TWT#Of –

On September 17th, 1908, Thomas Etholen Selfridge became the first person to die in a plane crash (and Orville Wright became the first person to kill someone in a plane crash).

T.E. Selfridge was an American hero from a long line of American heroes. Both his father and grandfather were U.S. Navy admirals and both fought in the Civil War. In 1903 Selfridge graduated West Point alongside Douglas MacArthur (Thomas was only 31st in his class of 96, but MacArthur was 1st so you know it was a badass class).

After surviving a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in San Francisco (and helping to clean up afterwards), this dude just up and decided to start flying planes. And remember, this was back when like, no one had even SEEN a plane.

Moreover, guess who built the first craft Selfridge ever flew? If you guessed Alexander Graham Bell, then you guessed correctly. Here’s another dude that just went from making telephones to making airplanes (which, by the way, looked absolutely ridiculous).

On December 6, 1907, Selfridge actually climbed inside that thing and flew for a total of 7 minutes.

THEN, only 4 months after he had had first flown a plane, and with absolutely no engineering background at all, Thomas Selfridge decided to DESIGN HIS OWN PLANE that actually FLEW. On March 12, 1908 the Red Wing (designed by Selfridge for the Aerial Experiment Association), was flown by Frederick W. Baldwin and….crashed in 20 seconds?

Oh, that’s anticlimactic. But here’s a picture.

On the 19th of May that same year, only two months later, Selfridge decided it was an okay idea to jump into a plane designed by Baldwin. (maybe not a great idea to trust your life in a craft made by a guy who just got in a crash due to your own bad designs…alas, Selfridge was fearless). For the next few months Selfridge and team taught themselves how to design, build, and fly a plane (because again, they were literally still inventing planes).

In September of 1908, the US army was considering purchasing a military plane from the Wright Brothers, but wanted to see how it worked first, so Orville Wright (yes, the famous American inventor and soon-to-be-murderer) scheduled a trip to Fort Myer, VA.

Selfridge, the daredevil he was, wanted to tag along as a passenger.

The 1908 Wright Military Flyer (clever name) was actually doing pretty well until Orville took too hard of a turn, loosening a wire that smashed into a propeller, sending the Flyer into a nose dive. As the craft hit the ground, both men were thrown forward and Selfridge fractured his skull on a wooden frame. Now, I won’t say all the blame can be put on Orville here, apparently Selfridge wasn’t even wearing a helmet (which honestly is just another indicator of how cool this guy was).

So, this great man, who survived West Point, survived an earthquake, and flew many of the first planes ever invented, was killed because Orville Wright got a little cocky behind the wheel. Remember kids, don’t drink and fly.