Dakota County History 101: Aviator Nick Mamer (1898-1938)

Nick Mamer was born in Hastings in 1898 to Jacob and Mary Weber Mamer. In June 1916, Mamer became Minnesota’s first Army Aviator Corps recruit.

After studying aviation and mechanics in San Diego, CA, Mamer served as aerial patrol pilot at the United States/Mexico border during the Pancho Villa raids and as an aerial patrol engineer at the Panama Canal Zone. Mamer was then ordered to attend the school of military aeronautics at Princeton University in 1918. Upon graduation, Mamer served in the Army Reserves for one year. 

Mamer returned to Minnesota in 1919 after his discharge and organized Federated Flyers, Inc. performing flying exhibitions and providing passenger-hops in surplus war aircraft. In September 1919, Mamer piloted the craft that took aerial film of Minneapolis for the first time. 

United States Aircraft Corporation hired Mamer in 1920 and stationed him in Seattle, WA; Mamer would stay in the Pacific Northwest for the rest of his career and life.

Among Mamer’s flight accomplishments were setting an altitude record (at the time) of 15,200 feet with a Standard J-1 airplane, performing the first recorded nighttime aerial refueling and logging 1 million miles in the air.

In 1929, Mamer was granted a Bahl Aircraft franchise and established Mamer Air Transport, Inc. Mamer then became operations manager at Northwest Airways in 1933 and flew the first passenger airliner from Spokane, WA to St. Paul.

Tragedy struck Mamer on Jan. 10, 1938 when the vertical stabilizers fell off his plane during a storm near Bozeman, MT causing him to crash, killing everyone on the aircraft.