What if I told you coyotes could fly?  Don’t believe me – think I’ve lost my mind?  Well, I’m here to tell you that I know of a coyote who COULD fly – and his name was Jeep!  And Jeep wasn’t any cartoon coyote.  No, this was a tried and true, real-life American Coyote!  And how did he fly without wings, you may ask?  Well, in a plane, of course!  And here’s his story:

A very long time ago, in May 1944, there lived a mother coyote in a dusty field in the state of Texas.  The mother coyote had a litter of coyote pups and tended to them between scouting trips for food.  She and other coyotes liked to sneak up to nearby farms in search of tasty rabbits, hens, chickens, and mice.  The farmers hated the coyotes and wanted to get rid of them; they didn’t want their farm animals attacked by these pesky scavengers.  So, they tried to scare them away or kill them.  

One day, a farmer found a baby coyote near his farm.  The coyote was no more than two weeks old and must have wandered away from his den-maybe in search of his mother or food.  The farmer gave the baby coyote to a teenage boy named John Crump, and told him to get rid of it.  At the time, John was a pilot in training at a nearby airfield and was working on the farm for extra money.  

John was tender-hearted and loved animals.  He just couldn’t bring himself to kill such a cute, furry little creature.  So, what did he do?  He took him home and started to raise him himself!  He decided to call the coyote “Jeep,” after the magical dog in the Popeye cartoons.

John was a very busy young man.  On top of helping out on the farm, he was also taking flying lessons while attending high school.  He loved flying and wanted to join the Army Air Force.  His dream was to join the war effort and fly planes over Europe.  World War II was raging in Europe at the time and pilots were needed to help the British fight the Nazis.  John graduated high school early and joined the Army Air Force.  He was ordered to board a beautiful ship called the Queen Elizabeth – a huge passenger ship converted – or changed – into a military troop ship.  His orders were to sail to England to join other pilots fighting in the war.  

John was very excited, but he didn’t want to leave his new furry friend, Jeep, behind.  Jeep might be killed by angry farmers or die of starvation.  John decided to take Jeep on the ship with him.  He stowed him away in his bags and carried him on board.   

And you might wonder what little Jeep thought about all of these changes in his young life – being taken away from his family, raised by a young man, then lugged onto a rolling ship. He must have been frightened and more than a little confused!  A rolling ship with hundreds of humans in tight corners is NOTHING like the vast dusty fields of Texas living with other coyotes!

Well, whatever Jeep thought, he and John survived the ocean crossing and eventually landed in England. They then traveled to Ipswich to join the 356^th Fighter Group at Playford Hall, near RAF Martlesham Heath Airfield.  This was HEAVEN for John and Jeep!  Playford Hall was no dusty farm or bleak metal shed on a slab of concrete.  No!  Playford Hall was a gorgeous brick mansion set in the middle of green lawns and blooming gardens.  And it even had a moat!  It was the perfect home for Jeep, a young, rambunctious coyote!  He could chase squirrels, birds, butterflies, and frogs!

Jeep loved his new home and he loved John.  Jeep sauntered behind John as he went back and forth across the lawns or down the road to the airfield.  And everyone at Playford Hall liked Jeep as well – he became their new little mascot and they gave him his own dog tags, log book, and medical records!  

Soon it was time for John to take to the skies and fly missions over England and Germany.  He jumped in his P-47 Thunderbolt plane, ready to fly into the skies and away towards Germany.  But Jeep wanted to go, too!  John tried to tell him to stay on the ground, but Jeep wasn’t having any of it.  He jumped up on the wing and right into the cockpit, landing on John’s lap!  It was a tight fit, but Jeep wasn’t moving.  Wherever John was going, so was Jeep!  

The war was raging and officers were yelling at the pilots to get into the air, so John decided to take Jeep on the flight with him.  He closed the hatch and started the engines.  Within seconds they were roaring down the airfield and lifting into the sky.  Below them, the rolling green hills and country lanes slowly disappeared from view as they headed across the English Channel towards Germany.  

The plane was very noisy, cold, and rattled a lot, but that didn’t bother Jeep.  He was just happy to be with John.  When John wasn’t steering the plane or turning various knobs, he would joke with Jeep and rub his ears, which made him very happy.  John and Jeep soared through the sky for hours on their dangerous bombing mission before returning home to Playford Hall.  Jeep was so excited to get out of the tiny cockpit after the long flight and stretch his legs – plus find something to eat.  

Jeep and John took 4 more wartime flights together and even posed for pictures taken by other pilots.  One picture shows Jeep sitting on John’s lap in the open cockpit.  John holds him up to the camera and smiles, but Jeep is more interested in surveying the ground below them.  Another picture shows Jeep sitting on a 500-pound bomb attached to the plane.  He is staring up at John, ears back, and howling!  He looks so happy.  John stands closely beside Jeep, smiling at the camera while decked out in his pilot suit, helmet, goggles and air mask!  

Jeep became the first – and possibly only – flying coyote, and the first coyote to join the war effort in support of the allies!  

