9. An Early Aerial Pioneer
We take airplanes for granted nowadays, but in the early twentieth century, powered flight was still a new marvel. Back then, airplanes fascinated the public in a manner and to an extent that is difficult for us today, accustomed as we are to air travel as just another routine aspect of modern life, to grasp. Most people a century ago had never seen an airplane before, and crowds that numbered in the hundreds or even thousands shelled out money to watch the era’s pilots put on aerial displays for them. One such pioneer was Ormer Locklear (1891 – 1920), an aerial daredevil who learned how to fly with the US Army Air Service.
He went on tour as a barnstormer pilot and put on aerobatic displays for crowds across the country. Locklear is believed to have been the first man to ever walk on the wing of an aircraft in flight – a stunt that became especially popular with air show audiences in the 1920s. It also had a practical angle: it allowed pilots to make repairs mid-flight. Other stunts pioneered by Locklear include jumping from one airplane to another mid-flight and clambering aboard a low flying plane from a moving car. As seen below, such skills turned out to be in high demand in Hollywood.
