1st Lieutenant Victor Carlström (April 13, 1890 – May 9, 1917) was a record-holding Swedish-American pioneer aviator. He set a cross-America flight air speed record until the record was beaten by Ruth Bancroft Law.

Biography

He was born in Gustafs parish in Kopparberg, Sweden on April 13, 1890, to Axel Carlström. He migrated to the United States through

Ellis Island Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United State ...

in 1904, when he was 14. He moved to North Park, Colorado to work for his uncles Andrew Carlstrom and William Norell Carlstrom who had

cattle ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...

es. He became an instructor one week after leaving his job at the cattle ranch. In 1916 he was short of a

flight altitude record This listing of flight altitude records are the records set for the highest aeronautical flights conducted in the atmosphere and beyond, set since the age of ballooning. Some, but not all of the records were certified by the non-profit interna ...

when he ascended in a

triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard (aeronautics), canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The trip ...

. He also planned to make a

non-stop flight A non-stop flight is a flight by an aircraft with no intermediate stops, as opposed to a direct flight, which is any flight with no change in flight number, but which may include one or more stops. History During the early age of aviation ...

from Chicago to New York. He went to work for the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station where he and a student pilot, Cary B. Epes, were killed on May 9, 1917, when their biplane collapsed in flight.

Legacy

Carlstrom Field Carlstrom Field is a former military airfield, located southeast of Arcadia, Florida. The airfield was List of airfields of the Training Section of the United States Army Air Service, one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established in ...

was named in his honor. *His niece, Marion Carlstrom, was the first Women Airforce Service Pilot from

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlstrom, Victor 1890 births 1917 deaths American aviation record holders Aviators from Colorado Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States People from Ljusnarsberg Municipality Swedish emigrants to the United States Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1917