Archibald Hoxsey - Biography

Biography

He was born in Staunton, Illinois on October 15, 1884. He moved with his parents to Pasadena, California and by 1909-1910 his mechanical ability led to a meeting with the Wright Brothers. In March 1910 the Wright brothers opened a flight school in Montgomery, Alabama and Hoxey was a teacher there. There he became the first pilot to fly at night.

On October 11, 1910 at Kinloch Field in St. Louis he took Theodore Roosevelt up in an airplane.

Because of their dueling altitude record attempts, he and Ralph Johnstone were nicknamed the "heavenly twins".

On December 30, 1910 Hoxley set the flight altitude record of 11,474 feet.

He died on December 31, 1910 in Los Angeles, California after crashing from 7,000 feet. He was trying to set a new flight altitude record. The Wright Brothers paid for the funeral.

Read more about this topic:  Archibald Hoxsey

Famous quotes containing the word biography:

    Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.
    James Boswell (1740–95)

    In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)