The Traveler… “The Birdman”, Lincoln Beachey… the irony…

October 8, 2012 by · Leave a Comment 

Today I traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico, via the ALBUQURQUE MORNING JOURNAL, dated October 8, 1912, where I found that they were having their 32nd Annual State Fair with the top-billing being Lincoln Beachey, the world’s greatest “birdman”. Beachey would be racing between his Curtiss bi-plane and a man on a motorcycle as well as dare-devil flying stunts with his hands off levers and body swaying, dips and deadly spiral dive. “…’I will watch the motorcycle, though, and not Beachey,’ said this man, ‘for to watch Beachey gives me palpitation of the heart’…”

On the last page of the issue is the report that the train carrying the body of Charles Walsh to San Diego would be stopping at Albuquerque. Walsh was an aviation dare-devil who died just a few days earlier when his plane crumbled mid-air and crashed to the ground. Walsh had appeared at this fair the year prior performing aerial stunts … ironically Walsh was trained by Beachey.

~The Traveler