The Wright Exhibition Team was a group of early aviators trained by the Wright brothers at

Wright Flying School The Wright Flying School, also known as the Wright School of Aviation, was operated by the Wright Company from 1910 to 1916 and trained 119 individuals to fly Wright airplanes. History Orville Wright began training students on March 19, 1910 in M ...

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

in March 1910.

History

The group was formed in 1910 at the suggestion of balloonist Augustus Roy Knabenshue. The team made its first public appearance on June 13, 1910 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The team performed aerial shows and set records for

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

''(4939 feet)'' and endurance. Pilots were paid $20 per week and $50 a day when flying. By August there were five separate teams flying at one time with $186,000 in receipts. Ralph Johnstone was the first to be killed. After attempting another altitude record over Denver's

Overland Park Overland Park ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, Kansas, it is one of four principal cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the most populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. ...

in November, Johnstone put his plane into

Walter Richard Brookins Walter Richard Brookins (July 11, 1889 – April 29, 1953) was the first pilot trained by the Wright brothers for their exhibition team. Biography Brookins was born in July 1889 in Dayton, Ohio to Clara Belle Spitler (1873–1947) and Noah Holsa ...

' 'spiral dip' dive, and he never recovered. The plane plummeted to the ground, and Johnstone was crushed. A month later, on New Year's Eve, 1910,

Arch Hoxsey Archibald Hoxsey (October 15, 1884 – December 31, 1910) was an American aviator who worked for the Wright brothers. Biography Hoxsey was born in Staunton, Illinois, on October 15, 1884. He moved with his parents to Pasadena, California. ...

was killed in an identical crash. Although the team had lost its star fliers, newer pilots trained by Welsh joined the team and continued performing around the country at 25 locations. Troubled by the deaths of the pilots, the group was disbanded in November 1911.

Members

* Leonard Warden Bonney (1884–1928) † *

(1889–1953). * Frank Trenholm Coffyn (1878–1960) * Howard Gill (1883–1912) † * Archibald Hoxsey (1884–1910) † * Ralph Johnstone (1880/?1886–1910) † * Augustus Roy Knabenshue (1875–1960), he managed the team. *Duval La Chapelle (1869-1932) * Philip Orin Parmelee (1887–1912) † * James Clifford Turpin (1886–1966), pilot & engineer * Arthur L. Welsh (1875 or 1881–1912) †, Welsh was killed in a crash while demonstrating a Wright model C airplane for the U.S. Army in 1912. *Spencer Crane – mechanic *James Davis – mechanic † Died in flight crashes.

Timeline

*1910 Indianapolis Motor Speedway on June 13 *1910 October – Walter Brookins crashes the Wright Baby Grand at Belmont Park in New York. *1910 November – Ralph Johnstone dies at Denver's Overland park. *1910 December – Walter Brookins performs at Dominguez Field, Los Angeles. *1910 Death of

on December 31 *1911 May – Walter Brookins leaves the flight team. *1911

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

August 12–30, Grant Park *1911 November – The Wrights release the team, keeping Welsh on as a test pilot.

References

Wright brothers {{Aviation-stub