Joseph M. Pallissard

Joseph Marie Pallissard
Born October 20, 1911(1911-10-20)
St. Anne, Illinois
Died May 24, 1960(1960-05-24) (aged 74)
Broadview, Illinois
Cause of death Heart attack

Joseph Marie Pallissard (January 4, 1886 - May 24, 1960) also known as Caproni-Joe, was a pioneer aviator.

Biography

He was born in St. Anne, Illinois on January 4, 1886. He attended St. Anne's Academy and attended the University of Illinois.[1]

In 1913 with E. L. Partridge and H. C. Keller he started a flying school at Cicero Field in Chicago, Illinois.[1]

On June 5, 1915 he built his own aircraft and soloed for the first time. He celebrated the event with a flight over Chicago and the Lake and back in one piece. This flight enforced his eligibility to the Early Birds of Aviation. An organization whose membership was limited to those who piloted a glider, gas balloon, or airplane, prior to December 17, 1916.( The cutoff date was set at December 17 to correspond to the first flights of Wilbur and Orville Wright.)

The Aero Club of Illinois, a social club established to promote aviation, established its flying field in Cicero, Illinois, near Chicago. Cicero Flying Field (known universally as “Cicero Field”) was a large flat turf-covered surface one-half mile on a side, and was the base for a number of well known aviators.

As a civilian pilot, in July 1917, Pallissard helped fly one of the first twenty Curtiss JN-4 “Jennys” to Chanute Field. Six hundred and forty acres near Rantoul, Illinois, had been set aside as an army storage depot for paint and aircraft engines, and as a pilot training facility.

Joseph Pallissard enlisted in the SERC in 1918 and served at McCook Field (now Wright-Patterson) after graduation from the University of Illinois. On April 14, 1920, Pallissard received license No. 4739 and was brevetted as “aviator pilot” by the Aero Club of America,as licenses were not required in the U.S. until after WWI; Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Pallissard returned to his farm temporarily in 1927 and then to employment in the Electro-Motive Division.[1]

He died on May 24, 1960 in Broadview, Illinois of a heart attack.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Joseph M. Pallissard". Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum. http://www.aeromuseum.org/exhibitsHistory_Pallissard.html. Retrieved 2011-11-18. "Joseph M. Pallissard was born in St. Anne, Illinois, on 4 January 1886. He left his family farm in 1913 to take up aviation at Cicero Field in Chicago, and later formed a partnership called the Pallissard School of Aviation. ... A few years before his death in May 1960 he received his civilian pilot's license. ..." 
  2. ^ "Joseph Marie Pallissard". Early Birds of Aviation. http://earlyaviators.com/epalliss.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-18. "Joseph M. Pallissard, 74, of Broadview, Illinois, who organized a flying school at the old Cicero Airport back in 1914, passed away suddenly of a heart attack on May 24, 1960. ..."