Ralph Johnstone
Ralph Johnstone (1886 – November 17, 1910) was a pioneering early aviator who died in a crash.
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[edit] Biography
He was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1886. He started as a vaudeville trick bicycle rider. With a signature finale of performing a mid-air forward somersault.[1] He became a Wright exhibition team pilot. He and Archibald Hoxsey were known as the "heavenly twins" for their attempts to break altitude records. On October 27, 1910, the International Aviation Tournament was at the Belmont Park race track in Elmont, New York. The meet offered $3,750 for the highest altitude, another $1,000 for a world record and a $5,000 bonus for exceeding 10,000 feet. Johnstone set a new American flight altitude record of 8,471. feet.[1] During the flight, a gust of wind forced him to fly backwards, and he landed near Artist Lake in Middle Island, New York. A New York State Historic Plaque commemorating the event can be found at the lake along New York State Route 25 in Middle Island. On the ground Ralph was pals with Hoxsey and rival Curtiss team member Eugene Ely.
He was the first of the Wright team to die. He was in a crash after he failed to recover from a dive in Denver on November 17, 1910. Surviving Ralph were his wife and two young children.
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[edit] References
- ^ Air & Space. April 2008.
- New York Times; August 18, 1910; Aeroplane Crashes into an Automobile; Ralph Johnstone Comes to Grief in a Twenty-Mile Wind at Asbury Park. Aviation Field, Asbury Park, New Jersey, August 18, 1910. Wilbur Wright's school of fledgling filers came to grief again this afternoon when they drove another of their teacher's biplanes into the ground, nose on and reduced it to a hopeless mass of kindling wood and canvas.
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