| Brice Herbert Goldsborough | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 20, 1889 Sioux City, Iowa |
| Died | December 23, 1927 (aged 38) crashed on way to Newfoundland |
| Nationality | US |
| Occupation | Aviator |
| Children | Frank Goldsborough |
Brice Herbert Goldsborough (March 20, 1889 – December 23, 1927) was an American aviation instrument designer at Sperry Gyroscope and later founded the Pioneer Instrument Company. He flew aboard the Spirit of St. Louis with Charles Lindbergh in two test flights. He died in an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Frances Wilson Grayson aboard The Dawn.
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Brice was born in Sioux City, Iowa. His brother was Charles Frances Goldsborough and Charles married Julia Ethel. Brice's son was Frank Goldsborough (1910-1930) who was also a record holding aviator who died in a crash. In 1910 he was living in Washington, D.C., and he was working as an electrician. He moved to New York City and lived at 136 Havemyer Street in Brooklyn and later moved to 754 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. Brice appears in the 1920 Manhattan City Directory living at 6 East 87th Street and working at the Pioneer Instrument Company at 246 Greenwich Street. The company was founded with Morris Titterington, the inventor of the ground induction compass; and Charles H. Colvin. Corrections: Brice was born in Sioux City, Iowa, March 30, 1889. His older brother, Charles Francis Goldsborough, married Julia Ethel Davidson in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Sept 30, 1905. In 1910, while serving in the U.S. Navy, Brice and his wife, Mary Kyle Goldsborough, lived at 434 L St.,S.E., Wash DC, then later they moved to 4114 75th, Jackson Heights in Long Island after moving from 6 East 87th in Manhattan. After serving two 4 year terms in the navy, he and Morris Titterington. the inventor of the ground induction compass, formed Pioneer Instrument Company located at 136 Havemyer in 1919. In 1923, they moved the company to 754 Lexington Ave. Brooklyn, after buying Brandis & Sons Company. Charles Colvin joined the company and was elected to be President, with both Brice and Morris as vice presidents.
Walter Herschel Beech (1891-1950) and Brice Herbert Goldsborough won the 1926 Ford Reliability Tour aboard their Travel Air B6 airplane. Brice also flew with Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) aboard the Spirit of St. Louis in test flights from Curtiss Field as an "instrument expert" on: May 13, 1927 for 10 minutes; and May 15, 1927 for 15 minutes. Lindbergh's record breaking flight was on May 20-21, 1927. Brice was a veteran of the United States Navy.
On December 23, 1927 Frances Wilson Grayson with Brice H. Goldsborough as her navigator left from Curtis Field in New York for Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. Her plan was to leave from Newfoundland on a record setting transatlantic flight to London on Christmas day. Her plane, The Dawn was to be flown by Oskar Omdal, a Lieutenant in the Norwegian Navy. Frances may have planned to fly the plane in shifts with him. Brice Goldsborough would have been the navigator and Frank Koehler was to be the radio operator. Her plane never reached Newfoundland and sank in the water. There were several accounts of receiving radio messages from the plane when it was in distress. The bodies and the airplane were never recovered.
In 1928, the Ontario Surveyor General named a number of lakes in the northwest of the province to honour aviators who had perished during 1927, mainly in attempting oceanic flights.[1][2] These include Goldsborough Lake (), Grayson Lake () and Omdahl [sic] Lake () which are all found in close proximity to each other in the Wabakimi Provincial Park.