Vearne C. Babcock

Vearne Clifton Babcock (28 April 1887 - 15 February 1972) was an American aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer in the first half of the twentieth century. He was one of the 598 aviators who were members of the Early Birds of Aviation.

He was born at Benton Harbor, Michigan on 28 April 1887.

An energetic young man, Babcock worked as a jockey around the turn of the century. The Times of Philadelphia reported that Vearne C. Babcock would ride in the first race, six furlongs, at Delmar Park, St. Louis, Missouri, on 22 October 1901. The Buffalo Express carried results the following day of the races held 5 June 1902 at the Saint Louis fairground, in which Terra Incognita was ridden to a fourth-place finish by Babcock in the sixth race of the day, over a course of one mile, 70 yards.

He began his flying and aeronautical career in 1905, going aloft for the first time in that year. He was the fifth person to fly, and in an aircraft which copied the Wright Flyer design. "Asked how he knew what to do since he had never seen an airplane, let alone fly one up to the time of that eventful hop, Babcock said, 'Well, we were even. The airplane didn't know how to fly and neither did I.' Either Babcock or the airplane forgot after one try. He made a successful 150 foot jump in the morning, tried again in the afternoon and crashed." It was the first of many. "I broke many bones and many pocketbooks in crashes," he recalled in an interview in 1958. He would fly until he was 60. Then "my wife put her foot down," he told The Daytona Beach Morning Journal.

"Babcock moved to Seattle, Washington, and built a second Wright copy in 1909, the same year he and a partner formed Babcock-Breininger Aeroplane Supply Co., building several more derivative aircraft. Babcock moved on to several other aviation training and engineering activities throughout the USA" through 1914. He was connected with various engineering and aircraft manufacturing companies, during which time a number of early aircraft designs were developed under his personal supervision. He toured the United States and many foreign countries demonstrating American-built airplanes.

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