Frank Monroe Hawks
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Frank Monroe Hawks (March 28, 1897 - August 23, 1938) was a Lieutenant Commander in World War I and a record holding aviator who was killed in an air crash.
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[edit] Amelia Mary Earhart
On December 28, 1920 he took a 23-year-old Amelia Earhart on her first airplane ride at a state fair.
[edit] Crash
Time magazine on April 18, 1932 wrote:
Stocky, grinning Capt. Frank Monroe Hawks, famed publicity flyer, holder of nearly all informal city-to-city speed records in the U. S. and Europe, was not grinning one day last week when attendants at the Worcester, Mass, airport pulled him from beneath his crashed Travel Air "mystery plane" Texaco 13. Day before he had hopped from Detroit (in 3 hr. 5 min.). lectured the Worcester Boy Scouts on the necessity of developing foolproof planes, but had delayed his departure until the next morning because of a soggy field. An escort plane had nosed up when it landed just ahead of Capt. Hawks. After attempting to take off from a short dirt road which cut diagonally across the airport, he headed his low-wing monoplane down the field, less than 700 ft. in length. Oozy ground sucked at the wheels, kept him from attaining the 70 m. p. h. required to zoom off. Toward the end of the runway, going about 50 m. p. h., the ship bounced off a low mound, cut through heavy undergrowth, somersaulted over a stone wall. Hawks cut the motor in time, saved himself from cremation. Capt. Hawks's nose and jaw were fractured, his face badly battered, several of his big, white teeth knocked out. He lay unconscious in the hospital for hours. Said Harvard Medical School's famed plastic surgeon, Dr. Varaztad Hovhannes Kazanjian: "I do not think his speech will be affected. The operation for restoring his face should leave scarcely a scar." Capt. Hawks's good friend Will Rogers wired: "Sure glad nothing broke but your jaw. That will keep you still for a while. If I broke my jaw, I could still wire gags. What's the matter with you anyhow; are you getting ... brittle?"
[edit] East West nonstop record
On June 2, 1933, Hawks set the west to east transcontinental airspeed record in his Northrop Gamma, flying from Los Angeles to Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York in 13 hours, 26 minutes, and 15 seconds. He had an average speed of 181 mph.
[edit] Death
He died in 1938 flying a Gwinn Aircar which crashed in East Aurora, New York. Time magazine reported on September 5, 1938:
Last week, Frank Hawks shuttled to East Aurora, N. Y. to show off his polliwog to a prospect, Sportsman J. Hazard Campbell. He landed neatly on the polo field in a nearby estate at about 5 p.m., climbed out, chatted awhile with Prospect Campbell and a cluster of friends. Presently he and Campbell took off smartly, cleared a fence, went atilt between two tall trees, and passed from sight. Then there was a rending crash, a smear of flame, silence. Half a mile the fearful group raced from the polo field. From the crackling wreck they pulled Frank Hawks; from beneath a burning wing, Prospect Campbell—both fatally hurt. The ship that could not stub its toe aground had tripped on overhead telephone wires.
[edit] Airplane
- Northrop Gamma, NR1313
- Northrop Gamma, NR12265
- Gwinn Aircar (1938)
[edit] Air speed record holders
[edit] Timeline
- 1897 Birth
- 1917 Participated in WWI
- 1920 Takes Amelia Earhart on her first airplane ride at a state fair on December 28th
- 1923 Performed in-flight refueling
- 1929 Transcontinental speed record of 18 hours and 21 minutes
- 1930 Transcontinental flight being towed in a glider
- 1930 Travelair Mystery Ship
- 1933 West to east nonstop record set
- 1938 Death in crash
[edit] See also
[edit] Coverage in Time magazine
- Time August 18, 1930, "Flights and Flyers"
- Time April 18, 1932, "Over Goes Hawks"
- Time December 14, 1931, "Speed"
- Time September 11, 1933, "International Races"
- Time June 11, 1934, "Model Record"
- Time December 14, 1931, "Speed"
- Time August 18, 1930, "Flights and Flyers"
- Time April 07, 1930, "Shrewd Hawks"
- Time February 18, 1929, "Hawks and Grubb"
- Time July 27, 1931, "For Drinking"
- Time August 13, 1934, "Dusk to Dawn"
- Time September 05, 1938, "Hawks End"
[edit] Coverage in selected periodicals
- Newark Advocate; Newark, Ohio, August 15, 1930; Valley Stream, New York; August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) Behind the name of Captain Frank M. Hawks, in aviation's record book today is set down the time of 12 hours, 25 minutes, 3 seconds for an eastward transcontinental flight, the fastest ever flown by man over the distance of 2,500 miles. It is farther by more than two hours the time made Easter Sunday by Colonel and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh. Their record was 14 hours and 45 minutes.
- New York Times; New York City; July 19, 1931; Frank Hawks, Takes the Continent in His Stride.
- Lima News; Lima, Ohio; August 24, 1938, Obituary
- New York Times, New York City, August 24, 1938, Frank Hawk dies as plane falls.
