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Florence Klingensmith with the Amelia Earhart Trophy that she won, for female flyers, at the 1932 National Air Races, which were held at the Cleveland Municipal Airport, in Cleveland, Ohio, from August 27th to September 5th. Standing next to her, on the left, is the aviator Amelia Earhart and, on the right, is the owner of her airplane, Jack Wright. She died on September 4th, 1933, one day after her 29th birthday, while attempting to parachute out of her red Granville Gee Bee Model Y Senior Sportster, which had suffered structural damage on its right wing, during an air race in Chicago, Illinois. In 1931, she had set an aerobatic flight record of 1,078 consecutive inside loops. |
A cover signed by some of the participants in the 1932 National Air Races. |
A cover signed by some of the participants in the 1932 National Air Races, including Florence Klingensmith. |
The cover of an advertisement for the 1932 National Air Races. The inside of the advertisement promises "Higher speeds! More daring maneuvers! More stirring and fearless stunt flying! Greater thrills!" |
FLORENCE
KLINGENSMITH - CLAY COUNTY PILOT
1932
CLEVELAND AIR RACES
1931
AND 1932 CLEVELAND AIR RACE PHOTOS
BEE
GEE MODEL-Y SENIOR SPORTSTER
Edward Korn flew the first official air mail from Springfield, Illinois, in this Benoist Type XII biplane, on October 8, 1912, during the State Fair Grounds Aviation Meet, which was scheduled to be held from October 4th to 12th, but did not actually start until October 8th. However, he did not complete this flight, to Williamsville, Illinois, his intended destination, but a second air mail flight was made, on October 10th, which was completed by aviator Horace Kearney. This photo shows Edward Korn with his brother Milton, in the front seat of the aircraft, before he and Milton were injured in it, in a crash, on August 13, 1913, which Milton died from, five days later. These two brothers, whose younger brother, Arlington, was also an aviator, built this aircraft between March and May 20, 1912, in the Benoist airplane factory in St. Louis, Missouri, and they also established Korn Airport, which was the first airport in Ohio. This airplane was later donated to the National Air and Space Museum, in Washington, District of Columbia, in 1949, by Edward Korn, after some of his students had rebuilt it, with modifications, during 1917 and 1918, and it was restored to its original configuration, by the museum, during 1981 and 1982. He died in 1980. |
On the back of this photo Edward Korn described the Benoist Type XII biplane that he flew. This description appears to have been written around 1937, as he refers to an upcoming reenactment of his 1912 air mail flight, for its 25th anniversary. |
EDWARD
KORN
BENOIST-KORN,
TYPE XII, 1912
Photo courtesy of Stephen H. King Born on January 10, 1883, in Paris, France, Hubert Latham taught himself to fly in 1909, after joining the Antoinette Company, and was one of the aviators who attempted to win the 1,000 Pound prize, offered by the London Daily Mail newspaper, for the first airplane to cross the English Channel during 1909, which was accomplished by French aviator Louis Bleriot, in a Bleriot XI monoplane, on Sunday, July 25, 1909. Though Latham had, previously, made a flight across the English Channel, from London, England, to Paris, with his cousin, Jacques Faure, in a balloon, during February 11-12, 1905, his first attempt in an airplane, on Monday, July 19, 1909, had to be abandoned, when the engine of his Antoinette IV monoplane failed, about seven miles out from Sangatte, France. He later attempted another flight across the English Channel, in an airplane, two days after Bleriot's successful crossing, on Tuesday, July 27th, but the engine in his Antoinette VII monoplane also failed, with only 500 yards to go and in view of Dover, England. He later flew in the 1909 and 1910 Rheims aviation meets, and won the $20,000 prize for an 160-mile air race from Chalons-Sur-Marne to Issy, France, in August 1910. He was killed in July 1912, reportedly, by a buffalo he was hunting, near Fort Archambault, in French Equatorial Africa, though it is said that a French Army officer, investigating his death, speculated that he might have been killed by one of his porters. This photo shows him in his Antoinette IV monoplane, before his July 19th attempt to cross the English Channel. |
A vintage French post card showing Hubert Latham flying an Antoinette monoplane. |
Photo courtesy of Stephen H. King Hubert Latham flying an Antoinette monoplane over San Francisco Bay, during the January 1911 San Francisco aviation meet, in California. |
Stephen H. King, who is related, by marriage,
to Hubert Latham, has written a book about him and has a wonderful web
site devoted to him at
HUBERT
LATHAM WINDKILLER
HUBERT LATHAM
1883-1912
HUBERT LATHAM PIONEER
AVIATOR
RHEIMS
AIR MEET
Photo courtesy of Ralph Cooper Walter Edwin Lees was the test pilot for the Stout Air Sedan, in February of 1923, which is shown, in this photo, in flight on June 23, 1923. He was also a barnstormer, a civilian flight instructor for the United States Army, during World War I, and the first commercial pilot to use a parachute. He won an air racing trophy at the 1923 St. Louis International Air Meet and, in 1931, he set a flight endurance record, of 84 hours and 32 minutes, with aviator Fred A. Brossy, in a Packard-Bellanca monoplane, which was to stand for 55 years. He was a member of the Early Birds organization, of aviators that flew before December 17, 1916, and his daughter Jo Cooper wrote a 1993 biography about his flying career, called Pioneer Pilot. |
A wonderful web site about Walter E. Lees,
by his son-in-law, Ralph Cooper, is at
PIONEER
PILOT WALTER E. LEES