Lincoln Beachey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1887-03-03)March 3, 1887 San Francisco, California, US |
| Died | March 14, 1915(1915-03-14) (aged 28) Panama–Pacific International Exposition San Francisco, California, US |
| Cause of death | Drowning |
| Resting place | Cypress Lawn Memorial Park |
| Occupation | Aviator |
| Spouse | May (Minnie) Wyatt[1]: 34 |
Lincoln Beachey (March 3, 1887 – March 14, 1915) was apioneer American aviator andbarnstormer. He became famous and wealthy from flying exhibitions, staging aerial stunts, helping inventaerobatics, and setting aviation records.[2]
He was known asThe Man Who Owns the Sky, and sometimes theMaster Birdman.[3] Beachey was acknowledged even by his competitors as "The World's Greatest Aviator".[3] He was "known by sight to hundreds of thousands and by name to the whole world".[citation needed]
On March 3, 1887, Lincoln Beachey was born in San Francisco, and in 1903, first rode in atethered balloon. In 1905, Lincoln and his older brother Hillery signed a contract withThomas Scott Baldwin to fly hisdirigible at theLewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. On September 10, 1906, the Beachey brothers flew their dirigible aroundWashington, D.C., with Lincoln landing on theWhite House lawn, and then on theUnited States Capitol steps. Lincoln then participated in the1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Field. This led Lincoln to abandon dirigibles, and start his career with aeroplanes as a mechanic forGlenn Curtiss.[1]
At the 1911 Los Angeles airshow, Beachey made the first successfulnose-diving spin recovery, anddeadstick landing. No previous pilot had survived a "deadly spiral." Lincoln then won the shortest take-off event at theTanforan Aviation Meet.[4][1]: 57–62, 115–118
AlthoughWilfred Parke is credited with developing "Parke's technique" to recover from a tailspin,[5] Beachey is also cited as having discovered the maneuver.[6] Climbing to 5,000 feet (1,500 m), he forced his plane into the spin and then turned the rudder in the direction of the spin, allowing him to level out. He repeated the maneuver eleven more times to confirm that it worked.[7]
In June the organizers of the U.S.-Canadian International Carnival offered $4,000 to fly through theNiagara Gorge, and another $1,000 to fly under theHoneymoon Bridge. On June 27, 1911, Beachey flew his Curtiss D biplane before an estimated 150,000 spectators. Flying through the mist ofHorseshoe Falls, then descending within 6 meters (20 feet) of the surface of theNiagara River, he flew his plane under the bridge, and down the length of the gorge.[8][9][1]: 65–73, 118
At the1911 Chicago International Aviation Meet, after coming in second in the fast climb event, Beachey entered a steep dive, and then flew alongside a locomotive, first on one side of the passenger cars, then on the other, before placing his wheels on top, hopping from one car to the next. Winning the altitude record, he had filled his tanks with fuel, climbing skyward until the fuel ran out after an hour and forty-eight minutes. After his engine quit, he glided in spirals to the ground over the next twelve minutes. The barograph aboard the plane showed he had reached a height of 11,642 feet (3,548 m), a world record for altitude.[10][1]: 74–87
In 1912, Beachey, Parmelee, and aviation pioneer Glenn Martin performed the first night flights in California with acetylene burners, fuses, and small noise making bombs dropped over Los Angeles.[11] In 1913, Beachey took off inside the Machinery Palace on the Exposition grounds at theSan FranciscoWorld's Fair. He flew the plane at 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) and landed it, all inside the confines of the hall. His stunt speciality was the "dip-of-death", where he would take his plane up to 5,000 feet (1,500 m), and dive toward the ground at full speed with his hands outstretched. At the last moment he would level the plane and zoom down the raceway, with his hands off of the controls, gripping the control stick with his knees. In a jest aimed atBlanche Stuart Scott, another member of the Curtiss exhibition team, Beachey dressed up as a woman and pretended to be out of control in a mock terror to hundreds of thousands.[12]
In 1913, a Russian pilot, CaptainPyotr Nesterov, made the firstinside loop. FrenchmanAdolphe Pegoud later that year became the second and more famous person to do it. Beachey wanted to try it himself. Curtiss refused to build him a plane capable of the stunt, and Beachey left the flying team. At the same time, he wrote a scathing essay about stunt flying, stating most people came to exhibitions out of morbid eagerness to see young pilots die. On March 7, 1913, he announced he would never again fly professionally, believing he was indirectly responsible for the deaths of several young aviators who had tried to emulate his stunts.[13] In May, he would cite twenty-four fatalities, all of whom were "like brothers" to him.[14]
