18 Facts About Bert Acosta

Bertrand Blanchard Acosta was a record-setting aviator and test pilot.

Bert Acosta later flew in the Spanish Civil War in the Yankee Squadron.

Bert Acosta received numerous fines and suspensions for flying stunts such as flying under bridges or flying too close to buildings.

Bert Acosta attended the Throop Polytechnic Institute in Pasadena, California, from 1912 to 1914.

Bert Acosta taught himself to fly in August 1910 and built experimental airplanes up until 1912 when he began work for Glenn Curtiss as an apprentice on a hydroplane project.

Bert Acosta went to Canada and worked as an instructor for the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service in Toronto.

Bert Acosta married Mary Louise Brumley in 1918 but they divorced in 1920.

Bert Acosta won The Pulitzer Trophy Race in 1921 and the same year set an airspeed record of 176.9 miles an hour.

Bert Acosta married Helen Belmont Pearsoll, on August 3,1921.

On June 29,1927, thirty-three days after Charles Lindbergh's record setting transatlantic flight, Acosta flew from Roosevelt Field on Long Island to France with Commander Richard E Byrd, Lieutenant George O Noville and Bernt Balchen aboard the America.

Bert Acosta was arrested by Connecticut State troopers in 1930 for flying without a license.

The aircraft was later test flown by Bert Acosta, who found it perfect for his use since he was currently grounded from flying licensed aircraft from a previous infraction.

Bert Acosta disappeared before a fully loaded "test flight" with 360 gallons of gasoline.

In 1936 Bert Acosta was head of the Yankee Squadron in the Spanish Civil War with Eddie August Schneider and Frederic Ives Lord.

In December 1951 Bert Acosta collapsed in a New York City bar and was hospitalized with tuberculosis.

Bert Acosta died at the Jewish Consumptive's Relief Society sanatorium in Colorado in 1954.

Bert Acosta was buried at the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California.

In 2014, Bert Acosta was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, along with pilot and astronaut James McDivitt, the first female airline captain Emily Warner, Cirrus founders and designers Dale and Alan Klapmeier, and homebuilt aircraft racer and engineer Steve Wittman.