Bert Acosta

Bertrand Blanchard Acosta was born on January 1, 1895, and became a famous aviator and test pilot. He was known for setting records and flying daring missions. One of his most famous achievements was when he and Clarence D. Chamberlin stayed in the air for 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds, which was a record at the time.

Acosta also flew during the Spanish Civil War as part of the Yankee Squadron, showing great skill and courage. Because of his love for exciting stunts, he often got into trouble. He was fined and suspended many times for flying too close to buildings and under bridges, which earned him the nickname "the bad boy of the air." Acosta passed away on September 1, 1954, but his adventures in the sky remain remembered.

Early life

Bertrand Blanchard Acosta was born in San Diego, California to Miguel Aphonse Ferdinand Acosta and Martha Blanche Reilly-Snook. He went to school at the Throop Polytechnic Institute in Pasadena, California from 1912 to 1914.

Acosta taught himself to fly in August 1910 and built airplanes until 1912. He then started working for Glenn Curtiss as an apprentice on a hydroplane project. In 1915, he became a flying instructor. He later taught flying in Canada for the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service in Toronto. In 1917, he became the chief instructor for the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps at Hazelhurst Field in Long Island. There, he test flew early open-cockpit aircraft such as the Continental KB-1 over New York in very cold weather.

Acosta married Mary Louise Brumley in 1918, but they divorced in 1920. In 1921, he won The Pulitzer Trophy Race and set an airspeed record of 176.9 miles an hour. The same year, he married Helen Belmont Pearsoll. They separated but never divorced. In 1925, he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and lived at 1 Winslow Court in Naugatuck, Connecticut.

Endurance record

In April 1927, Bert Acosta and Clarence D. Chamberlin set a record for staying in the air the longest. They flew for 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds! They used a special plane prepared by Engineer Giuseppe M. Bellanca. Starting from Mitchel Field in Long Island, they flew over many places, including the Woolworth Building and Hadley Field in New Jersey.

They faced challenges, feeling tired and messy from oil, but they kept going. They even managed to rest a little on the fuel tank while flying slowly. Their amazing flight broke both U.S. and world records for how long a plane could stay airborne. During their trip, they covered a distance of 4,100 miles, which is more than enough to go from Manhattan to Vienna.

Orteig Prize attempt

Charles Levine, the president of Columbia Aircraft Corp, wanted to use either Clarence Chamberlin or Bert Acosta as the pilot, with Lloyd W. Bertaud as the copilot, for a try at the Orteig Prize in the Wright-Bellanca WB-2 Columbia. However, Levine removed Bertaud as copilot, which led to a court order stopping any record flight. During this time, Charles Lindbergh arrived on May 5, 1927. While Chamberlin waited for the court order to be lifted, another team led by Admiral Byrd was fixing their plane, the "America", after a crash during a test run. Finally, on May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field and crossed the Atlantic, leaving the 'Columbia' and 'Atlantic' planes behind at nearby Curtiss Field.

Transatlantic flight

On June 29, 1927, just thirty-three days after Charles Lindbergh's famous flight across the ocean, Bert Acosta joined Commander Richard E. Byrd, Lieutenant George O. Noville, and Bernt Balchen for their own journey. They flew from Roosevelt Field on Long Island to France in a plane called the America. A short film was made to say goodbye to the team, including Acosta, Byrd, Noville, and Grover Whalen, using a special sound-on-film process called Phonofilm.

Bad boy persona

In 1928, Connecticut took away his pilot license for trying to fly under the Whittemore Memorial Bridge in Naugatuck. Some people think he did this to get attention because there was an ad for Splitdorf Spark Plugs on his plane.

In 1929, he was fined $500 for flying too low and doing tricks in the air. When he didn’t pay the fine, the Department of Commerce took his license away again. He was even arrested in 1930 by Connecticut state troopers for flying without a license.

In 1931, he tested a new plane called the Terle Sportplane at Roosevelt Field in New York. Since his license was taken away, this plane was perfect for him to fly. After showing off the plane with some cool tricks to a big crowd, he and the designer, Joseph Terle, planned to make more of these planes together. But the plane couldn’t meet the rules to be officially allowed to fly.

Later in 1931, he planned to fly from New York to Honduras with a pilot named Captain Lisandro Garay. But Acosta went missing before the flight. Garay flew alone and had to land in the ocean near Cape Hatteras, NC, because of a big storm.

Spanish Civil War

In 1936, Bert Acosta led the Yankee Squadron during the Spanish Civil War together with Eddie August Schneider and Frederic Ives Lord.

A news article from that time described how these pilots chose to fly missions instead of celebrating with their families. They dropped bombs on enemy buildings, calling it a "Christmas Cheer" for the opposing side.

Death

In December 1951, Acosta became very ill in a bar in New York City and was taken to a hospital. He was found to have a serious illness called tuberculosis. He passed away in 1954 at a care center in Colorado, at the age of 59. Acosta was buried at the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California.

Legacy

In 2014, Acosta was honored after death by being added to the National Aviation Hall of Fame. He was joined by other important figures in aviation, including pilot and astronaut James McDivitt, the first female airline captain Emily Warner, the founders of Cirrus Dale and Alan Klapmeier, and homebuilt aircraft racer and engineer Steve Wittman.