Arthur Burr Stone (1874–1943)
at earlyaviators.com also known as A. B. Stone, "Wizard" Stone and "Aviator" Stone, was an American aviation pioneer.

Biography

He was born in 1874. Stone fell into

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that ...

from a height of 1,000 feet on 17 August 1911. Stone was test pilot for the

Queen Aircraft Company Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...

. Stone came to Australia in 1912-13 and flew his Bleriot monoplane in exhibitions.

Bert Hinkler Herbert John Louis Hinkler (8 December 1892 – 7 January 1933), better known as Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator (dubbed "Australian Lone Eagle") and inventor. He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person ...

became his mechanic. Stone was also a motorcycle globe-of-death rider. Stone also toured

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

, and flew at

Auckland Domain The Auckland Domain, also known as Pukekawa / Auckland Domain, is a large park in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the oldest park in the city, and at is one of the largest. Located in the central suburb of Grafton, the park land is the remains o ...

on 19 April 1913, where "The aircraft made a forced landing after 400 yards; it and the pilot were attacked by members of the disgruntled crowd who felt they had not got their money’s worth." Stone was in Hamilton on May 12, then on 4 June the monoplane was "written off by a fence on the boundary of Napier's racecourse

Arthur Burr (Wizard) Stone was earmarked to carry the first Government official airmail from Melbourne to Sydney on 23 May 1914. Five days before the scheduled flight, the American barnstormer, while test flying his Metz-Bleriot at Sunshine, Victoria, suffered a mishap and damaged the plane. The flight was cancelled and the mail was carried to Sydney by rail. He died in 1943.

Anecdotes

1913: "Leslie an
Claude Couper
were coming in to take over this bush farm on Oio Road No.

in 1913. The road only came over the hill, Kaitieke County, Kaitieke side, for about a mile and from there on it was just a track. They were coming down the hill through the bush, winding in and out through the bush with their pack horses (jogging quietly) along when they heard an engine overhead just like a motor bike coming but it was an aeroplane, the first (the very first) to fly from the North down to Marton. The pack horses stampeded and bolted - they hadn't heard the like before and of course a bolting pack horse soon loses its pack. That was strewn every-where. A crow bar here, something else there and a stream of ammunition all down the track. But most important of all - the plane arrived at its destination."

References

External links

Arthur B. "Wizard" Stone flies his Bleriot plane in Australia, 1914Image of Arthur Stone at the Harvard-Boston Aero Meet, August - September, 1911
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Arthur Burr 1874 births 1943 deaths American aviators Members of the Early Birds of Aviation