1911 Chicago International Aviation Meet

The 1911 Chicago International Aviation Meet (August 12 to August 20, 1911) was major aviation show held at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, United States in August 1911.^[1][2]

Postcard from the event

Organized by Cyrus McCormick Jr., thirty-two aviators attended, including Lincoln Beachey, Eugene Burton Ely, Thomas Sopwith, Glenn Curtiss, Thomas Scott Baldwin, René Simon, Earle Ovington, Harry Atwood, Claude Grahame-White, and Cal Rodgers.^[3]

Lincoln Beachey set a world altitude record of 11,642 feet at the meet.^[4]

William R. Badger and St. Croix Johnstone^[5] both died in aviation accidents at the meet.^[6] The wings on Badger's biplane collapsed when he tried to pull out of dive too late, and Johnstone crashed into Lake Michigan after his engine failed.^[1]

References

1. Souter, Gerry (28 June 2010) Guts and Glory: The Last Great Aerial Tournament, Chicago History Journal, Retrieved December 2, 2015
2. The Chicago daily news almanac and year book for 1912, 362–63 (1911)
3. Marrero, Frank (2017). Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky. Marin County, California: Tripod Press. pp. 74–87. ISBN 9780967326535.
4. Lynch, Christopher. Chicago's Midway Airport: the first seventy-five years (2002) (ISBN 978-1-893121-18-8)
5. St. Croix Johnstone; EarlyAviators.com Retrieved October 9, 2017
6. "W.R. Badger Crushed by His Engine and St. Croix Johnstone Drowned at Chicago". The New York Times. August 16, 1911. Retrieved 2010-11-07. Two airmen were killed here on this, the fourth day of the big aviation meet at Grant Park, after three days without a serious accident. The victims were William R. Badger, son of a wealthy Pittsburgh family, and St. Croix Johnstone of Chicago, both young men, and the double tragedy took place in the presence of 500,000 spectators.