Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-03-15
LINCOLN BEACHEY,
DARE DEVIL OF AIR,
KILLED IN FLIGHT
Most Audacious Aviator Of America
Falls Seven Thousand Feet
in San Francisco
Bay.
WINGS OF AERoPIANE COLLAPSE
Machine Plunges from Great Height
Into Water and Body Is
Recovered.
USED MoNoPLANE FIRST TIME

SAN FRANCISCO. March IA
The spectacular career of Lincoln
Reachey, one of the most daring of
American aviators, was ended today
when he fell to his death at the
Panama-Pacific exposition in sight
OF thousands of spectators.
Beachey was completing his Sec
ond flight Of the day when the ao-
cident occurred. Having previously
electrified. the crowd with series OF
aerial somersaults, the airmRn
sought to add an additional thrill by
making one of the~sensational per-
pendicular drops which usually
featured his flights.
The fatal fall was attributed TO
tic fact that Beachey entrusted his
life today for the first time to
moaoplane.
An exceptionally large crowd had been
attracted to the fair grounds to see
whether he would attempt the same
brcath-taking stunts in the new machine
th~t he had performed in his trim little
bplone.
T'rst Flight Goes Well.
On the first flight all went well and
tn" eNiator's familiar tricks were INDUCED
in " III the exception Of The perpendicular
drop. This Beachey had saved for the
c'lmaX. 1t proved too much OF a strain
for the frame of the monoplane
Tha rls chine was at an altitude Of about
1lC0 feet when Beachey shut off his
lower. For several thousand feet it
dropped head-on for the earth and then
the aviator grssped his control levers to
adjust the planes for the graceful descent
which had characterized his previous
flights,
Machine Wings Crumble.
At that point the wings crumpied like
a collapsed umbrella and the aeroplane.
turning over and over in its fall, plunged
into San Francisco hay, narrowly missing
a vessel lying at the goysrnihent trans
port docks.
Thousands of spectators rushed to the
nearby waterfront. but with the exception
of a few splintered fragments Of the aero
plane floating on the surface of the hay
no sign of the wrecked machine couii he
seen, Launches put out Immediately
equipped with graphing hooks and .
boats crew from the battleship Oregon.
which was anchored in the stream a short
distance away, Joined in an attempt to
recover the body Of tho aviator, who was
strapped TO his machine under sorty feet
of water.
The body was recovered shortly after 5
o'clock. ~
Lincoln Beachey was regarded as the
most skiiful and daring of American
sviators. He earned his reputation long
before French fliers began gliding through
the air upside down. Beachey was in re-
tirement when Pegoud began to perform
unheard of feats in the air and was drawn
back into the game by his desire to
demonstrate he could duplicate the re-
markable flying of the foreigner.
Would Rival the Birds.
Beachey had made a machine with a
small flying surface and a powerful
motor. Then he started out, as he ex-
pressed it,, ito outfly the birds" He
flew upside down, made spirals while
head downward, looped the loops and
did other stunts" a thousand feet above
the earth which the Wrights and others
had never believed were possible.
Beachey was interested in aeronautics
as a school boy. He was born in San
Francisco in September, 1887. At 1S no
entered the employ of a balloonist AMI
began to study aerial navigation. He
made his first flight at Idora park.
oaklanG Cal. in February. 1906. plotting
George ". Heaton's dirigible balloon. He
was Il years old at the time.
In August of that year he flew at the
LeAnder-Clark exposition at Portland.
Ore, as aeronaut for Captain T. S. Bald
win. His flights there were not COM
pletely successful. but he kept on trying
ln 1905 Beachey Joined Roy Knabenschue.
He created a sensation in July Of that
year by flying around the dome OF the
national capitol to the establishment OF
thousands and caused the adjournment
OF the house Of representatives,. Scores