This showed up in my inbox today. A documentary called The Lost Aviator has been made, about Bill Lancaster. Lancaster was the great-uncle of the filmmaker.
In a nutshell, Bill Lancaster was an Englishman who emigrated to Australia before WWI. He joined the Australian Army, then the Australian Flying Corps, and joined the RAF after the war. He attempted to set the long-distance flying record in 1927 from England to Australia. He and his co-adventurer and love interest Jessie ‘Chubbie’ Miller were beaten by Bert Hinkler – which is why I’ve heard of Bert Hinkler and not Bill Lancaster. In 1932 Lancaster was flying in Mexico after moving to Miami, while Miller stayed in Florida to write her autobiography. American writer Haden Clarke was helping her.
Well, wouldn’t you know it? Miller and Clarke hooked up and decided to get married. Lancaster was a little put out, and returned to Miami. Clarke suffered a lead-induced cerebral hemorrhage, and Lancaster went to trial for murder. Yes, it was Lancaster’s gun. Yes, Lancaster admitted forging suicide notes. He was acquitted anyway.
In 1933 Lancaster attempted to set a new speed record for flying from England to South Africa. He disappeared, and the wreckage and Lancaster’s ‘mummified remains’ were not found until 1962. Evidence suggests that he died on 20 April, 1933 – a year to the day after Haden Clarke suffered his unfortunate shooting accident.
I love aviation, and reading about early aviation. (I’m expecting Jerrie Mock’s book Three-Eight Charlie any day now.) But for Hinkler, I may have heard of Lancaster. It’s interesting to hear his story.
Barnstorming was interesting. Anyone acquainted with Lincoln J. Beachey: “The World’s Greatest Aviator”?
I was wondering the breaking of the wings: was this a major blunder by the people who built the airplane–or did people not understand the engineering theory of structures back then?
Keep in mind, that occurred only 12 years after the initial sustained powered flight. Aviation was still very new and not all the details had been worked out. Engineering theory about building flying machines was still being worked out. There was a tendency to either overbuild or underbuild components depending on whether someone was trying to save weight or improve safety. They also lacked the computer modeling we have, designs were either minimally tested or empirically tested. There was less understanding of the forces imposed on airplanes during maneuvering.
Death by broken airplane was, unfortunately, all too common in the early days of powered flight.
