Old school bombing technique from WW1[576x417]

For one thing, it’s not nearly as cool. Like, honestly that was important then. These guys were essentially professional daredevils. There were virtually zero laws about aviation at the time. They just did whatever they wanted, because who was gonna stop them? It’s my favorite period of aviation history, for the madcap absurdity if nothing else.

Like Cal Rogers, who was the first man to fly across the country in 1911. It only took him 49 days, multiple airplanes worth of parts, the most experience airplane mechanic in America, a special workshop train, six significant crashes and uncounted minor ones.

When he finally landed in CA, Cal rosily predicted that soon the transcontinental journey might soon be accomplished in less than a month. Only a couple months later, Cal flew into a flock of seagulls over Long Beach. They “fouled the controls” (the pun is contemporary) which caused his fatal crash. He died on impact with the surf below as rescuers and souvenir hunters swarmed his plane’s wreckage, only a few hundred feet from the spot where he had dipped his airplane’s wheels in the Pacific to mark the true (if unofficial) end of his transatlantic journey.

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