George William Beatty
(1887-1955) American aviator
George William Beatty (August 28, 1887 – February 20, 1955) was an American pioneer aviator who set early altitude and distance records, including one record set on the same day that he flew his first solo flight.
Early life
Beatty was born on August 28, 1887, in Stephensburg, New Jersey. He graduated from high school in 1904 and worked in the printing industry as a linotype machine operator in New York City.
Early aviation career
Beatty became involved in a gliding club in New York City, and in 1909–10 helped build a homemade Santos-Dumont Demoiselle using a three cylinder engine from Anzani.
In 1911, he attended the Wright Flying School on Long Island, where he was taught by Arthur L. Welsh. He had his first lesson on June 24, 1911 and soloed on July 23, 1911. That same day, he flew as a passenger with Welsh to establish a new American two-man flight altitude record of 1,860 feet (570 m). On August 5, 1911, Beatty broke his own record, flying to 3,080 feet (940 m) with Percy Reynolds as his passenger. On the same flight, he won a cup given by the Farman Company for flight duration.
On August 6, 1911, he flew for his license and was awarded Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) pilot certificate number 41.
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This entry incorporates text from “George William Beatty” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.