Lincoln Beachey

My father was born in 1908 in Chicago. He frequently talked about seeing famous aviator Lincoln Beechey who died in a plane crash into water in 1915. He remembered the crash. I thought he may have seen it but it took place in San Francisco. Beachey was in Chicago in 1911 and maybe other times.

We didn’t have Google back then so I never checked it out. I had not heard of him. Beachey is a character in the excellent novel Alive In Necropolis by Doug Dorst.

Lincoln Beachey flying under the Niagara River Bridge on June 28, 1911, in his Curtiss pusher "Beachey Special" pic.twitter.com/Re67CQ6BBC
— Skies-of-Glory (@violetpilot1) March 11, 2020

Barney Oldfield & aviator Lincoln Beachey race in one of their "Championship of the Universe" events – Syracuse- 1914 pic.twitter.com/oNVTg7JOA4
— Vintage Sprint Cars (@VntgSprintCars) October 12, 2015

#OTD in 1913, Lincoln Beachey became the first American pilot to successfully "loop the loop" in flight, completing his loop at an altitude of only 300 feet (91 meters). #DaredevilOfTheSky pic.twitter.com/5Ooy0cJ3sP
— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) November 18, 2017