Unfortunately, on October 28, 1944, while on base, Jeep was hit by a military vehicle and died.  John was devastated and many men mourned the passing of this dear, four-legged wartime companion.  Jeep was honored with a military funeral and buried on the beautiful grounds of Playford Hall.  Next to his resting place is a blue plaque that reads, in part: “Jeep Coyote.  Here lies in honored glory a native American who flew in combat and died on foreign soil in the service of his country.”

Jeep may have had a short life but he had a full, adventurous life!  How many coyotes do you know who found a loving friend, traveled on a luxury ocean liner, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, lived in an English mansion, gained many other friends, AND flew in planes?  None!  Jeep was one of a kind and was sorely missed by John.  When John received a different plane later in the war, he painted the image of a howling coyote on its side in honor of Jeep. And shortly before John passed away, he returned to England and paid one last visit to Jeep on the grounds of Playford Hall.  

What a wonderful story of friendship and adventure!

So, what do you think of this coyote and his friend John?  Would you like to have a coyote as a pet?  Do you think it was a good idea to take the coyote away from Texas, sail across the sea, and raise him by an airfield with trucks and planes?  Would you like to take a ride in a plane with a coyote or some other animal?

I think this is a reminder that animals are amazing creatures and that special bonds can be formed between all kinds of wildlife and man.  Like “Unsinkable Sam,” the battleship cat we discussed in another episode, this coyote lived an amazing life during a historic time in history.  And even though his life was short, he was well-loved and his sweet, loyal nature touched many lives.  

What about you?  Have you ever had an amazing friendship with an animal?  If so, I would love to hear from you.  Click this link and complete the form.

The post Jeep The Flying Coyote appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Think of some of the objects you saw: family, friends, trees, maybe a pet, or the big blue sky and white moon in the dark of night. Maybe you saw a smile and objects moving, a car speeding by, or someone kicking a ball. Most of these objects are things you are used to. But when you were a baby they were very interesting! You were curious about everything because it was all new and fresh! As we get older many of these things to become familiar and perhaps not as interesting. Tonight we’re going to learn about Leonardo da Vinci, also known as one of the most curious and creative geniuses in recorded history. As we learn about him, think about how he saw the world differently and how you might see the world differently, too. 

When was Leonardo da Vinci born?

Leonardo was born on April 15th, 1452 in the country of Italy in a town called Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci means Leonardo of Vinci, the town where he was born.  He was born during a time that later became known as The Renaissance, which means “Rebirth” because the way people saw the world was changing dramatically during this time. The Medieval Times was over and people were beginning to see themselves as beings who had control over their life and the world and could think differently than those who came before them. 

Childhood & Early Education

Leonardo grew up with his father and spent much of his time exploring the land around their home. He loved to observe the birds and animals and get lost in the beautiful countryside. Around the age of 15, his father noticed he had an interest in and a gift for art. For this reason, his father had him become an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence, Italy. An apprentice is a student to a master artist. And at this time Florence was known for its gifted artists and sculptors. In Verrocchio’s workshop, Leonardo learned from his master how to paint and sculpt. Sculptors used materials like clay or marble to make grand sculptures.   

Leonardo studied and helped with paintings and sculptures in Verrochio’s workshop until he was 20 years old. The next step in an artist’s life was to join a guide and Leonard did just that when he was accepted into the painters’ guild in Florence. A guild was a group of skilled artists who worked and met together. At this time he created many pen and pencil drawings and technical drawings of weapons and other mechanical devices. He was very interested in how things worked and in creating new devices. He loved inventing things! 

Milan and Duke Sforza

In 1482, when he was about 30 years old Leonardo moved to the city of Milan where he worked for the city’s duke, Ludovico Sforza. There he created paintings and worked on inventions for the Duke. The ability to create and improve technical devices is called engineering — and Leonardo was a very gifted engineer. He worked for Duke Sforza for many years. There he painted two of his best-known works The Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper depicting Jesus and his Twelve Apostles. He also helped design buildings and gave the Duke engineering advice for his army. 

One of Leonardo’s other biggest projects was a huge, 24-foot bronze horse for Duke Sforza. He spent 12 years designing it out of clay, which would be a mold to be turned into bronze. Unfortunately, before they could pour the metal into the mold to finish the horse sculpture, the project was stopped, because a war started and the metal had to be used for cannons instead of the horse! In our day, someone decided to get together the money to finally build the horse Leonardo always wanted. If you ever visit Milan, Italy you can see it today!

After the war Duke Sforza was no longer Duke, so Leonardo stopped working for him. Leonardo continued working in his workshop in Milan and soon had his own students and apprentices.

Florence

In the 1500s a French army invaded and took over Milan, so Leonardo left and went to Florence, where he had been an apprentice as a young man. In Florence, he painted his most famous painting, The Mona Lisa. Leonardo was a gifted artist, but he wasn’t afraid to learn new topics and never stopped learning. He was infinitely curious! Leonardo began to study math and science. He studied the human body, which is called anatomy. He also observed the flight of birds and studied the flow of air and water. He looked at everyday objects through different eyes. He wondered how bodies worked, how birds flew, and what gave living things their motion. He didn’t take anything for granted and saw the miracle in everyday life and studied deeply to try and understand it. 

Eventually, Leonardo moved back to Milan and continued his scientific studies, writing and creating many sketchbooks to help others understand the human body and how it worked. He came to believe that all bodies and living things worked according to certain laws of nature, which was very ahead of his time. 

