Bevo Howard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beverly "Bevo" Howard (born August 11, 1914, Bath, South Carolina - died October 1971, Greenville, North Carolina) was an American aerobatic pilot.
Howard learned to fly in 1930 at the age of 16. By 1932 was a pilot for Hawthorne Aviation in Charleston, South Carolina, becoming the company's president in 1936, at the age of 21. During the Second World War, he operated a primary flight training school for the United States Army Air Force at Orangeburg, South Carolina. Over 6000 pilots, including 2000 French Air Force students, were trained at his school.
After the war, Howard continued to train Air Force pilots; a school run by his Hawthorne Aviation at Moultrie, Georgia trained approximately 10,000 pilots from 32 countries in 10 years.
Howard began air show flying in 1933. In 1938, he becane the first pilot to fly an outside loop in a light plane, flying a 37-1/2 horsepower Piper Cub. He went on to win the National Lightplane Aerobatic Championships in three consecutive years from 1939 to 1941, and eventually became the highest paid air show pilot in the country.
In October, 1971, while performing at an air show in Greenville, he struck a tree while flying his Büecker Bü 133 Jungmeister. One wing was knocked off the airplane, and Howard was killed instantly when it struck the ground.
His red and white checkered biplane is now in the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institute.
