Francis Thomas Evans , Sr . Francis Thomas Evans , Sr . ( 3 June 1886 - 14 March 1974 ) was a pioneer aviator . He was one of the earliest United States Marine Corps aviators , the first person to perform a loop in seaplane , and a pioneer of stall and spin recovery techniques . Biography . Evans was born in Delaware , Ohio , on 3 June 1886 . He became one of the earliest United States Marine Corps aviators , being designated Marine Aviator Number 4 . By early 1917 , Evans was the most experienced Curtiss N - 9 floatplane pilot in the world . Although the consensus among aviators and even the N - 9s manufacturer was that the N - 9 could not be looped , Evans believed it was possible . On February 13 , 1917 , he flew an N - 9 over the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola , Florida , and began attempts to loop it . He succeeded on his fourth try , becoming the first person ever to loop a seaplane . Lacking witnesses , he flew over Naval Air Station Pensacola and repeated the feat . In 1936 , he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for this achievement . More important , however , were the stall and spin recovery techniques he discovered that day . During his first three loop attempts , the N - 9 stalled before he reached the apex of the loop and fell into a spin . He found that by releasing back - pressure on the stick and aggressively applying opposite rudder to the direction of the spin he could change the spin into a normal dive and recover , something previously thought impossible in an N - 9 . His stall and spin recovery techniques remain in use to this day by aviators around the world . During World War I , Evans was stationed in the Azores in 1918 in command of a seaplane squadron . Evans took actions after the 29 June 1925 earthquake in Santa Barbara , California , to help save the city from fire , for which he received a letter of commendation from the United States Secretary of the Navy and a resolution from the City of Santa Barbara . The Marine Corps lacked any kind of ambulance aircraft in the 1920s and early 1930s , so Evans came up with a way of housing a stretcher and a medical attendant aboard a modified Douglas P2D - 1 patrol floatplane , and the Marine Corps used the modified aircraft in support of its occupation duties in Haiti and Santo Domingo . Evans was grounded after two serious crashes in 1935 and was retired for physical disability in July 1937 . However , he was recalled to duty later in 1937 and continued to serve in the Marine Corps until December 1944 . Family . Evans was married to Elizabeth K . Evans . Their oldest son , Captain Francis T . Evans , Jr . , USAF , served in Europe during in World War II as a United States Army Air Forces fighter pilot and later served in the United States Air Force . He died on 16 June 1953 while attempting to land his disabled F - 86 Sabre fighter at Andrews Air Force Base , Maryland , when he put the F - 86 into a nosedive to avoid crashing into a playground full of children at Forestville Elementary School in Forestville , Maryland . Francis T . Evans Elementary School in Clinton , Maryland , is named in honor of him . A younger son , Captain Douglas K . Evans , served in the U . S . Army Air Forces and then in the U . S . Air Force in the Korean War and Vietnam War as a jet fighter pilot . Douglas Evans took Francis T . Evans , Sr . , on his first jet airplane flight on 4 January 1947 , in a T - 33 Shooting Star . Death . Francis T . Evans , Sr . , died on 14 March 1974 after six years of declining health . He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington , Virginia .