August 15, 1911 – As 50,000 watch the third day
of the Aero meet being held in Grant Park, two accidents take the lives of aviators
and silence the crowds. Mike Badger of
Pittsburgh, flying a Baldwin biplane, died as he executes a low-level flyover
of Grant Park, ending with a dramatic climb that tears his plane apart. The plane falls 50 feet and the wealthy daredevil
dies at St. Luke’s Hospital. St. Croix
Johnstone, flying a Moisant monoplane, dies as his plane falls into Lake
Michigan a little after 6:00 p.m. about a mile off shore opposite Twelfth
Street. He is attempting to do a
corkscrew maneuver when 800 feet above the lake the “spidery monoplane tipped a
bit, shot downward with a sickening swoop, overturning just before it splashed
In the water.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, August 16, 1911] Before he goes up on that day, Badger
holds a wide-ranging interview with a Tribune
reporter, saying, “That’s the nuttiest idea people have about aviators. They think they don’t mind death at all. Why, I set just as much store by my life as
you do. I love life. They think we go out of our way to invite
death. They say we don’t take ordinary
precautions. I don’t consider that I
take one chance in 10,000 with my life . . . You must be sure of your machine. I am sure of mine. You must be sure of your good muscle and your
clear brain. I am sure of mine.”
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