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John Gilbert Rankin, nicknamed "Tex", was a barnstormer in the 1920's, flying a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny biplane, and an aerobatic flyer in the 1930's, and this 1938 photo shows him in his Great Lakes Rankin Special biplane, with registration number NX315Y, that he first obtained, in 1931, with registration number NC315Y, for aerobatic flying and reacquired in 1936, after he had sold it, in 1932, to Dorothy Hester, who was a student of his. He started his own flying service in Portland, Oregon, in 1922, and participated in the 1927 National Air Derby from New York to Spokane, Washington, the 1928 Air Derby from New York to Los Angeles, California, and the 1929 Air Derby from Portland, Oregon to Cleveland, Ohio, in which he finished second, while flying a Waco airplane. In 1931, while flying his Great Lakes Rankin Special biplane, he set a record of 131 consecutive outside loops and at the 1935 National Air Races in Cleveland, he won an aerobatic trophy. He also won the 1938 International Aerobatic Championship, in St. Louis, Missouri and performed daily aerobatic flights at the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair. He was killed in the crash of a Republic Seabee airplane, at Klamath Falls, Oregon, in 1947, and his Great Lakes Rankin Special biplane is now at the Oregon Aviation Museum. |
Tex Rankin, Melba Banks, and, perhaps, Hap Roundtree standing next to an Alexander Eaglerock Long Wing biplane, with registration number 1123, in Bell Line Air Service, around 1926. |
A closeup of the second above. |
TEX
RANKIN, AND HIS LEGACY -- 50 YEARS LATER
TEX
RANKIN'S GREAT LAKES AEROBATIC BIPLANE TO BE RESTORED
"BLACK
CATS AND OUTSIDE LOOPS TEX RANKIN AEROBATIC ACE"
HERE
COMES TEX RANKIN IN HIS GREAT LAKES!
JOHN
GILBERT 'TEX' RANKIN
The Stinson SM-1 Detroiter Port of Brunswick that Paul Redfern used for his attempted August 1927 flight from Georgia to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during which he was lost. |
PAUL
R. REDFERN
YOUNG
AVIATOR'S FATE REMAINS UNKNOWN
'PORT
OF BRUNSWICK' REMAINS A MYSTERY
Hugh A. Robinson was an exhibition flyer, who worked for Glenn Curtiss, as a mechanic and a flyer, and had invented the tail hook that Eugene Ely used, when he landed his Curtiss Model D biplane on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania, on January 18, 1911, and became the first aviator to land an airplane on a ship. From October 17-20, 1911, Hugh Robinson attempted a flight down the Mississippi River, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to New Orleans, Louisiana, which he cut short, at Rock Island, Illinois, after 375 miles, when he ran out of financial support for the flight.(1) He did, however, set a world speed record, during the flight, by flying 110 miles from Lake Calhoun to Winona, in Minnesota, in 89 minutes, for an average speed of 81 m.p.h. This photo shows his Curtiss seaplane, with its number thirteen medallion, on its radiator, on the bank of the Mississippi River, at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, during this flight, on October 19th. He considered "thirteen" to be his lucky number and would not let French aviator Louis Paulhan fly his seaplane with the medallion attached, during his exhibition tour in France, in 1912.(2) Though he crashed his seaplane into the Mediterranean Sea, during this tour, he escaped from the crash unharmed and his luck also held after the tour, as he was scheduled to return to the United States on the S.S. Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank, but he took another ship, instead.(3) He flew 25 pounds of air mail, consisting of about 800 pieces, during his Mississippi River flight, but it is reported that less than 10 pieces of it are still known to exist. He would have carried an additional 25 pounds of air mail, during the flight, but he could not take off from Lake Calhoun with this added weight.(4) Hugh Robinson was born in 1881 and died in 1963. (1) Page 93, George L. Vergara, Hugh Robinson, University
Press of Florida, Gainsville, 1995.
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What may be another photo of Hugh Robinson's seaplane along the bank of the Mississippi River, on October 19, 1911. The second photo is a closeup of the first one. |
A closeup of the second photo above. |
HUGH
A.
