You may have seen old movies of stunt aviators that end up crashing into a
chicken Coop.
It actually happened to Cal Rodgers, a 32-year-old-cigar smoking flamboyant
pilot taught to fly by the Wright brothers. He was flying the second leg of the
Randolph Hearst Transcontinental Race which offered a $50,000 prize to the
first man to fly across the country in thirty days or less.
Cal started the race taking off from Sheepshead Bay, NY on Sept. 17, 1911 at
6:20 a.m. on the 105-mile trip to Middletown NY. His airplane was the Wright
Model EX, which was a modification of the 1910 Wright Model B.
By 6 o’clock in the evening after an uneventful flight, he was in sight of
the Academy Avenue Pleasure Grounds on the outskirts of Middletown where he was
to land. But there was an unexpected problem. Some 9,000 spectators covered the
area of the field where he was supposed to land.