Rome

In 1513, around the age of 60, Leonardo again moved to Rome where he lived in the Vatican and worked for Giuliano de Medici. At this time many of the popular Renaissance artists were living and creating amazing works of art in Rome. The famous St. Peter’s Cathedral was being built at the time and Raphael was painting walls in the Pope’s new apartments. One of the most famous artists of all time, Michaelangelo, was also in Rome working on the Pope’s tomb. 

By the age of 65, Leonardo was asked by the King of France to move there, where he became his main painter, architect, and engineer, which was a great honor. There he continued his sketches and consulted other artists in their works. He also helped plan a palace and garden for the king. He spent a lot of time arranging his writings and sketches about nature in his many notebooks, which fortunately we have today! Leonardo passed away at an old age while living in France.

Leonardo’s Influences

Today we’re lucky to have many of Leonardo’s paintings and notebooks. Many of the ideas he had were for machines that wouldn’t be invented for hundreds of years. For example, in his study of birds and flight, he had the idea for an airplane, a helicopter, and a parachute, which he sketched in his notebooks. He also had the idea for many military machines, such as an armored car, a giant crossbow, and a three-barreled cannon. When you get the chance you can find a book about Leonardo’s inventions at the library or look at them online. They are amazing!

What can you learn from Leonardo?

One of the most interesting things about Leonardo was his ability to take his artistic talents and engineering skills and combine them. He became known as a Renaissance Man because of his curiosity and ability to combine many different skills to invent amazing things. He believed artists were the best qualified to achieve true knowledge, because of the unique way they were able to view the world. Think about that as you observe the miraculous world around you. Never take for granted the little things. Even the smallest living things like a flower or a bee are extraordinary as you look at them closely and learn more about them. Think about what you might do to learn more about the world around you like Leonardo. You could take the time to study a rock or a leaf and sketch it into a notebook as Leonardo did. This is the way he came to better understand the world, one simple object at a time. 

Listen to the audio

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Today we’re going to learn about a place that has been a mystery to people all over the world. Places like this one become mysterious because not much is known about what goes on there, so people start to imagine what might happen there and share their ideas until the place becomes more and more intriguing to those who don’t know about it. This particular place is called Area 51. Area 51 is one section in a large territory of land located in the deserts of Nevada in the United States, which is now officially called the Nevada National Security Site. Area 51 is owned by the government and only the people who work there are allowed to know what happens on the base. For a very long time, no one outside of the base knew what was going on there, but in recent years more of its history has become known. So in this episode we’re going to talk about some of the histories we do know about Area 51 and also the things we don’t know and for that reason have become mysterious.

After World War 2 ended, the Cold War began. The Cold War was a conflict between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union (not Russia). It was called a Cold War because there was very little fighting and instead lots of spying. Both countries were worried the other country would use nuclear bombs, which were invented during World War 2, on each other. The United States needed an area for testing nuclear bombs that were far from humans, so they used the land in Nevada and called it the Nevada Testing Site. Some of these bombs were tested above ground but many of them were tested below ground. They drilled holes deep into the earth and dug tunnels to place the bombs into before detonating them. They did this because the fallout from nuclear bombs above ground can be very harmful when it moves through the air. I did a little research using Google Maps and today you can still see the craters created by the testing of these bombs at the Nevada Testing Site.

So to keep an eye on each other’s nuclear bombs, the United States and Russia trained spies to live in each other’s countries, trying to figure out what their enemy would do next. Another word for spying is espionage. The agency in the United States for gathering intelligence was called the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA. Intelligence is information about other countries, such as Russia at the time. Besides just sending out agents, the CIA had the idea to use jets to photograph possible nuclear weapons in Russia. These jets would need to fly VERY high to avoid enemy radar and have very powerful cameras to take photos of the land below. And the program to develop the spy plane would have to be TOP SECRET. This means no one could know about it besides the people working on the spy plane. 

The new spy plane was called the U-2 and once the work started on it, the designers needed a place to test it out. The chief designer of the U-2, named Kelly Johnson, was flying over Nevada one day when he saw the flat desert and mountains of Area 51 and thought it would be perfect for testing out his new spy plane. Soon, work started on the airfield and runways around Groom Lake at the section of the Nevada Test Site named Area 51. Airplane hangers to keep the spy plane out of view. Fences were added all around Area 51 so no one but those working on the U-2 spy plane could see what was being done. Guards were posted at all of the entrances to make sure no one entered the base. Anyone who worked at Area 51 had to swear an oath of secrecy to promise that they’d never speak about the work they were doing. Houses were built for the people who would live there. Soon, the area around Groom Lake was a small city where engineers and pilots could live and work and test the spy plane. A gym, movie theater, and baseball diamond were even built to make life more enjoyable at Area 51. Kelly Johnson even called it “Paradise Ranch” to attract people to work on the top secret projects.

During the day, engineers worked on the aircraft. Then at night, highly trained pilots flew the advanced aircraft high around the Nevada desert to test them and make sure they were working well. The U-2 spy plane was black, had long slender wings and could fly up to 70,000 feet, which was extremely high for a jet at the time. Testing the U-2 was very dangerous and the pilots who flew it had to be very skilled and brave to take it up again and again until it was ready to use. Many talented engineers also had to work long hours to make sure the U-2 could fly high, take photos, and not be detected by enemy radar.

