Lincoln Beachey was America's first great airshow pilot, performing before an estimated 17 million people before his death at 28 above San Francisco Bay in 1915.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear invented wing walking as a maintenance fix in 1918, became Hollywood's first aviation stuntman, and died on camera at 28 before the barnstorming era he created had peaked.
TaildraggerHow Ivan Gates turned post-WWI surplus planes and unemployed pilots into America's most famous barnstorming operation, putting over a million people in the air.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear invented barnstorming in 1919, became one of America's most famous men, and died on a Hollywood film set on August 2, 1920, at age 28.
TaildraggerBefore crossing the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh spent years as a barnstorming wing walker - the unforgiving apprenticeship that built the most famous pilot in history.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the first African American and first person of Native American descent to earn an international pilot's license in 1921, after learning to fly in France when every U.S. flight school refused her.
TaildraggerRoscoe Turner won the Thompson Trophy three times, flew with a lion, and made aviation something every American felt belonged to them.
TaildraggerOn October 5, 1931, Clyde Pangborn completed the first nonstop transpacific flight - 4,500 miles from Japan to Washington State, without landing gear.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the first Black American and first American woman of color to earn a pilot's license in 1921, crossing the Atlantic after every U.S. flight school turned her away.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear became the world's first professional wing walker in 1919, died filming a Hollywood night sequence in 1920, and helped plant the seed for American aviation as we know it.
TaildraggerHow barnstormer Clyde Pangborn went from inverted flight at county fairs to completing the first nonstop transpacific flight in 1931.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear invented wing walking from a loose radiator cap in 1918 and became America's most famous aviator - until a Hollywood night flight killed him at 28.
TaildraggerLincoln Beachey invented the American airshow before the term existed, pioneering the Death Dip and inverted flight before dying at 27 in 1915.
TaildraggerHow the Gates Flying Circus barnstormed America with war-surplus biplanes in the 1920s, turning curious farmers into the next generation of pilots.
TaildraggerClyde Pangborn completed the first nonstop Pacific crossing in 1931, flying 4,558 miles in 41 hours after deliberately dropping his landing gear over open ocean.
TaildraggerHow barnstormer Clyde Pangborn's years hanging off biplanes above county fairs gave him the skills to complete the first non-stop transpacific flight in 1931.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the world's first Black licensed pilot in 1921, crossing the Atlantic to earn credentials that every American flight school had refused her.
TaildraggerOrmer Locklear invented wing walking and mid-air aircraft transfers in 1919, became Hollywood's first aerial stuntman, and died on camera at age 28.
TaildraggerIvan Gates built America's most famous flying circus in the 1920s without ever piloting a plane - transforming surplus WWI Jennys into a nationwide spectacle.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the world's first Black female pilot in 1921 by crossing the Atlantic to train in France after every American flight school refused her admission.
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