Art Smith (pilot)
| Arthur Roy Smith | |
|---|---|
_1915.jpg) |
|
| Born |
March 27, 1890 Fort Wayne, Indiana |
| Died | February 12, 1926 (aged 35) Montpelier, Ohio |
| Cause of death | Aircrash |
| Spouse(s) | Aimee Cour |
| Parent(s) | James F. Smith Ida Krick |
Arthur Roy Smith (February 27, 1890 – February 12, 1926) was an American pilot. After Charles Ames, he was the second overnight mail service pilot to die on duty.
He was born on February 27, 1890 in Fort Wayne, Indiana to James F. Smith and Ida Krick.
In 1910, his parents mortgaged their home for $1,800 so that he could build a plane, on which he spent six months; however, he crashed it on his first flight, destroying everything but the motor. However, he quickly became a celebrated stunt pilot, notable for flying at night; he was one of the pioneers of skywriting at night using flares attached to his aircraft. Katherine Stinson, one of America's first female stunt pilots, was inspired to compete against him by this feat, and the competition between her, Smith, and other men received widespread press coverage.
On May 14, 1915, fellow aviator Lincoln Beachey, who was the official stunt flyer at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, died after crashing into the bay. Art Smith (who was racing his "Baby Cars" at the fair) was hired to take Beachey's place and flew his airplane for spectators for the duration of the exposition.
Smith made two trips to Asia, in 1916 and 1917; his aerobatics demonstrations in Korea during those trips are believed to have inspired both An Chang-nam (Korea's first male pilot) and Kwon Ki-ok (Korea's first female pilot) to learn to fly.
Smith later worked as a test pilot and instructor after the American entry into World War I; he had originally sought to enroll in the United States Army's Air Service, but was refused. His height (5 feet 3 inches) was mentioned as one possible reason for the refusal; the numerous injuries he had suffered in earlier crashes were another. During the war, he was stationed at Langley Field, Virginia and McCook Field, Ohio; he was one of two men trained to fly the De Bothezat helicopter, an early quadrotor helicopter.
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