Beachey went into the real estate business for a time, until Curtiss reluctantly agreed to build a stunt plane powerful enough to do the inside loop. Beachey returned and, on October 7, took the plane up in the air atHammondsport, New York. On its first flight, either a downdraft or a loss of speed following a turn caused the plane to dip momentarily. One wing clipped the ridgepole of a tent on the field and the plane then swept two young women and two naval officers off the roof of a nearby hangar, from where they had been watching the flight, contrary to Beachey's wishes. One woman was killed and the others injured as a result of the fall, a distance of about 10 feet (3 m). Beachey's plane crashed in a nearby field but he managed to walk away from the wreckage with minor injuries. A coroner's jury ruled the death of the 20-year-old woman as accidental.[15][16]
Beachey became an aviation superstar: In one year, 17 million people saw him fly. At the time, the population of the United States was just 90 million people. His achievements include inventing figure 8s and the vertical drop. He was also the first pilot to achieve terminal velocity by flying straight toward the ground. On November 24, 1913, he flew aninside loop,[4] first flying upside down, and then flying repetitive loops overSan Diego Bay. Beachey stated afterwards, "The silent Reaper of Souls and I shook hands that day."[1]: 123–132, 161–162
On March 3, 1914, Beachey formed his own company, with Bill Pickens as promoter, and Warren Eaton as aircraft designer and builder. After flying aGlenn L. Martintractor configuration plane powered by aGnome et Rhône engine, Beachey traveled to France and purchased two 80horsepowerGnome Lambdas and brought it back to Chicago. One of those powered his "Little Looper" biplane, with a 21-foot wingspan, in which he demonstrated atailslide.[1]: 144–153
During Beachey's 126-city tour in 1914, he would sometimes raceBarney Oldfield on a localrace track. Beachey's airshow spectators includedThomas Edison andOrville Wright.[1]: 161–193 Orville Wright said, "An aeroplane in the hands of Lincoln Beachey is poetry. His mastery is a thing of beauty to watch. He is the most wonderful flyer of all."[17]
In 1914, he dive-bombed the White House and Congress in a mock attack, proving that the US government was woefully unprepared for the age that was upon it.[18][1]: 195–202
On November 26, 1914 outside San Diego, according to Marrero, " Lincoln Beachey demonstrated the military use of airplanes by cropping sacks of flour on a ship, while Bill Pickens, his promotional wizard, set off charges to produce 'special effects' of black smoke."[1]: 194
_at_Cypress_Lawn_Memorial_Park%2c_Colma%2c_CA.jpg)
Beachey made his final flight at thePanama–Pacific International Exposition. Prior to the exposition, in 1914, he had the Beachey-Eaton Monoplane[19] built, theTaube (Dove), which includedtricycle landing gear, enclosed cockpit, ailerons at the ends and rear of the wings, andcowling around his Gnome engine.[1]: 216–219
On March 14, 1915,[1]: 236 he took the plane up in front of a crowd of 50,000 (inside the Fairgrounds—with another 200,000 on the hills), made a loop, and turned the plane onto its back. He may have been so intent on leveling the inverted plane, he failed to notice he was only 2,000 feet (610 m) above San Francisco Bay. He pulled on the controls to pull the plane out of its inverted position, where it was slowly sinking. The strain caused the rear spars in its wings to break, and the crumpled plane plunged into the bay between two ships. Navy men jumped into action, but it took 1 hour and 45 minutes to recover Beachey's body. Even then, rescuers spent three hours trying to revive him. The autopsy found he had survived the crash with only a broken leg, but had died from drowning, unable to release his safety harness while falling.[2]
Thousands lined the streets for his funeral in San Francisco.[1]: 245 On the one year anniversary of his death, a memorial organized by aviatorEdna Christofferson drew hundreds to pay their respects, and theSan Francisco Examiner reported that Beachey's grave "was buried under an avalanche of floral tributes."[20] He was interred atCypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma.
Beachey's final flight, which resulted in his death, was remembered in a children'sjump-rope rhyme which was sung by children in San Francisco in the 1920s.[21][22]
Beachey is also referenced in pages 19 and 20 of the fiction bookJohnny Got His Gun. In the book he is flying over the main character's home town.[23]
Air Pressure Crumples Monoplane's Wings as Airman Tries to Resume Glide. Crowd of 50,000 horrified. Machine and Aeroplanist Fall Into San Francisco Bay. Recovered by Navy Diver. Brother saw his plunge. Fatal Perpendicular Drop from 3,000 feet (910 m). Like Feat Beachey Often Had Executed in Biplane. Lincoln Beachey, noted as an aviator the world over and perhaps the greatest rival of the Frenchman, Pegoud, in the execution of hair-raising aerial feats, fell to his death here today in the new German Taube monoplane in which he had been attempting to duplicate the spectacular performances of which, in the biplane, he was the acknowledged master. ...
{{cite journal}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)Lincoln Beachey the aviator, will never fly again, according to what he himself said last night at the Olympic Club.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
