers around in order to map Mexico. He flew thousands of miles, helping take the first photo mappings of the Mexican coast from Texas to the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as mapping the Mississippi Delta region.

The same year, the USA started issuing pilot’s licences. Jeppesen’s own licence – 7034 – was the 27th to be issued in Oregon, and was signed by Orville Wright. He also held a Mexican licence – 33.

The Professional Postie Pilot

Five years after first starting to fly, Jeppesen took a job with Boeing Air Transport, working as an airmail pilot. Boeing Air Transport was founded by William Boeing in 1921. It merged with other companies, was broken up in 1934, and part of it became what we now know as United Airlines, while Boeing Airplane Company – the aircraft manufacturer – was separated out, and later became Boeing.

So, Jeppesen flew for BAT, primarily carrying mail, but occasionally passengers as well. In May 1930, he operated a series of flights from Oakland, San Francisco to Chicago – a total of 20 hours flying, with 13 stops and 14 passengers. On this flight, he also carried the first ever stewardess – Ellen Church. Other flights had carried flight attendants, but Ellen was the first female.

To understand where Jeppesen got the idea for charting airports, we need to take a look at what the airmail route flying looked like back then. Airmail was formally established in 1918, on a scheduled Washington-Philadelphia-New York route (using a “Jenny”), but mail had been transported by air prior to that – in fact, as far back as 1911. Interestingly, in 1919, William Boeing was one of the pilots on the first international air mail flight from the USA.

Airmail routes initially followed railroad tracks and the main roads, with some 34 contract air mail routes established. Pilots would use Rand-McNally automobile atlases (with a big dose of dead-reckoning thrown in for good measure) to navigate, since there were limited routes with airway beacons installed to assist with navigation.

Jeppesen flew a lot of the night runs, as they paid double. he double pay however was down to the additional dangers night flying could pose, particularly with regards navigation. Int he winter of 1930, 4 of BAT’s 20 pilots were killed after getting lost.

Big Ideas

Jeppesen bought himself a notebook, which became known as his “Little Black Book”, in order to record details about the routes he was flying. He would spend time walking around the areas he was flying to, surveying them, noting down where water towers were, smokestacks and airfield field lengths. He gathered the numbers of local farmers so that he could check weather conditions in advance of flying the routes. After a while, he started sharing those with his fellow pilots.

But Jeppesen had bigger ideas – he started to design his own en-route procedures – listing LF radio beacons, mileage references and terrain elevation profiles. He also designed let-down and approach procedures, and even missed approach procedures. These were simple headings, heights, and charts of terrain to avoid if pilots found themselves in bad weather.

In 1934, with a $450 loan, he started producing his first Airways Manual to sell to pilots. They were priced at $10 and rapidly sold out.

Jeppesen spent the next two decades building his charting business while working for United Airlines as a transport pilot. His manuals were utilised by private, commercial and military pilots, with the Army purchasing many during WWII.

The End

In 1947, he collaborated with what was then the U.S. Civil Aviation Authority (now the FAA) to develop standard instrument approach procedures, and to help establish the National Flight Data Center.

The company was sold in 1961, although he stayed on as chairman. In October 2000, Boeing acquired the business and Jeppesen Company because a subsidiary of it. You can see a copy of his ‘Little Black Book’ in the Museum of Flight at Seattle’s ‘Boeing Field’ airport, and here are some pictures below.