Before the U-2 was put into service, the next top-secret project began on a new spy plane that would be designed to fly even higher and faster than the U-2. It was called the A-12 Oxcart. It was long, black, sleek, and eventually able to fly Mach 3, which is 2,000 miles per hour and faster than the speed of sound. It still holds the record of flying at 85,000 feet, which is incredibly high for a jet. The A-12 was also the precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird, which looked very similar.

So as you can imagine, when jets like the U-2, the A-12, and other top-secret aircraft flew at night, they moved at incredible speeds; and when their fuel burned it created bright streaks across the sky. This made people living nearby Area 51 very suspicious about what was going on. They saw objects that were moving higher and faster than anything they’d ever seen. Also, when passenger jet pilots flew nearby, they saw objects moving high above them and very fast. Stories started to emerge from people on the ground and in the air who saw these objects. Science Fiction was becoming popular in comic books, movies, and TV. Could the objects people were seeing be spacecraft from another world? They started calling these “Unidentified Flying Objects” or UFOs. Another word they used to describe beings from other planets was “extraterrestrials.” They wondered if Area 51 had UFOs.

Of course, it didn’t help that Area 51 was so top secret. Everything was classified, which means not public knowledge, and everyone working there was flown in by plane and had to receive top-secret clearance. You can imagine what kind of rumors started!

All the while, new projects continued at Area 51 and the surrounding test site in the deserts of Nevada which included the D-21 Tagboard, one of the first aircraft flown without a human pilot. You might know these as drones but officially called UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Later, UAVs like the Predator, Sentinel, and Reaper drones were tested at Area 51. These are now in use by the military today and used in places like the Middle East. A pilot on a base in Nevada flies these drones remotely in place all over the world using satellite communication. There has also been debate about whether aircraft like this should be used in other countries and when they should be used.

Over time, the history of the aircraft tested at Area 51 and nearby became public knowledge. In 2013, the CIA even shared documents about the work done there. The documents about the U-2, the A-12, and F-117 became declassified. Later, it became known that astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin who completed the first Apollo Moon mission trained there. They put on their spacesuits and walked around the desert as if they were on the moon.

Of course, today whatever is being tested and created at Area 51 is once again top secret, so we can only guess what is happening there. Because it’s unknown it becomes mysterious to those who don’t know and people like to use their imaginations to think about what might be going on there. Like we said before, the base is guarded by fences and soldiers on patrol so currently only people with top-secret permission can go in. It’s likely that the most advanced aircraft is being tested there and things we won’t know about until they are revealed at a future date.  That said, you can look at Area 51 on Google Maps, and my kids and I had fun looking at the different airfields, mountains, roads, and testing sites. And we do admit it’s fun to guess at what might be going on there today.

So, back to UFOs and extraterrestrials since it can be such an intriguing topic. Many people wonder with our universe being so big, there should be other life out there in the galaxy. And if so, why haven’t we made contact with this other intelligent life yet. There are a lot of questions here which are fun to explore. The SETI Institute is one organization with the goal to find extraterrestrial life in the universe. SETI stands for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. They use powerful radio telescopes to observe faraway places in the galaxy that might contain intelligent life. They search for planets that might be habitable, which means be the right temperature and have water. 

At times, the government and military have also done studies on UFOs and intelligent life that may have visited earth. Project Blue Book was the name of one of these studies. They interviewed witnesses and researched what might explain what people were seeing. In most cases, what people saw corresponded to aircraft flying in the area or other explainable things. 

One of the most famous UFO stories in the United States happened in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 when something crashed in the desert there. With all of the talk of UFOs familiar with Science Fiction, the newspaper was quick to report it was a UFO. Did they do this just to get people to buy their newspapers? Or did someone see something that made them think it was a spacecraft from another planet? The military quickly came to the scene to clean up the crashed aircraft and this led to people speculating that whatever did crash in Roswell was top secret. Stories about what happened at Roswell then began to spread and ever since it has been a topic of much debate. Later, the military said it was in fact a top-secret project, a high-flying weather balloon used to spy on enemies far below. During World War 2 they hoped to use it to listen for bombs exploding to know where the enemy might be testing nuclear bombs. But as you can imagine the rumors still abound about what happened at Roswell, New Mexico. Later, people wondered if what was being tested at Area 51 was connected to the crash at Roswell. Did the government know something about UFOs that the general public didn’t? Were they testing their own UFOs? We do know they were testing top-secret aircraft like the U-2 and A-12. It can be fun to speculate and wonder but the fact remains that there is still much that we don’t know about Area 51 and the surrounding Nevada Test Site. 

What is being tested at Area 51 today? The best guess is the same work of advanced aircraft that can fly fast and is stealthy, which means avoiding being detected by enemy radar. There may also be advanced weapons systems being tested which the military is always developing. If you try and visit Area 51 today you’ll only see lots of “No Trespassing” signs and surveillance cameras, but interestingly, people interested in UFOs like to drive down the road now called the Extraterrestrial Highway and all of the shops, hotels, and other businesses which are UFO and Extraterrestrial themed and which sell t-shirts, books, and other souvenirs.

