Bevo Howard
Bevo Howard | |
---|---|
Born | 11 August 1914 Bath, South Carolina |
Died | 17 October 1971 Greenville, North Carolina |
Cause of death | Air crash |
Known for | Aerobatic flight |
Beverly "Bevo" Howard (August 11, 1914, Bath, South Carolina – October 17, 1971, Greenville, North Carolina) was an American aerobatic pilot and aviation businessman.[1]
Life
Howard learned to fly in 1930 before the age of 16 by working as a lineboy for Hawthorne Flying Services in Augusta, Georgia. Shortly thereafter he purchased the struggling company and flew DC-2s for Delta Air Lines and Eastern Airlines in order to support Hawthorne. He became the youngest pilot to receive an Airline Transport Rating before the regulations increased the age limit to 21.
During the Second World War, he operated a primary flight training school for the United States Army Air Forces at Orangeburg, South Carolina. Over 6000 pilots, including 2000 French Air Force students, were trained at his school.
At Orangeburg, he presented and demonstrated to the Army Air Corps the concept of using Piper Cubs as forward artillery observer aircraft, which could be operated out of unimproved farm fields close to the front lines, which was adopted and used with large success throughout World War II.
After the war, Howard continued to train US Air Force and foreign pilots from Europe and the Middle East including training foreign pilots in P-51 Mustangs.
The civilian Aviation Services run by Hawthorne overexpanded across North and South Carolina and were eventually consolidated into a single location on the municipal airport at Charleston, South Carolina, which he ran until his death in 1971.
A school run by his Hawthorne Aviation at Moultrie, Georgia trained approximately 10,000 pilots from 32 countries in 10 years. In addition to the Spence Air Base school in Moultrie, Hawthorne operated a number of both Air Force and Army contract schools across the Southeastern United States, notably at Fort Rucker, Alabama and Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Howard began air show flying in 1933. In 1938, he became the first pilot to fly an outside loop in a light plane, flying a 37½ horsepower Piper Cub. He went on to win the National Lightplane Aerobatic Championships in three consecutive years from 1939 to 1941, and eventually became one of the best known air show pilots in the country. Since his primary occupation was running the many aspects of his company (Hawthorne Aviation), flying airshows became an avocation and he flew many exhibitions for charity or cost such as the show where he was killed.
On October 17, 1971, while performing at an air show in Greenville, North Carolina, he struck a tree while flying his Bücker Bü 133 Jungmeister. One wing was knocked off the airplane, and Howard was killed instantly when it struck the ground.
His red and white checkered biplane, rebuilt after the crash to non-flying condition, is now in the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. A Bücker Bü 133C Jungmeister, marked as his aircraft is also displayed at the Virginia Aviation Museum at Richmond International Airport, Virginia.
References
- ^ Flying Magazine: 40. December 1961.
{{cite journal}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help)
External links
- ICAS Hall of Fame: Beverly E. "Bevo" Howard
- Touching the Face of God
- Beverly "Bevo" Howard site created and maintained by his son
- Information on Bevo's Bücker Jungmeister
- v
- t
- e
- Loop (inside & outside)
- Aileron roll
- Barrel roll
- Cuban eight
- Falling leaf
- Hesitation roll
- Immelmann turn
- Kulbit
- Lomcovak
- Cobra maneuver
- Slip
- Spin
- Split S
- Stall turn/hammerhead
- Tailslide
- Scissors
- Whifferdill turn
- Zurabatic cartwheel
- Cecilia R. Aragon
- Hannes Arch
- Princess Basmah Bani Ahmad
- Lincoln J. Beachey
- Péter Besenyei
- Ladislav Bezák
- Marta Bohn-Meyer
- Cristian Bolton
- Paul Bonhomme
- Pip Borrman
- Mikaël Brageot
- Kirby Chambliss
- Julie Clark
- Marion Cole
- Vicki Cruse
- Mario de Bernardi
- Giovanni De Briganti
- Tommaso Dal Molin
- Glen Dell
- Matthias Dolderer
- Wilhelm Düerkop
- Walter Extra
- Markus Feyerabend
- Gerhard Fieseler
- Jozef Gabris
- Michael Goulian
- Matt Hall
- Wayne Handley
- Ray Hanna
- Charlie Hillard
- Bob Hoover
- Bevo Howard
- Nicolas Ivanoff
- Nader Jahanbani
- Petr Jirmus
- Steve Jones
- Jurgis Kairys
- Svetlana Kapanina
- Sándor Katona
- Petr Kopfstein
- Charlie Kulp
- Anatoly Kvochur
- Nigel Lamb
- Amanda Lee
- Jim LeRoy
- François Le Vot
- Leo Loudenslager
- Nancy Lynn
- Alejandro Maclean
- Pete McLeod
- Jerzy Makula
- Stanisław Makula
- Mikhail Mamistov
- Mike Mangold
- Scott Manning
- Catherine Maunoury
- Yoshihide Muroya
- Pyotr Nesterov
- Alexandr Panfierov
- Ivy May Pearce
- Adolphe Pégoud
- František Peřina
- Tom Poberezny
- Peter Podlunšek
- Maciej Pospieszyński
- Sergey Rakhmanin
- Amelia Reid
- Olaf Schmidt
- Art Scholl
- Klaus Schrodt
- Betty Skelton Erde
- Skip Stewart
- Martin Šonka
- Gene Soucy
- Chris Sperou
- Victor Tchmal
- Reinhold Tiling
- Ferenc Tóth
- Sean D. Tucker
- Nick Turvey
- Ernst Udet
- Gabor Varga
- Juan Velarde
- Frank Versteegh
- Pavel Vlasov
- Patty Wagstaff
- Kermit Weeks
- Neil Williams
- Walter Wolfrum
- Janusz Żurakowski