1st Lieutenant Victor Carlström (April 13, 1890 - May 9, 1917) in 1916

1st Lieutenant Victor Carlström (April 13, 1890 – May 9, 1917) was a record-holding Swedish-American pioneer aviator. He set a

cross-America flight air speed record A transcontinental flight is a non-stop passenger flight from one side of a continent to the other. The term usually refers to flights across the United States, between the East and West Coasts. History The first transcontinental multi-stop fl ...

until the record was beaten by Ruth Bancroft Law.

Biography

He was born in Gustafs parish in Kopparberg, Sweden on April 13, 1890, to Axel Carlström. He migrated to the United States through

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mi ...

in 1904, when he was 14. He moved to North Park, Colorado to work for his uncles Andrew Carlstrom and William Norell Carlstrom who had

cattle ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

es. He became an instructor one week after leaving his job at the cattle ranch. In 1916 he was short of a

flight altitude record This listing of flight altitude records are the records set for the highest aeronautical flights conducted in the atmosphere, set since the age of ballooning. Some, but not all of the records were certified by the non-profit international avia ...

when he ascended in a

triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The triplane arrangement may ...

. He also planned to make a

non-stop flight A non-stop flight is a flight by an aircraft with no intermediate stops. History During the early age of aviation industry when aircraft range was limited, most flights were served in the form of milk run, aka there were many stops along th ...

from Chicago to New York. He went to work for the

Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station A Curtiss Jenny on a training flight Curtiss Flying School at North Beach California in 1911 The Curtiss Flying School was started by Glenn Curtiss to compete against the Wright Flying School of the Wright brothers. The first example was locate ...

where he and a student pilot, Cary B. Epes, were killed on May 9, 1917, when their biplane collapsed in flight.

Legacy

Carlstrom Field Carlstrom Field is a former military airfield, located southeast of Arcadia, Florida. The airfield was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established in 1917 after the United States entry into World War I. History Carlstrom Field ...

was named in his honor. *His niece, Marion Carlstrom, was the first

Women Airforce Service Pilot The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...

from

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlstrom, Victor 1890 births 1917 deaths American aviation record holders Aviators from Colorado Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States People from Ljusnarsberg Municipality Swedish emigrants to the United States Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1917