1911: The First Day of an Aviation Meet in Chicago

August 12, 1911

The Chicago International Aviation Meet was formally launched. This eight-day air show, which was characterized by the Indiana-based Logansport Journal as “the greatest aggregation of human birds ever assembled,” took place in the section of Grant Park that is along Lake Michigan. The event was held under the aegis of the International Aviation Meet in Association. Harold Fowler McCormick, a prominent Chicago resident and businessman, served as chairman of the association’s executive committee.

More than 30 pilots participated in the Chicago International Aviation Meet. The most famous of these individuals included Harry Atwood, Thomas Scott Baldwin, Lincoln Beachey, Glenn Curtiss, Eugene Burton Ely, Claude Grahame-White, Earle Ovington, Carl Rodgers, René Simon, and Thomas Sopwith.

Numerous newspapers across the United States reported on the first day of the meet. The Brooklyn Eagle noted, “A series of accidents that put three aeroplanes out of business without injuring their drivers, together with a downcast sky that threatened to develop into a downpour at any minute, did not serve to mar the score of the international meet today.”

The Kansas City Star highlighted the large turnout of spectators at the meet. “It is estimated three hundred thousand persons saw the flights,” reported this newspaper. “About eighty thousand were in the enclosure at Grant Park, the other beings on roofs, in windows, on the lake and streets.” The Kansas City Star further stated, “Spectacularly the meet’s first day was a success.”

Over the next several days, the meet became the venue for quite a few new world records in aviation. An especially notable milestone in this regard occurred on the meet’s final day, when Beachey — flying a Curtiss biplane — broke the previous altitude record for aircraft. He was initially credited with having attained an altitude of 11,576 feet (3,528.4 meters). A couple of days later, though, this altitude was recalculated as having been 11,642 feet (3,548.5) instead.

The Chicago International Aviation Meet officially closed with McCormick riding in a monoplane that was piloted by Sopwith. They circled several times in the skies above Grant Park. This meet was the first major event of its kind to take place in that region of the United States. It is also considered by many to be one of the most significant aviation meets held anywhere in the years prior to World War I. (The accompanying postcard features one of the planes at the 1911 meet in Chicago.)

Tragically, however, two of the pilots participating in the Chicago International Aviation Meet lost their lives while flying on the fourth day of the event. St. Croix Johnstone of Chicago died when his monoplane plunged into Lake Michigan, and William R. Badger was killed after his biplane crashed on the grounds of Grant Park.

Image Credit: Public Domain

Additional information on the 1911 Chicago International Aviation Meet is available at https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM10932 and https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-archive/international-aviation-meet-grant-park-chicago-souvenir-program-johnson/sova-nasm-2017-0023