Overview

Although most credit Wilbur and Orville Wright with America’s first powered flight, two months before the brothers lifted off the sands of Kitty Hawk, a French immigrant named August Greth flew the California Eagle, an airship of his own design, across the skies of San Francisco. While the Wrights claimed they had invented a flying machine, Greth and the California aviators proved it in front of thousands of spectators at state fairs and festivals across the country. L.A. Birdmen is the fascinating and forgotten story of America’s first aviators—Californians like August Greth, Tom Baldwin, Roy Knabenshue, John Montgomery, and James Zerbe. Possessing a rare blend of ingenuity, creativity, and bravery, these pilots captured the world’s attention in 1910 when Los Angeles hosted America’s first international airshow. Inspired by a flying exhibition held in Reims, France, Los Angeles promoter Dick Ferris convinced the city to host a competing event—a show that featured the world’s best pilots and machines and would firmly establish Los Angeles as the center of American aviation. Featuring a fierce competition between French pilot Louis Paulhan and American Glenn Curtiss, the Los Angeles International Aviation Meet was a revelation: the pilots shattered existing aviation records, refuted those who doubted the viability of heavier-than-air flying machines, and performed death-defying stunts. The ten days of flying received national newspaper coverage and attracted more than 100,000 visitors, including future industry leaders like Glenn Martin and William Boeing. L.A. Birdmen offers a high-flying account of the West Coast contribution to aviation, a little-recognized chapter in the story of American flight. In the first decade of the twentieth century, these dashing aviators—not the Wrights—were the public face of American aviation.

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9781493084395

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Reviews

"""In Goodrich's engaging narrative of the forgotten heroes of early aviation, we feel the heart-pounding excitement of watching the first experimental attempts at flight. A deeply researched look into the irrepressible desire to fly and those who would stop at nothing to achieve it."" --Susan Tate Ankeny, author of American Flygirl and The Girl and the Bombardier"

""L.A. Birdmen: West Coast Aviators and the First Airshow in America is an extraordinary and detailed study that is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and college/university library Aviation History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists."" -- ""Midwest Book Review"" ""Richard Goodrich tells the story of how the West Coast became the epicenter of aviation in his book, L.A. Birdmen... [It's] a lot of fun, and you don't need to be a science/aviation nerd to enjoy it."" --Brendan Dowd, Host of the History Nerds United podcast ""This book was incredible!... It was very interesting to read the descriptions and see the pictures of the early flying machines. I also enjoyed learning about the early pilots and the people that supported them... I highly recommend for all readers with an interest in aviation history!"" -- ""NetGalley review"" ""In Goodrich's engaging narrative of the forgotten heroes of early aviation, we feel the heart-pounding excitement of watching the first experimental attempts at flight. A deeply researched look into the irrepressible desire to fly and those who would stop at nothing to achieve it."" --Susan Tate Ankeny, author of American Flygirl and The Girl and the Bombardier

Author Information

Richard J. Goodrich earned his Ph. D, at St. Andrews and spent twenty years teaching ancient history in Britain and the United States. In addition to six academic texts, he is the author of Comet Madness: How the 1910 Return of Halley's Comet (Almost) Destroyed Civilization. Visit the author at www.RichardJGoodrich.com.

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