Ivan Gates, Clyde Pangborn, and the Gates Flying Circus, the Barnstormers Who Sold a Million Dollar Rides Off the Wing of a War-Surplus Jenny

The Gates Flying Circus was the largest and most famous barnstorming operation in American history. Founded around 1922 by promoter Ivan Gates and led in the air by legendary pilot Clyde Pangborn, the outfit turned aerial stunt shows into a business and gave short airplane rides to more than one million passengers over its lifetime - for many rural Americans, the first flight they ever took. It thrived on a flood of cheap, war-surplus Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplanes and faded when the novelty wore off and federal regulation arrived in the mid-1920s.

Why Were Airplanes So Cheap After World War I?

When the Great War ended in 1918, the U.S. government was left with thousands of surplus training aircraft it no longer needed. The most common was the Curtiss JN-4, nicknamed the “Jenny.”

A Jenny had cost the government more than $4,000 to build during the war. After the Armistice, brand-new examples - still packed in factory grease - were sold off for as little as $200 to $300, cheaper than a good used automobile. Some crates even included a spare OX-5 engine.

The result was a country full of young men who had learned to fly in the Army, returned to farm towns with little waiting for them, and could suddenly buy the airplane they had trained on for the price of a horse and buggy. They bought the planes and went looking for ways to make them pay.

What Was Barnstorming?

Barnstorming was the practice of flying into a rural town, landing in a farmer’s pasture, and charging locals for short airplane rides and stunt shows. It boomed across rural America in the years right after World War I.

The routine was simple. A pilot would circle until he spotted a field that looked flat, firm, and long enough, set the Jenny down, taxi to the fence, and wait. No advertising was needed - an airplane landing in a pasture around 1920 was the biggest event a county might see all year.

The pilot would then strike a deal with the farmer, often trading a free ride for use of the field. Everyone else paid. The going rate ran around a dollar a minute, with roughly $5 buying a hop around the church steeple and back. Pilots worked alone, slept under the wing, and moved on when the paying customers ran out.

Who Started the Gates Flying Circus?

Ivan Gates was a promoter and showman, not a pilot. He looked at the lone barnstormers scratching out a few dollars at a time and saw a bigger opportunity: instead of sending one airplane into a town, send a whole squadron.

His idea was a flying circus - multiple Jennies, a roster of pilots, wing walkers, parachute jumpers, and a man on the ground with a megaphone working the crowd. The show would build excitement, and then the pilots would sell rides by the hundreds.

Gates launched the Gates Flying Circus around 1922, and it grew into the biggest and most famous barnstorming outfit the country ever produced.

Who Was Clyde Pangborn, “Upside-Down Pangborn”?

Clyde Pangborn was the star pilot of the Gates Flying Circus and one of the finest natural aviators of his era. Born in Washington State, he grew up around timber and mines, learned to fly in the Army during the war, and stayed on as an instructor before joining Gates as chief pilot and eventually a partner.

Pilots and reporters alike agreed Pangborn had extraordinary hands - he could make a Jenny do things that seemed impossible for a wood-and-fabric biplane with only 60 to 90 horsepower.

He earned the nickname “Upside-Down Pangborn” by flying the biplane inverted, low over the crowd, close enough that spectators could see his face. The Jenny’s fuel and oil systems were never designed to run inverted, yet he flew it that way for years.

What Was the “Plane Change” Stunt?

The signature act that made the Gates Flying Circus famous was the midair transfer, or “plane change.” It landed the outfit in newspapers across the country.

Two Jennies would fly in close formation, low over the field. A rope ladder trailed from the lower airplane, and a wing walker would climb down out of the top plane, hang off the landing gear, time the moment, and drop onto the swinging ladder below to climb into the second cockpit - no reliable parachute and no net.

The stunt depended entirely on the flying. While the wing walker drew the gasps, the pilot held formation so precisely that the ladder stayed within reach even as a dangling body shifted the ship’s balance. That steadiness was Pangborn’s craft and the mark of the pilots he trained.

How Many People Did the Gates Flying Circus Fly?

The Gates Flying Circus claimed to have carried more than one million passengers over the life of the operation - a figure consistent with the scale of its shows.

Those million were ordinary Americans: farmers, schoolteachers, children, and grandmothers. For many, it was the only time their feet ever left the earth, and the first airplane they ever saw or rode had the word Gates painted on the side, often with Clyde Pangborn at the controls.

That mattered for aviation as a whole. While record-setters like Lindbergh and Wiley Post crossed oceans, the barnstormers convinced everyday people that an airplane was neither a death trap nor a rich man’s toy. They sold America on flight one field at a time, and the Gates outfit sold more of it than anyone.

Why Was Barnstorming So Dangerous?

Barnstorming was brutal, deadly work. Crews slept in fields, ate when they could, and patched war-weary Jennies with whatever was on hand.

Deaths were common. A wing walker could slip, a pilot could misjudge a low pass, fabric could tear, a wire could snap, or an engine could quit over bad country. These crews flew already worn-out aircraft harder than the designs ever intended, down low where a mistake had no room to become anything but a fatality.

What Ended the Barnstorming Era?

Two forces ended barnstorming by the mid-1920s. The first was simple economics: so many surplus Jennies and so many barnstormers saturated the market that the novelty wore off. Nearly every town had already seen an airplane land in its pasture, and the crowds - and the $5 fares - dried up.

The second was federal regulation. In 1926, Congress passed the Air Commerce Act, which for the first time brought the federal government into licensing pilots and aircraft and setting rules for how and where they could fly. No more landing in any cow pasture, and no more flying an unlicensed, worn-out Jenny inverted over paying crowds.

That same set of rules is the direct ancestor of the modern aviation system. Today’s pilot certificates, airworthiness certificates, and the structure that eventually became the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) all trace back to the 1920s decision to turn the barnstorming free-for-all into a regulated profession.

What Happened to Ivan Gates and Clyde Pangborn?

Ivan Gates came to a sad end. As the circus wound down and money troubles mounted, he died in the early 1930s, a broken man - a fate shared by many showmen once the show was over.

Clyde Pangborn, by contrast, flew on to greater fame. Years of low-level, seat-of-the-pants barnstorming - nursing tired engines, reading weather, and knowing exactly what an airplane would and wouldn’t do - made him one of the most capable pilots in the world.

In 1931, Pangborn and partner Hugh Herndon made the first-ever nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean, flying from Japan to Washington State. To cut drag, he rigged the airplane to drop its landing gear after takeoff, then brought it home to a belly landing in a field - finishing right where his flying career had begun.

Key Takeaways

• The Gates Flying Circus, founded around 1922 by promoter Ivan Gates, was the largest barnstorming operation in U.S. history and claimed over one million passengers.
• Cheap war-surplus Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplanes - built for over $4,000 but sold for as little as $200 - made barnstorming possible.
• Chief pilot Clyde Pangborn, “Upside-Down Pangborn,” was renowned for inverted flight and for holding steady formation during the famous midair “plane change” stunt.
• The 1926 Air Commerce Act ended the barnstorming era and became the foundation of modern aviation regulation and the FAA.
• Pangborn later made the first nonstop trans-Pacific flight in 1931, landing on the airplane’s belly in a Washington field.