DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about John Valentine Pliska, out there in Midland County. Now, every now and then you come across a man who just can't leave well enough alone. The world hands him a forge and an anvil, and somehow — somehow — he ends up in the sky.
John Valentine Pliska was born in Austria, came to Texas with his parents, and after 1903 he set himself up in Midland working the blacksmith trade. Shoeing horses, hammering iron, doing what a master smith does. And by all accounts, he was exactly that — a master.
Good enough that when General John J. Pershing needed U.S. Army horses shod during the border trouble prior to World War I, he brought them right here, to Pliska's shop.
Branding irons for a large swath of west Texas came out of that same fire, that same anvil. But here's the thing about a mechanical genius — and the marker uses those exact words, mechanical genius — he's never really done thinking. And somewhere in that blacksmith shop, between the horses and the branding irons, John Pliska started thinking about the air.
In 1912, he built an aeroplane. His own invention. Built it himself.
And then — and this is the part worth savoring — he flew it. Not once. At intervals, the marker says, lasting up to fifteen minutes at a time.
The first locally-owned aircraft in the area, going up into that wide west Texas sky on the strength of one man's imagination and his own two hands. That plane still exists. Last the marker knew, it was sitting in the museum at the Midland-Odessa air terminal, which feels just about right.
Let the pilots walk past it and think on that a minute. Pliska married Louis Hundle. They had seven children together.
A man who shod the Army's horses, branded half of west Texas, and still found time to invent himself an airplane. Some folks just refuse to be only one thing.
What the marker says
Mechanical genius who made and flew first locally-owned aircraft. Born in Austria, Pliska came with parents to Texas, and after 1903 followed blacksmith trade in Midland. He built (1912) and flew at intervals up to 15 minutes an aeroplane of his own invention. (plane now in museum at Midland-Odessa air terminal.) Pliska was a master Smith. Gen. John J. Pershing had U. S. Army horses shod here during border trouble prior to World War I. Branding irons for a large west Texas area were also made here. Pliska married Louis Hundle. They had seven children.