"We" : $b The famous flier's own story of his life and his trans-Atlantic flight, together with his views on the future of aviationLindbergh, Charles A. (Charles Augustus)
History
"We" : $b The famous flier's own story of his life and his trans-Atlantic flight, together with his views on the future of aviation
Lindbergh, Charles A. (Charles Augustus)
Aeronautics -- Flights; Air pilots -- Biography; Transatlantic flights
On arriving at the field a few miles east of Denver, I discovered the
plane I was to fly to be the same Lincoln Standard that Lynch and I
had flown to Montana three years before. We did a little barnstorming
along the eastern slope of the Rockies preliminary to the start of our
flying circus. We had contracted to exhibit before a number of fairs
in Colorado and there was nothing barred in the exhibitions. We put on
everything the committee was willing to pay for. At the smaller places
we used only one plane, but at the more important exhibitions two were
required.
We flew to the town where a fair was taking place about one day before
we were to exhibit. In that way everything was in readiness for the
circus and the next morning there was no delay in our performance.
We started with wing-walking. The performer would climb out of the
cockpit and walk along the entering edge of the wing to the outer bay
strut, where he climbed up onto the top wing, and stood on his head
as we passed the grandstand. After finishing his stunts on the wing
he would go to the landing gear and from there to the center section,
where he sat while the plane looped and did Jenny Immelmans. From the
center section he went to the tail and then, unless it was an unusual
occasion, the wing-walking exhibition was over.
After wing-walking came the breakaway. This was accomplished by
fastening a cable to the landing gear. The performer went out to the
wing tip, fastened his harness to the loose end of the cable and to all
appearances fell off the wing. No one on the ground could see the cable
and a breakaway always produced quite a sensation. Iron loops were
clamped along the cable for use in climbing back up.
One of our feature attractions was the plane change. A rope ladder
was attached to the wing of a plane and as one ship flew past the
grandstand with the performer standing near the tip of the top wing, a
second plane with the ladder attached, passed over the first, so that
the ladder was in easy reach of the performer. We usually made two fake
attempts to effect the change and actually counted on the third for
success. In this way the feat looked more difficult.
A parachute was attached to the opposite wing from the rope ladder.
After the plane change was completed, the performer jumped off with the
chute and the show was over.
In the evening we made a night fireworks flight. A series of candles,
which when lighted emitted a trail of fire for several hundred feet
behind the ship, was attached to each wing. After these candles had
burned out, two magnesium flares started burning, lighting up the
country below well enough to read a book very clearly. The display was
set off by an electric battery in the cockpit.
When the plane reached an altitude of two or three thousand feet, a
number of bombs were dropped to attract attention; then the switch was
thrown in to start the trails and colored lights, and the ship looped
and shunted around the comet-like trail of fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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