Topeka Aviation--Howard Athon

Howard Athon. There are a few photographs of him and his airplanes in Kansas Memory. Howard, originally from Quenemo, was in the Navy in World War I. He took advantage of military surplus after the war and he and his brother Fred started a barnstorming service in Lyndon. Howard soon moved to Olpe then to Topeka to work. In Topeka he flew out of Billard. He was flying with a trainer over the Kansas River just north of Topeka in 1931, in the passenger seat, with A.J. McKimmon at the controls. They were conducting some daredevil moves under the power lines and crashed into the river. McKimmon was ejected and died in the crash. Howard was severely injured but survived. His wife never flew again, and kept her children out of the cockpit after that. Howard always claimed it was the tough webbed seatbelt that held him in the cockpit and he kept that for many years. He continued to fly out of Billard, then when Allen Airport opened along 21st Street and Wanamaker Road in west Topeka, he moved his planes there.