A young Army aviator with the beautiful name of Moss Love was on a training mission in San Diego when he crashed his Wright Model C biplane and died instantly. It is reported variously that he was either the 8th or 10th fatality in aviation history, flying only a few years after the Wright Brothers’ historic flight. The Army named its field in Dallas after Lieutenant Love in 1917.
Love Field in Dallas is the home airport for Southwest Airlines. Southwest has made much of the connection in its marketing. Their website boasts, somewhat anachronistically, that they began service with the “prettiest Flight Attendants” who served “Love Bites” on their planes. Tickets emanated from devices the airline dubbed “Love Machines” and when the airline went public in 1977, they chose the ticker symbol “LUV”.
Here is an article that appeared this morning in the Washington Post. I hope you enjoy it, as it recalls the multigenerational power of love and how both symbolically and actually it can be carried in the actions of aviators: