22 Facts About Lincoln Beachey

Lincoln Beachey was a pioneer American aviator and barnstormer.

Lincoln Beachey became famous and wealthy from flying exhibitions, staging aerial stunts, helping invent aerobatics, and setting aviation records.

Lincoln Beachey was known as The Man Who Owns the Sky, and sometimes the Master Birdman.

Lincoln Beachey was "known by sight to hundreds of thousands and by name to the whole world".

On 3 March 1887, Lincoln Beachey was born in San Francisco, and in 1903, first rode in a tethered balloon.

Lincoln Beachey then participated in the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Field.

At the 1911 Los Angeles airshow, Lincoln Beachey made the first successful nose-diving spin recovery, and deadstick landing.

Lincoln Beachey repeated the maneuver eleven more times to confirm that it worked.

On 27 June 1911, Lincoln Beachey flew his Curtiss D biplane before an estimated 150,000 spectators.

At the 1911 Chicago International Aviation Meet, after coming in second in the fast climb event, Lincoln Beachey entered a steep dive, and then flew alongside a locomotive, first on one side of the passenger cars, then on the other, before placing his wheels on top, hopping from one car to the next.

In 1913, Lincoln Beachey took off inside the Machinery Palace on the Exposition grounds at the San Francisco World's Fair.

Lincoln Beachey flew the plane at 60 miles per hour and landed it, all inside the confines of the hall.

Curtiss refused to build him a plane capable of the stunt, and Lincoln Beachey left the flying team.

Lincoln Beachey went into the real estate business for a time, until Curtiss reluctantly agreed to build a stunt plane powerful enough to do the inside loop.

Lincoln Beachey's plane crashed in a nearby field but he managed to walk away from the wreckage with minor injuries.

Lincoln Beachey became an aviation superstar: In one year, 17 million people saw him fly.

Lincoln Beachey's achievements include inventing figure 8s and the vertical drop.

Lincoln Beachey was the first pilot to achieve terminal velocity by flying straight toward the ground.

On 3 March 1914, Lincoln Beachey formed his own company, with Bill Pickens as promoter, and Warren Eaton as aircraft designer and builder.

Lincoln Beachey's mastery is a thing of beauty to watch.

Lincoln Beachey pulled on the controls to pull the plane out of its inverted position, where it was slowly sinking.

Lincoln Beachey is referenced in pages 19 and 20 of the fiction book Johnny Got His Gun.