Early Life
Allan Loughead was born in Niles, California in 1889, the youngest son of Flora and John Loughead. He had a half-brother Victor, a sister Hope, and a brother Malcolm Loughead.
Flora Loughead was a well-known novelist and journalist. After separating from her husband, Flora took the children to Santa Barbara, California where the brothers experimented with kites. Later, Flora moved them to a fruit ranch near Alma, California, where the brothers became interested in the gliding experiments of Professor John J. Montgomery. The Loughead brothers attended elementary school only, but were ardently mechanically inclined from an early age.
Victor Loughead, who was interested in automobiles and airplanes, moved to Chicago, where he became associated with James E. Plew, a wealthy automobile dealer. There, in 1909, Victor wrote a book, Vehicles of the Air, which became a popular treatise on aircraft design and aviation history. In 1904, Malcolm became a mechanic with the White Steam Car Company in San Francisco.
Allan Loughead went to San Francisco in 1906 where he found work as a mechanic with pay of $6 a week ($155.00 in today dollars). By 1909, he was driving race cars.
Read more about this topic: Allan Haines Loughead
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