Early flight and aviation pioneers.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
Bessie Coleman demanded what admission policy at a Waxahachie airshow?
Coleman threatened to cancel until organizers agreed to one entrance, though spectators remained segregated once inside.
What nickname did fans give stunt pilot Bessie Coleman?
Newspapers crowned her "Queen Bess," a regal title for the first Black woman to earn a pilot's license.
Why did Bessie Coleman train to become a pilot in France, not the US?
No US flight school would admit a Black woman in the early 1920s, so Coleman learned French and earned her pilot's license in France in 1921.
How did Bessie Coleman die during a 1926 airshow rehearsal?
Coleman wasn't wearing a seatbelt as she leaned out to scout a parachute-jump site, so a sudden nose dive threw her from the cockpit.
Charles Lindbergh won TIME's first-ever "Man of the Year" title for which 1927 feat?
Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris in May 1927, and at age 25 he became the first person TIME ever named "Man of the Year."
How did Charles Lindbergh earn his living as a pilot before his Atlantic crossing?
Lindbergh flew airmail between Chicago and St. Louis, bailing out by parachute twice when his night flights went wrong.
Which provisions did Charles Lindbergh take on his 1927 solo flight from New York to Paris?
Accounts disagree on the sandwich count, but they agree Lindbergh carried sandwiches and water for the 33½-hour flight.
Why did Charles Lindbergh fly Spirit of St. Louis with a periscope instead of a windshield?
The main fuel tank sat in front of the cockpit, so Lindbergh peered ahead through a periscope or turned to look out side windows.
Aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal died after crashing which type of aircraft?
His hang glider stalled during a flight in 1896, and he fell about 50 feet; his reported last words were "Sacrifices must be made."
Otto Lilienthal modeled the wings of his gliders after studying what?
Storks soaring over his Pomerania hometown were his favorite study, and his 1889 book Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation shared what he learned.