99 Years Ago Today

[Sailor Steve]

Ninety-nine years ago today the first 'official' fatal aircraft crash took place. While his brother Wilbur was demonstrating the 'Model A' flyer in France, Orville Wright was showing the same model to the U.S. Army at Fort Myers, Virginia. His passenger at that time was Lt. Thomas Selfridge, who had himself done work in the field the previous year with the Aerial Experiment Association, whose members included Glenn Curtiss and Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. The plane apparently had one of the wires come loose and snag one of the propellor blades, causeing the wing to collapse. In the ensuing crash, Wright suffered injuries which caused him to be hospitalized, and Selfridge was killed.

A result of this was a telegram from Orville Wright to Wilbur, suggesting that they not attempt any more flights without the other being there to act as mechanic. This led to Wilbur postponing his attempt to cross the English Channel, and Louis Bleriot subsequently becoming the first to do so.