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Have you ever traveled in an airplane? Imagine if you had to make that same trip in a car. It would have taken a lot longer, right? Even just a hundred years ago most people didn’t have access to airplanes. They had to use horses, trains, or sometimes cars to get around, but for most people getting from here to there in a plane was still a thing of the future. 

Did you know around 100,000 flights happen every day! And around 6 million people fly every day! Those are huge numbers! Aircraft have revolutionized travel across the world. I remember the last flight I went on, and in just a few hours I had gone from Arizona all the way down to Costa Rica. It still blows my mind to think about it! I can still picture my kids’ faces the first time they’ve had the chance to fly. They are nervous when we take off, but then they smile after we are in the air and look out the window at the ground as it grows smaller and smaller below. And then I imagine what the world would be like without airplanes. It makes me very grateful that some very determined people dedicated their lives to figuring out the miracle of flight.

In this episode, we are going to talk about two brothers who invented the first airplane and took humans to the sky — Wilbur and Orville Wright, also known as the Wright Brothers. 

Interestingly, in 1891, the different brothers were putting the final touches on their 15 meters long-winged Glider in Germany.

One brother was named Otto Lilienthal. He was attracted to the sky when he first saw a bird on the shores of the Baltic Sea in northern Germany. Otto’s brother, Gustav Lilienthal’s heart, was on the ground, but his mind was in the sky. Both brothers were engineers and had a strong desire to fly.

Climbing on a high hill, Otto Lilienthal hung himself under the Glider and ran into the wind. Four seconds later, he was floating in the air. He was flying! Little did he know, his glider flight would go down in history as the first recorded year someone flew.

News of these thrilling experiments made it into the newspapers of Europe and America. In those times, the question, “Can a human fly like a bird?” was a matter of great discussion.

Two American brothers, Orville and Wilbur, the Wright brothers, heard about the news of the first glider flight and were very interested. At the time the Wright Brothers were running a bicycle repair shop in Dayton, USA.

One day, Orville Wright fell ill and was still bedridden in the morning. Sunday’s newspaper came with front-page news titled “Glider had suddenly crashed in a strong wind, killing Otto Lilienthal.”

Orville was sad to hear about the inventor who had first flown the glider. Wilbur Wright, three years older than Orville, was also shocked. The hard work and sacrifices of the other brothers in Germany inspired and challenged the Wright Brothers to create their own airplane.

The Wright brothers didn’t want to make any hasty efforts. First, Wilbur Wright wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington asking for materials on aeronautics and mechanics. The institute was collecting research papers as well as books on scientific experiments taking place around the world.

The Smithsonian Institution replied positively. The natural wind that can lift an aerial vehicle can only be found on the coast, so the Wright Brothers left Ohio and moved to the coastal state of North Carolina in 1900, where they camped on a hilly shore called Kitty Hawk.

The Wright Brothers set up a Glider-making workshop there. Next to it, they even built a small house with all basic furnishing. This extended plan was not a hobby; their plan was to stay at the testing ground until they had achieved their goal.

Can you believe that the world’s first self-powered aircraft – which they called Flyer-1, was built in less than two months!? Today, if we looked at the Flyer-1 design, it looked like a dragonfly and was a pretty fragile plane — which means it could break easily. But you can’t help but admire Orville and Wilbur Wright’s intellect and talent after learning about the technology they designed in the Flyer-1’s structure.

The main component of the Flyer-1 was its engine. Since The Wright Brothers couldn’t find the right automobile engine for the Flyer-1, they decided to build a new one. Orville and Wilbur used a four-cylinder gasoline engine after considering the aircraft’s size, weight, and dimension. The Flyer-1 engine weighed 178-pound with 12 horsepower. 

After examining several types of wood, Wilbur and Orville decided to use giant Spruce wood for the Flyer-1. The wood was pretty light yet strong. After forming a skeleton-like framework, they covered it tightly with a muslin cloth.

Can you believe that the Flayer-1 had no spark plug, cockpit, no carburetor to pour gasoline into the engine, and no water pump for cooling? Probably, the biggest shocker is that the plane had no wheels!! But Flayer-1 had one thing, that was the genius of two brothers. They overcame every challenge with brilliancy and common sense.

For example, to make up for the lack of wheels, Wright Brothers set up a four-piece wooden plank in a row like a train track. They made a dolly and set the plane on it. The idea was that when the dolly carrying the plane runs on the 18-meter long track, the dolly stays on the ground while the plane shoots into the sky.

After much effort and preparation, the day for realizing the beautiful and thrilling dream came on December 14, 1903. Kitty Hawk Beach in the state of North Carolina was the stage for a dramatic and historic event.

To decide who would fly it first, Orville Wright tossed a coin and Wilbur won. But when the plane’s 12-horsepower engine sped off, Wilbur got too excited and raised the elevator too high, and the lift factor suddenly disappeared. Flyer-1 fell on the ground with some damage. It took them three more days to repair Flyer-1. 

