L.A. Birdmen

Although most credit Wilbur and Orville Wright with Americas first powered flight, two months before the brothers lifted off the sands of Kitty Hawk, a French immigrant named August Greth flew the California Eagle, an airship of his own design, across the skies of San Francisco. While the Wrights claimed they had invented a flying machine, Greth and the California aviators proved it in front of thousands of spectators at state fairs and festivals across the country. L.A. Birdmen is the fascinating and forgotten story of Americas first aviatorsCalifornians like August Greth, Tom Baldwin, Roy Knabenshue, John Montgomery, and James Zerbe. Possessing a rare blend of ingenuity, creativity, and bravery, these pilots captured the worlds attention in 1910 when Los Angeles hosted Americas first international airshow. Inspired by a flying exhibition held in Reims, France, Los Angeles promoter Dick Ferris convinced the city to host a competing eventa show that featured the worlds best pilots and machines and would firmly establish Los Angeles as the center of American aviation. Featuring a fierce competition between French pilot Louis Paulhan and American Glenn Curtiss, the Los Angeles International Aviation Meet was a revelation: the pilots shattered existing aviation records, refuted those who doubted the viability of heavier-than-air flying machines, and performed death-defying stunts. The ten days of flying received national newspaper coverage and attracted more than 100,000 visitors, including future industry leaders like Glenn Martin and William Boeing. L.A. Birdmen offers a high-flying account of the West Coast contribution to aviation, a little-recognized chapter in the story of American flight. In the first decade of the twentieth century, these dashing aviatorsnot the Wrightswere the public face of American aviation.