The unscheduled landing

[context and photographer unknown]

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Ivanov's landing: pilot error at the Gatchina Military Flying School

By Jack Brummet, Travel Ed.

Flying cadets, circa 1914, at the Gatchina Military Flying School near Petrograd, point fingers at student pilot “Ivanov" after the crash landing in which he "injured only his dignity."  This image is from the collection of Alexander Riaboff (1895-1984) who served in the Russian Army Air Service and trained at Gatchina. Riaboff is one of the cadets pointing fingers at Ivanov. 

[Image Number: SI-90-5858 Credit: National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution]"

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Gravity wins: 'planes coming down

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A receipt for Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Boppers final flight

By Jack Brummet

A receipt written out to The Big Bopper for his final flight with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.  Of course, the plane went down that night. . .

It's probably an apocryphal story, but I've heard that Waylon Jennings actually fought The Big Bopper over which one of them would get on the plane.  That's one fight Waylon was probably happy to lose.  At least the next day. . .

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Robert Shank and the first airmail plane crash (a Curtiss-Jenny JN-4H)

This is a photo of the first crash of a U.S. airmail plane.  Robert Shank was one the first four pilots hired to fly the mail and was assigned to a Belmont Park, New York, airfield.   He survived the crash in his Curtiss-Jenny JN-4H, which landed nose down in the woods.  That's Shank himself checking out the damage.

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