ROBINSON
ALLURE
OF PRIZE MONEY
The first transcontinental flight across the United States of America was made by early aviator Calbraith Perry Rodgers, who completed the flight in legs, with the Wright biplane that is shown in this photo, over the course of 49 days. Starting his flight at Sheepshead Bay, on Long Island, in New York, on September 17, 1911, he completed the 4,321-mile flight at Pasadena, California, on November 10th. His biplane carried advertisement for his sponsor's Vin Fiz grape soda and he had hoped to win the $50,000 prize that was offered for such a flight, by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, but he could not complete the flight in the required thirty days, though Hearst did pay him $5 for every mile that he flew, for a total of $21,605.(1) He crashed his biplane sixteen times, during the flight, and its repair required so many replacement parts, which was supplied by a special train that followed his route, that only the rudder and two struts remained of his original airplane, by the time he completed his flight.(2) He made over 80 stops, during the flight, and his actual flight time was 82 hours and 4 minutes.(3) He died about four months later, on Wednesday, April 3, 1912, after he crashed his biplane into the Pacific Ocean, in three feet of water and thirty feet from the shore, at Long Beach, while trying to recover from a dive that he had made to avoid a flock of seagulls.(4) The crash caused the biplane's engine to break free and break his neck.(5) He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (1) Page 78, Phil Scott, The Wrong Stuff?,
Barnes & Noble, New York, 2006.
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United States Navy Commodore John Rodgers and his crew attempted a transpacific flight from San Francisco, California to Hawaii, on August 31st, 1925, at 3:00 p.m., using a Naval Aircraft Factory PN-9-1 flying boat, with serial number A-6878. After about 25 hours in the air, he ran out of fuel and was forced to land on the Pacific Ocean. For nine days, he and his crew were presumed lost, until they were rescued by United States Navy submarine R-4 and towed to Kauai Island.(1) Another United States Navy PN9-3 flying boat, under the command of Lieutenant Allan P. Snody, had also started a transpacific flight that day, before Rodgers, but it was forced to abandon its flight, because of engine trouble. (1) Page 1543, The American Air Mail Society, American Air Mail Catalogue, Washington, 1974-1985. |
Charles Stewart Rolls was an exhibition flyer, who founded the Rolls-Royce car company, with Frederick Henry Royce, in 1906. He was also a balloonist, who had crossed the English Channel and made over 160 accessions, and was the second aviator, after Lord John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, to be licensed by the Royal Aero Club. He became the first aviator to make a non-stop round-trip flight across the English Channel, on June 2, 1910, which he made in about 95 minutes, and the third aviator to cross it. After the flight he was honored by the Royal Aero Club with a gold medal and Madame Tussard's museum, in London, displayed a waxwork of him.(1) This photo shows the crash of his Short-Wright biplane, in which he was killed, at the Bournemouth air meet, on July 12, 1910. He had shut off the biplane's motor, just before the crash, and was gliding, in a circle, when its tail suddenly broke off, at an altitude of one hundred feet.(2) In the resulting crash, he was thrown from the biplane and suffered a fractured skull. Horace Short, one of the brothers from the Short airplane company, witnessed the crash, along with aviator Claude Grahame-White, and believed the French-designed hinged tailplane, that Rolls had installed on July 10th and tested on July 11th, had caused the crash, by distorting the biplane's long outrigger, during Roll's attempted landing.(3) He was born on August 27, 1877, and was the first British aviator and the twelfth aviator worldwide to be killed in an aviation accident. (1) Page 80, Peter King, Knights of the Air, University of
Iowa Press, Iowa City, 1989.
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A 1910 newspaper
article about his round-trip flight across the English Channel can be read
on this web site at
ROLLS FLIES
TWICE ACROSS
A 1910 newspaper
article about his crash can be read on this web site at
CAPT. ROLLS
MEETS DEATH
CHARLES
ROLLS
CHARLES
S. ROLLS
LORD
BRABAZON OF TARA
J.T.C.
(JOHN THEODORE CUTHBERTH MOORE-BRABAZON (1884-1964)
On March 7, 1912, Henri Salmet, the chief flight instructor at the Bleriot flight school at Hendon, in the United Kingdom, made a nonstop flight of 222 miles across the English Channel, from London, in the United Kingdom, to Paris, France, in 2 hours and 57 minutes, while flying a Bleriot monoplane. He then made return trip to Paris, in stages, about two weeks later. |