On December 17, the two brothers returned to the seashore. The weather was pleasant. Exactly, at 10.35 a.m., Orville raced down the rail and held his breath as suddenly, Flyer-1 took off and flew through the air! The Age of Flight had begun! 

Orville flew 120 feet for 12 seconds. The history of the world would never be the same! 

Orville and Wilbur Wright were happy to have completed the unfinished work of Otto Lilienthal and to have made the impossible possible with their intelligence. Little did they know that their invention of Flyer-1 would someday lead to huge passenger jets, military aircraft, and all of the other amazing aircraft we know today.

Surprisingly, the flight that took place in Kitty Hawk wasn’t really recognized in the United States. People couldn’t really accept and believe it. So Wilbur Wright went to France the following year and held an air show there. He flew the aircraft at an altitude of 300 feet.

In 1904, Wilbur Wright flew the modified version of Flyer-1 a distance of 2.7 miles. Wilbur proved that planes can be used for travel.

Then in 1908, Wilbur took his friend Charles William Furnas on the plane’s back seat and started the experimental journey. The successful flight made Charles William Furnas the first airplane passenger in the world. 

The journey was short, but the era of air travel really began when Wilbur covered the distance of 41 miles in France a few months later.

After returning to America, he got even more attention when he flew for crowds in New York. People saw it and finally believed human flight could happen.

Since The Wright Brothers’ time, aircraft were created that were bigger and faster and soon could hold many people and fly across the ocean. Aircraft was in the major world wars and in the case of World War II, major battles were won or lost based on airpower. Air travel eventually led to the building of rockets, and Neal Armstrong was a pilot before he went to the moon. Today jets can fly at the speed of sound and even some passenger jets like the Concorde can fly over 1,000 miles per hour and travel from New York to London (across the Atlantic Ocean) in less than an hour. 

Thinking about these advances makes me grateful for bright people like Orville and Wilbur Wright who learned all they could, then put their smarts to work and stuck with their work until they built the first basic airplane. Next time you’re flying on a plane thinking about people like Otto Lilienthal and The Wright Brothers and all of the engineers and pilots who have come after them. Be sure to check out our episodes about Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart and Neal Armstrong, all pilots. 

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Imagine you’re a pilot, thousands of feet above the earth on an airplane. You look down from your cockpit at the patchwork of fields and tiny, Lego-sized houses below you. You’re planning your route, but you’re not trying to get from point A to point B. Instead of flying a straight line, you dive towards the ground, falling faster and faster until, just feet from the ground, you pull up the nose of the plane, thrilling the crowd of onlookers nearby. You corkscrew through the air, fly figure eights, and loop upside down as the crowds gasp and cheer below. You are a barnstormer, a stunt pilot in the 1920s, performing daredevil feats thousands of feet above your awestruck fans. 

Today we’re going to learn about a world-famous pilot, Bessie Coleman, who was remarkable but for many other reasons. She was not only a great pilot, she was also the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license, and the first woman anywhere to have an international pilot’s license. Because her father was part Native American, she was also the first Native American female pilot. Not only that, she always tried to use her fame to help other black people and women. Sadly, at the time, both groups experienced a lot of discrimination in America. 

Bessie’s story begins before airplanes were even invented, and only 27 years after the end of slavery in the United States. She was born in 1892 to African American sharecroppers in Texas, one of nine children. As a child, and then teenager, she worked picking cotton and washing other people’s laundry. She attended segregated schools, but was a good student, especially in math. Under segregation, many states in the southern part of the United States had laws forcing blacks to go to different schools from whites, among other unfair rules. Even though she came from a poor background, and had to deal with unfair laws, Bessie had a goal of going to college, and as a young woman attended Langston University in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, she ran out of money and had to return home after one term. 

Soon after returning home, Bessie and two of her brothers decided to try to start a new life in Chicago. They moved north, where Bessie became a manicurist. She worked in a barber shop called the White Sox Barber Shop on the south side of Chicago. She became known for having the fastest hands in the city when it came to giving manicures.

She learned about piloting and airplanes from veterans, including her brothers, who had returned home from World War I. Bessie became fascinated by airplanes and flying. Her brothers would tease her though, saying she’d never be able to fly like some of the women they’d met in France during the war. 

But telling someone they can’t do something is often a sure-fire way to make them want to do it. So right then and there, Bessie decided she would become a pilot and prove her brothers wrong. But her brothers, weren’t the only people she’d have to prove wrong. At the time, there were no flight schools in the United States that would train women or African Americans. 

But there was France. Bessie didn’t have a lot of money, but she knew that if she could get to France, she could train as a pilot there. Her race and gender didn’t matter to the flight schools in France. To earn the money she would need, she began working a second job at a chili restaurant and learning French at night. She also began talking to some of the people who came to the barbershop. Many of the clients there were wealthy and influential.

It was at the barber shop that she met a lawyer and newspaper owner named Robert Abbot. Abbot published the Chicago Defender, one of the largest black-owned newspapers in the country. When he learned about Bessie’s passion to become a pilot, he decided to help. He published a story about her in his paper. His newspaper had more readers than any other black-owned newspaper in the country at the time, so the story got a lot of attention. A banker named Jesse Binga stepped up, and he and The newspaper helped pay for Bessie’s travel to Paris for pilot training. 

