| Birth: | Nov. 5, 1899 | | Death: | 1933 | 
Banning's claim to fame is first that he was the nation's first licensed black male pilot. Banning and another black pilot, Thomas C. Allen became the first black pilots to fly coast-to-coast from Los Angeles to Long Island, New York, in 1932. Using a plane pieced together from junkyard parts, they made the 3,300 mile trip in less than 42 hours aloft. However, the trip actually required 21 days to complete because the pilots had to raise money each time they stopped. Banning was a passenger in a biplane, sitting in the front open cockpit without controls, during a San Diego air show. The Navy pilot at the controls, trying to impress his more accomplished passenger, pulled the nose of the tiny plane up into a steep climb. The plane stalled and fell into a fatal spin in front of hundreds of horrified spectators.
Cause of death: plane crash
Search Amazon for James Banning | | | Burial:
Evergreen Cemetery
Los Angeles
Los Angeles County
California, USA |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Dec 22, 2000
Find A Grave Memorial# 19180 |
|
|
|
Do you have a photo to add? Click here |
(3.2 after 25 votes)
