The company went bankrupt later that year. Despondent over the collapse of his company, Gates committed suicide on November 24, 1932."Gates, Stunt Flier, Ends Life By Leap." New York Times.
|
|
Retrieved on November 28, 2009. The Black Cats were the first to set a standard for stunt flier wages. The Black Cats performed stunts live in front of crowds as well as for films. At the end of the 1920s, some of the fliers had died and others changed careers.
|
|
Good-natured Red decides not to take back his old job: It would mean firing a married man with a new baby. Woody is penniless, swindled by his embezzling business partner. Years later, Gibby, Red and Fritz ride a boxcar to Hollywood to look for Woody and find work in lean times. Outside a movie premiere, they spot a prosperous Woody, who is working as a stunt flier.
|
|
She was obsessed with flying, and would try to do so daily. She bragged about being the only woman having piloted the plane of the late Lieutenant Locklear, the world’s greatest stunt flier. In 1946, MacPherson became ill with cancer while researching Unconquered (1947), a historical drama, and had to stop work. She died that August in Los Angeles at age 60, and was buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.
|
|
I Live to Fly - Auriol's autobiography Born in Challans, Vendée, the daughter of a wealthy shipbuilder, she graduated from the University of Nantes then she studied art at the École du Louvre in Paris. In 1938, she married Paul Auriol, son of Vincent Auriol (who would later become President of France). During World War II, Jacqueline Auriol, worked against the German occupation of France by helping the French Resistance. She took up flying in 1946, got her pilot's license in 1948 and became an accomplished stunt flier and test pilot.
|
|
With the age of commercial flight still a decade or more in the future, Coleman quickly realized that in order to make a living as a civilian aviator she would have to become a "barnstorming" stunt flier, performing dangerous tricks in the then still early technology of airplanes for paying audiences. But, to succeed in this highly competitive arena, she would need advanced lessons and a more extensive repertoire. Returning to Chicago, Coleman could not find anyone willing to teach her, so in February 1922, she sailed again for Europe. She spent the next two months in France completing an advanced course in aviation.
|
|
Maughan's total transit time was 20 hours and 48 minutes. His actual flight time was 18 hours and 20 minutes, at an average groundspeed of . In addition to the publicity value of being the first transcontinental crossing within the hours of daylight, the flight established new records for time, distance, and average speed (128.37 mph) in transcontinental flights. Maughan's record was not eclipsed until August 20, 1928 when Hollywood stunt flier Arthur C. Goebel, in what was the first nonstop flight across the continent from west to east, flew from Los Angeles, California to Curtiss Field, New York in the Lockheed Vega Yankee Doodle (NX4789), in 18 hours and 58 minutes, averaging .
|
|
A number of private owners placed orders for the design, and by the end of 1928, 68 of this original design had been produced. In the 1929 National Air Races in Cleveland, Vegas won every speed award. In 1928, Vega Yankee Doodle (NX4769) was used to break transcontinental speed records. On August 19–20, Hollywood stunt flier Arthur C. Goebel broke the coast-to-coast record of Russell Maughan by flying from Los Angeles, California, to Garden City, New York, in 18 hours and 58 minutes, in what was also the first nonstop flight from west to east. On October 25, barnstormer and former mail pilot Charles B.D. Collyer broke the nonstop east to west record set in 1923 by the U.S. Army Air Service in 24 hours and 51 minutes. Trying to break the new West-to- East record on November 3, Collyer crashed near Prescott, Arizona, killing him and the aircraft owner, Harry J. Tucker.
|
|