Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1915-03-17
WEDNESDAY, MARCH II, 1913.
BEACHEY DROPS 1000 FEET.
Fell While Attempting Perpendicular
DrOp--Met Instant Death.

tho Panama-Pacific Exposition to-
day. At an altitude of about 1000
feet 4Beaohey began sharp descent.
Theswings of his aeroplane collapsed
and &the machine plunged into San
Francisco Bay.
Beachey was completing his second
flight Of the day when the accident
occurred in view of thousands of
spectators. Having previously cleo
trified the crowd with a series Of ae-
rial Esomersaults, the 3irman sought
to add an additional thrill with one
of fhis sensational perpendicular
drops
The fatal fall was attributed to the
fact that Beachey entrusted his life
to-day, for the first time in several
years ITO a monoplane.
On the first flight all went we'll and
the aviator's familiar tricks were in
dufged in with the exception of the
spectacular perpendicular drop, which
he had saved for the climax 1T proved
too much of a strain for the frame Of
the monoplane.
The machine was at an altitude Of
about 1000 ct when Beachey shut
off his power. For several thousand
fee&t dropped head-on for the earth
andthen the aviator grasped his con-
trollevers to adjust the planes for a
graceful descent.
The wings crumpled and the aero
plane, turning over and over in its
fall, plunged into San Francisco Bay,
narrowly missing vessel at the gov
ernment transport docks.
thousands rushed to the nearby
wateT front, but with the exception
OF, i5ew splintered fragments of the
aeIvpsSne ffoating on the SURFACE OF
the bay, no signs of the wrecked
machine could be seen.
launches put out Immediately,
equipped with graphing hooks, and a
boats crew from the battleship Ore
gon joined in an attempt to recover
the body Of the aviator, which was
strapped to the machine, under 40
| feet Of water. The body was recov-
cred shortly after o'clock.
Lincoln Bcachey
! was regarded as the most skilful and
daring American aviator. He earned
this reputation long before the
French fiiers began to glide through
the air upside down. Beachey was
in retirement when these feats were
heralded and was drawn back by his
desire to exceed the remark able fly
ing of the French.
With an aeroplane of small wing
surface he few upside down, made
spirals while head downward and
looped the loop.
Beachey was born in San Francis
co in September, 1887, and made his
first flight in 1905 at Oakland, Cal,
plotting a dirigible balloon. In 1906
he circled the Capitol at Washington.
He scared over New York city in
ouis, Iooi. Ills iHOIOF IdlleQ ana
the wind whirled the dirigible across
the river, wrecking 1T.
His st-heavier-than-air machine,
a monoplane, was wrecked at st.
Paul in 1910. He made "a successful
flight in Los Angeles, but then
wrecked another hier.
Circled National Capitol.
May 5, 1911, Beachey was the first
man to circle the Capitol in Washing
ton in an aeroplane. He then star
tied the world by flying over Niagara
Falls. Later he won the first inter
city aeropiane race in America. flying
from New York to Philadelphia.
He was the most prominent figure
in the 1911 Chicago aviation meet.
| spiraling at sharp angles.
EARLY in 1913 Beachey announced
that he had made his last flight, as
serting that he felt partly responsible
for the deaths of nine aviators who
had tried to emulate him. When the
deeds of the daring French were
chrontcled he returned to flying. In
October, 1913, at Hammondsport,
N. Y, his machine swept several
spectators from roof, killing one.
Beachey boasted that 2O,OO0,OOO
persons had seen him fly.