Since airplanes were so new, it was still not possible to fly across the Atlantic ocean from the US to France, so Bessie took a boat. She had been accepted to a flight school there, and completed her training in a biplane called a Nieuport 80. A biplane had two sets of wings, one on top of the other.

When Bessie returned to the US with her pilot’s license, she made headlines in black newspapers and aviation magazines across the country. She told reporters that she wanted to open a flight school for women and people of color. 

However, since aviation was so new, there weren’t many jobs for pilots at the time. There were no major airlines that flew people around the country like there are now. Most packages and mail were still moved by trains or ships. And again, Bessie faced discrimination because of her race and gender. She was unable to get one of the few piloting jobs there were.  

Instead of flying for airlines or shipping companies like they do now, many pilots in the 1920s earned money as barnstormers. They would fly to a new town, land in a farm, and ask the farmer to let them perform using their fields as runways. They performed stunts such as loops, dives, and figure eights. They also offered rides to people for money. Bessie decided to become a stunt pilot, and returned to France for more training. 

After Bessie returned to the US this time, she traveled around the country performing daredevil stunts for crowds of people. The Defender newspaper called her “the world’s greatest woman flyer.” She was nicknamed “Queen Bess” and “Brave Bess.”

Bessie loved her job, and used her growing fame to fight racism. In the 1920s, segregation and discrimination were still widespread in America, and were part of the law in many states. Bessie worked with other activists and gave interviews and speeches about ending racism. She refused to participate in any air show that didn’t allow black people to attend. In her hometown in Texas, she had to argue with the producers of an airshow to allow blacks and whites to come in through the same gate, but even then, they were forced to sit in a separate section.

Bessie became so well known, she was asked to star in a movie about a female pilot. Though the movie was to be made by a black-owned production company, Bessie was not happy with how they wanted to portray her. They asked her to wear rags and act as though she was uneducated, negative stereotypes of black people that were very common at the time. Bessie refused. She walked off the set and didn’t return. She wasn’t interested in being famous just for attention. She wanted to use her fame to improve conditions for other African Americans, and she realized  that this movie would not help her do that. 

But other opportunities awaited Bessie. A company that made tires in Oakland, California reached out to her. They wanted her to be their spokesperson and fly over the city dropping messages on paper about their tires. Bessie accepted the offer and went to California. There she flew and appeared in newspaper ads for the tire company. 

It was also in California that Bessie experienced another setback, this time a more serious one. In February 1923, she crashed her plane after the engine stopped working suddenly. She survived with a broken leg and ribs, as well as some cuts. The injuries didn’t stop her though: She said that as soon as she could walk again, she would fly. After several months, she fully recovered and went back to stunt flying. 

Bessie moved to Florida, where a preacher and his wife had offered to give her a room. She opened a beauty salon, still trying to earn enough money to replace the plane that had crashed. She began performing new types of stunts such as wing-walking and parachute jumps. Wing-walkers stunned their audiences by leaving the cockpit while another pilot controlled the plane, and walking out on the wings!   

Finally, in 1926, Bessie had earned enough money to buy her own plane! She had worked hard performing in airshows, giving lectures, and working at her beauty parlor. The new plane wasn’t fancy: an old biplane called a Curtiss JN-4, or “Jenny.” She hired a mechanic named William Wills to fly it from Texas to Florida. Sadly, the plane was not in good condition. During a test flight with the mechanic, the plane stalled and crashed. Bessie did not survive the crash.

News of Queen Bess’s passing was carried widely in African American newspapers. Ten thousand people attended her funeral in Chicago, where Ida B. Wells, a famous black activist, led the service. 

Bessie continued to inspire black aviators in the 1920s and beyond. William J Powell, another African American aviator and civil rights activist, started Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles, fulfilling her dream of opening a flight school for African Americans and women. Powell later wrote in his book, Black Wings, that because of Bessie, “we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.” 

She was also an inspiration to many of the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first group of black aviators to fly for the United States Army. In 1992, Mae Jemison took a portrait of Bessie Coleman with her when she became the first black woman in space, saying that Bessie “exemplifies and serves as a model for all humanity, the very definition of strength, dignity, courage, integrity, and beauty.” The US postal service issued a Bessie Coleman stamp in 1995, and in 2006, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. 

Bessie Coleman once said that “the air is the only place free of prejudices.” But, in order to get there, she had to shatter many barriers that were placed in her path by a society that was unwelcoming to people of her race and gender. Instead of accepting the place she was offered in this society, Bessie decided to pursue her own path and make her own opportunities. She didn’t let the lack of training or jobs for black, female pilots keep her from her dream of flying. She forged ahead with determination and held onto her principles, knowing that her race and gender were not barriers to her ability; that she could lift others up by her example; and there was a place for everybody in the sky! 

Sources

http://www.bessiecoleman.org/bio-bessie-coleman.php 

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But tonight our story begins before the World War on a little farm in Utah. Living at this farm was a boy named Gail. Every day Gail helped his father grow sugar beets on the farm. Gail’s father taught him to work hard and to help his neighbor.

One day when Gail was working in the fields he heard a noise in the sky. He looked up and watched as planes flew over his head. From that moment he knew he wanted to be a pilot when he grew up.

