Aviators YOU GOTTA KNOW - ALLISON LIU No, not those “Aviators”…

Wright Brothers Created the first successful, powered, heavier-than-air, manned airplane o Originally at bicycle repair shop in Dayton, Ohio o Moved to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina – Kill Devil Hills o Mid-December 1903: Flyer I ready for trial Coin Toss… 1) Wilbur unsuccessful 2) Orville 12-second flight 4) Wilbur 59-second flight (longest/last) Wilber Orville Flyer I

Charles Lindbergh Made the first non-stop, trans-Atlantic flight o Spirit of St. Louis = single-engine Ryan aircraft o Roosevelt Field, Long Island  Le Bourget Field, Paris o 33.5-hour flight Married Anne Morrow o Had a son, Charles Jr. – kidnapped and murdered Known as “The Crime of the Century” Bruno Hauptmann convicted and executed Urged US to remain neutral in WWII o Active with the America First Committee o Flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific Spirit of St. Louis

Amelia Earheart o Most famous aviatrix: o (1932) First woman to make a trans-Atlanic solo flight o (1935) First pilot to fly solo from Hawaii  California o (1937) Disappeared on around-the-world flight o With navigator Fred Noonan o Pacific Ocean: between Lae, New Guinea and Howland Island o Fate still unknown

Chuck Yeager o Served in U.S. Army Air Corps o “ace in a day” status: shot down five German aircraft in one mission o (1947) first pilot to exceed the speed of sound - Mach 1.06 o (1953) reset the speed record - over Mach 2 o Profiled in Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff o Remained active in Air Force o Flew combat missions over Vietnam (mid-40s) Glamorous Glennis

Howard Hughes o Skilled aircraft pilot and designer o Subject of the 2004 film The Aviator o (1930s) set speed records for flights around the world o “Spruce Goose” = wooden plane with longest wingspan on an operational craft o Meant to carry 750 troops o (1947) Hughes piloted a 1-minute hop o Also a movie producer widely remembered for… o Pathological fear of germs o Refusal to cut his hair or nails (exhibited late in life) Spruce Goose

Wiley Post o (1931) Circumnavigated the globe o With navigator Harold Gatty o Wrote about the experience in Around the World in Eight Days o (1933) first solo pilot to complete circumnavigation o Investigated high-altitude flight o Designed a pressurized suit o Reached a height of 50,000 feet o First to encounter and use the jet stream o Died flying through Alaska o Carrying passenger: humorist Will Rogers Winnie Mae

Jimmy Doolittle o Served as a flight instructor for U.S. Army (WWI) o Celebrated race pilot after the war o (1932) reached world-record speed of 296 mph o Rejoined the military after Pearl Harbor o Led the “Doolittle Raid”: 16 B-25 bombers took off from aircraft carrier USS Hornet and bombed Japanese home islands o Commanded the Eight Air Force: launched massive bombing raids against Germany

Manfred von Richthofen “Red Baron” o Top overall ace of WWI o Shot down 80 enemy aircraft o Fighter unit: Jagdgeschwader 1 o aka “Richthofen’s Flying Circus” – colorful planes o Died 1918: shot aboard his red Fokker triplane o Royal Air Force credited Canadian ace Roy Brown with the kill o More likely that Richthofen was brought down by ground fire Jagdgeschwader 1

Eddie Rickenbacker o Race car driver “Fast Eddie” o Competed in the Indianapolis 500 o (WWI) The Ace of the Aces o Joined U.S. Army as driver, then admitted to flight school with Colonel Billy Mitchell o Medal of Honor: top American ace of the war (26 kills) o (between wars) bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Eastern Airlines o (WWII 1942) crashed on a military mission in the Pacific o He and one crewman survived a brutal 24-day ordeal aboard life rafts o Fun Fact: WWI anti-German atmosphere  like many German Americans, he replaced the “h” in “Rickenbacher” with “k”

Burt Rutan o Legendary aircraft designer o Voyager – piloted by Dick Rutan (brother) and Jeana Yeager, completed a non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling o (2005) Global Flyer – piloted by Steve Fosset, completed a solo, non-stop circumnavigation without refueling o (2004) SpaceShipOne – made the first privately funded space flight o Won the $10 million Ansari X Prize

Other Important Aviators Igor Sikorsky Billy Mitchell Antoine de Saint- Exupéry