L.A. Birdmen: West Coast aviators and the first airshow in America

Although most histories credit Wilbur and Orville Wright with America’s 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. Unlike the Wrights, who refused to offer public exhibitions of the Wright Flyer until 1908, thousands witnessed Greth’s flight. The Wrights claimed they had invented a flying machine; Greth and the California aviators who followed him into the sky proved it at state fairs and festivals across the country.

L.A. Birdmen is an entertaining and informative history of America’s first aviators—Californians like August Greth, Tom Baldwin, Roy Knabenshue, John Montgomery, and James Zerbe. Possessing a rare blend of ingenuity, creativity, and bravery, these pilots brought their pioneering spirit to early aviation and competed with the rest of the country for aerial preeminence. The Californians captured the world’s attention in 1910 when Los Angeles hosted America’s first international airshow. Inspired by the 1909 Grande Semaine d’Aviation, a flying exhibition held in Reims, France, Los Angeles promoter Dick Ferris convinced the city to host a competing event—a show that featured the world’s best pilots and machines and firmly established Los Angeles as a center of American aviation.

The Los Angeles International Aviation Meet marked the first time heavier-than-air machines had flown west of the Mississippi. Featuring a fierce competition between French pilot Louis Paulhan and American Glenn Curtiss, the Los Angeles show was a revelation: the pilots shattered existing aviation records, confuted those who doubted the viability of heavier-than-air flying machines, and performed stunts that foreshadowed future military applications. The ten days of flying received national newspaper coverage, attracted more than 100,000 visitors, and inspired future industry leaders like Glenn Martin and William Boeing.

L.A. Birdmen offers a fascinating 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 aviators—not the Wrights—were the public face of American aviation.

L.A. Birdmen is available from these fine retailers:

United States

United Kingdom