Jack McGee (aviator)

Jack McGee circa 1913

Jack McGee (1885 – June 13, 1918) was a pioneer aviator.[1]

Biography

McGee was born in 1885 in Central Falls, Rhode Island to Robert McGee. His family moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island when he was 15 in 1900. He was a boxer and worked as an elevator operator and auto mechanic before working as a chauffeur for James C. McCoy. McGee took flying lessons from Harry Atwood and Arch Freeman at Atwood Park in Saugus, Massachusetts.[2] The school closed before McGee could finish his training, but he believed that he had received enough instruction and purchased his own plane.[2] He made his first solo flight in August 1912. In 1917, McGee went to work as a test pilot for the Gallaudet Aircraft Corporation.

On June 13, 1918 he was flying a floatplane low over Greenwich Bay when his pontoon dipped into the water, causing his plane to topple into the water where he drowned.[1][3]

Archive

His papers are archived at the Rhode Island Historical Society.

References

  1. 1 2 "Local Aviator Drowns". The Evening Independent. June 14, 1918. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  2. 1 2 Edwards, John Carver (2009). Orville's Aviators: Outstanding Alumni of the Wright Flying School, 1910-1916. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 63. ISBN 0786442271.
  3. ↑ "Jack McGee". Early Aviators. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
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