When he was old enough, Gail joined the air force and learned to fly. Soon after this enemy airplanes attacked America’s base at Pearl Harbor and America joined in the war. Gail flew bomber planes during the war.

Once the war was over America decided to help its old enemy, Germany. They helped them by giving them food. Gail and other pilots new job was to fly food to the hungry people in Germany.

One day when Gail was walking around in Germany he saw a bunch of kids crowded at a fence. They talked to him and thanked him for bringing them food. Gail had a strong feeling he should give them the gum he had in his pocket. The kids broke up the gum into little pieces and shared it with each other. They appreciated the gum. Appreciation is when you are thankful for something.

Uncle Wiggly Wings

The next time Gail flew his plane over the crowd of kids he had a crazy idea about how to give the kids his chocolate bars. He made little bags of candy and little parachutes for the bags. When he flew over the kids he threw the bags out the window and they floated down to the ground. The kids picked up the candy and jumped for joy. When Gail would fly over he would wiggle his plane wings so the kids would know it was him. They started calling him “Uncle Wiggly Wings.”

Later other pilots learned about Gail throwing candy out of his plane, so they started the same thing with their chocolate bars. Newspapers all over the world started writing stories about what Gail and the other pilots were doing for the kids in Germany. Soon candy companies started sending boxes and boxes of all types of candy to give to the kids in Germany. In school in America kids helped tie the candy into parachutes for Gail and the other pilots.

Even though the kids were happy to get the candy, more than anything Gail’s kindness gave them hope that life would be okay.

After helping in Germany Gail spent the rest of his life trying to help people in other ways. He is very old now but stills does all he can to be kind and help others.

Many years later Gail met a man who said when he was a little boy in Germany he was walking to school one day. It was rainy, cloudy and he was sad — when all of a sudden he saw a white parachute fall through the clouds and landed right at his feet. He was so excited and it made him happy! He said that he enjoyed eating the chocolate, but more importantly he knew that someone else was thinking about him and cared enough to send him chocolate. It gave him hope.

How can you be like Gail?

Like Gail, you can forgive others who might have been your enemy. Forgiveness is when we are kind to someone even if they did something wrong to you. You can also be creative and think of fun ways to help others. You can help your family by cleaning your room or making your bed or helping your little brother or sister get dressed. You could make someone at school a nice card. You can be nice to someone at school who others aren’t nice to. There is so much you can do to help others like Gail if you just think about it.

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Neil was born in Ohio and was the oldest brother in his family. When he was little his father took him to a show where airplanes flew and raced across the sky. From the moment he saw airplanes he loved them. He wanted to fly airplanes himself. He wanted to become a pilot. Not long after he saw his first airplane, Neil got to fly in an airplane. After this he knew for sure he wanted to be a pilot. When Neil was 14 he took his first flying lessons. By the time he was 16, he had a pilot’s license — which meant he could fly a plane all by himself.

Neil loved to fly planes, but he also loved to learn about them. He built his own small model planes and also did experiments on them to see which designs flew the best. He designed a wind tunnel in his house. A wind tunnel is a tunnel that forces wind through it so he could test his model airplanes.

Neil loved airplanes but he also enjoyed learning about space. Often he would look up in the sky and wonder what was out among the stars and if people would ever go there. His neighbor had a big telescope that Neil often used to look at the planets and stars.

In school, Neil listened to his teachers and did his homework, because he knew he would need to learn all he could in order to become a great pilot. When he got older Neil went to college and worked hard to learn about planes and engineering. Engineering is the science of building things, which for Neil was building airplanes.

Neil joins the war

While Neil was in college, a war started and he was called to be a fighter pilot. His job was to fly airplanes off huge ships called aircraft carriers. He flew 78 missions during the war. One time his airplane was shot and he had to eject from the seat and parachute down to the ground. Fortunately, he was rescued and was safe.

After the war and after finishing college Neil became a test pilot. A test pilot tries out new planes to make sure they are safe for others to fly and to help make them better. Sometimes it was a dangerous job, but Neil had courage and tested over 20 new planes. He even set a record for flying one of the fastest planes in the world.

Neil became an astronaut

Neil loved airplanes and space so he decided to become an astronaut, a pilot who flies to space! He had to work hard to become an astronaut because only a few pilots get to become astronauts. While Neil was an astronaut America was planning its first space flight to the moon. Neil was picked to fly the spaceship that flew to the moon. While the ship was landing something bad happened and Neil had to fly it down to the ground himself. It was scary but Neil kept his cool and landed the spaceship safely. After they landed, Neil was the first person to step onto the moon. People all over the world watches as Neil stepped onto the moon and put an American flag there. Neil’s footprint is still on the moon today because there is no wind on the moon to blow it away.

Like Neil, you can be curious about the world around you. Neil was curious about airplanes and space and learned all he could about both of them so he could become an astronaut. He also listened closely in school and did his homework so he could become an airplane builder. He was brave during the war when he was a fighter pilot. He was also brave when testing new airplanes. Before going to the moon he had to practice day after day in order to pilot the first spacecraft. Like Neil, you can do great things when you are curious, and brave, learn new things, and practice, practice, practice!

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