This is a short excerpt from "Rudy Kling The Pride of Lemont", the complete story can be found in the Lemont History & Anecdote Book , available at:
"How I long to throw myself into endless space and float above the awful abyss" -Goethe
Rudolph A. Kling was born in 1908 to Mr. and Mrs. Albert Kling. He was the sixth of eleven children. His father was a German immigrant who farmed 220 acres at Barber's Corners in rural DuPage Township, Will County, Illinois, just to the West of the Village of Lemont. Rudy grew up on the farm and attended the one room Orchard School, were he completed eight grades.
At sixteen he began construction work in Joliet, but his real ability was tinkering with motors. So in 1928, he joined his brother Fred in opening a garage on Rt. 66 (now Frontage Road next to I-55) where they repaired cars and sold DX Brand gasoline. A quite, ordinary child and young man and, yet, his spirit was caught, with other children of the "Lindbergh Era" in a dream of someday owning his own airplane and flying.
So he went to night school at Joliet Township High to learn navigation and there he met Herman Wilhelmi (who started the first Joliet airport) and Art Chester of Downers Grove (who flew in speed races and designed his own planes, including the Chester Specials and the WW II P-51 Mustang.)
Art Chester and Rudy became friends and in 1930 Rudy bought a J-5 Travel Air (a biplane with Curtis OX5 motor) from Chester with flying lessons as part of the deal. He began lessons on May 3, 1930 and after thirteen hours of lessons, Rudy was licensed with the Department of Commerce on June 10th, for limited private use.
Kling's ability with motors soon led him into aviation mechanics and the more he did with planes, the more he became fascinated with the "hot planes" or racing planes.
In 1933, Rudy had his chance to buy his own racing plane. During the Chicago Air Races that year, a gasoline tank exploded, damaging the "Miss San Francisco I" (A Keith Rider-R-I with a 544 cubic inch CA Menasco engine). The plane had won many races between 1931 and 1933. Rudy raised the money and brought the plane to Lemont to work on it. He rounded the windshield, repaired the damage and modified the cooling louvers on the left side to cool the oil and cylinders. He now had his racing plane but he could not fly it in competition. As he explained, "for no matter how well other pilots liked me personally, they didn't seem to like my brand of flying and I was more or less barred from competition. Even after I had proved I could get a ship off the ground in one piece, they couldn't see me for dust. So my ship was raced throughout 1934 and 1935 with Roger Don Rae at the controls." As a result, Rudy Kling had less than 200 hours of solo time in his own airplane but the plane did earn $3,625 that year, 1935.
In 1936, Rudy again modified the Keith-Rider. This time he enclosed the cockpit and with other changes added at least 10-12 miles per hour more to the previous top speed. He painted the plane blue with a cream trim, and renamed it "Susy."
On December 3, 1937 on his birthday, he was on the first lap in the turn of the pylon in Miami, was forced down, due to atmospheric conditions and crashed at a speed of more than 200 miles per hour. He died on his 29th birthday. He had flown his first race in Miami in 1934 and his last. He is buried in St. Mathew's Cemetery in Lemont.
A display donated to the "Old Stone Church Museum" by Robert Driscoll, can be seen in the lower level display area. The display features a model and plans for Rudy Kling's later plane "Jupiter," the "Pride of Lemont."
©2005-2008 by Lemont Area Historical Society