Charles Foster Willard (October 13, 1883 – February 1, 1977) was an American aviator and engineer, who became known as the first
barnstormer with his trick flights. Willard was the first person taught to fly by Glenn Curtiss in 1909 and was the 10th person to receive an official pilot's licence. Willard made a number of aviation 'firsts'.
In 1910, Willard made the first ever flight over downtown Los Angeles.
He was the first person to fly three passengers in the United States.
Willard has the unfortunate record of being the first person to have his airplane shot out of the sky by a bullet — that of an annoyed farmer who hit his propeller with a squirrel gun.
At the Harvard-Boston Aero Meet of 1910 Charles Willard took Miss Eleanor Ladd of Boston on a flight. She worked for a Boston newspaper, and was reportedly the first newspaper woman in America to fly in an airplane.
During the Airshow Willard also took along Army Lieutenant Jacob E. Finkel, a rifle sharpshooter up in his Curtiss biplane. As Willard circled the airfield, Finkel fired shots from the airplane at targets on the ground, hitting them more often than not. The “experiment” was considered “highly satisfactory”.
With aviation pioneer
Stanley Yale Beach, they've built the
Beach-Willard Monoplane, from which they received patents, having invented the connection of planes or wings to a triangular body, enforceable in France, England and the United States.
American Magazine of Aeronautics, Volumes 5 à 7, p. 98
/ref>
On July 1, 1912, Willard's father, William A. Willard, was pilot Harriet Quimby
Harriet Quimby (May 11, 1875 – July 1, 1912) was an American pioneering aviator, journalist, and film screenwriter.
In 1911, she became the first woman in the United States to receive a pilot certificate, issued to her by the Aero Club of Ame ...
's passenger when both died in a crash.
Gallery
Beach-Willard Monoplane, Charles F. Willard and Stanley Yale Beach.jpg
Beach-Willard Monoplane, Charles F. Willard and Stanley Yale Beach2.jpg
Beach-Willard Monoplane, Charles F. Willard and Stanley Yale Beach3.jpg
References
External links
Charles Forster Willard 1883-1977
ic EarlyAviators.com
Charles Foster Willard flying a Curtiss aircraft at the Harvard-Boston Aero Meet, September, 1910
Wright State University
Charles Foster Willard
Museum of Flight
1883 births
1977 deaths
Aviators from Massachusetts
Aviation history of the United States
Barnstormers
People from Boston
People from Melrose, Massachusetts
People from Hull, Massachusetts
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