Curtiss JN-4 in flight over Central Ontario,
circa 1918
was a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s in which
stunt pilots would perform tricks with
airplanes, either individually or in groups called a
flying circus. Barnstorming was the first major form of
civil aviation in the history of flight.
History
Initial growth
The
Wright brothers and
Glenn Curtiss had early flying exhibition teams, with solo flyers like
Lincoln Beachey also being popular before World War I in the USA, but barnstorming did not become a formal phenomenon until the 1920s. During the
first World War, the
United States had manufactured a significant number of
Curtiss JN-4s (called
Jennys) to train its
military aviators and almost every U.S. airman had learned to fly using the plane. After the war the U.S. federal government sold off the surplus
materiel, including the
Jennys, for a fraction of its initial value (the $5,000 purchase price of a
Jenny could be reduced to as low as $200). This permitted many of the servicemen, who were already familiar with the JN-4's, to purchase their own planes. Combined with the lack of
Federal Aviation Regulations at the time, these factors allowed barnstorming to flourish during the post war era.
Regulation and decline
Initially thriving in
North America during the first half of the 1920s, by 1927 competition between acts demanded more and more dangerous tricks and a rash of highly publicized accidents forced the implementation of new safety regulations that resulted in the demise of barnstorming. Spurred by a perceived need to protect the public and in response to political pressure by local pilots upset at barnstormers stealing their customers, the federal government enacted several laws to begin regulating fledgling civil aviation. The laws included safety standards and specifications that were nearly impossible for barnstormers to meet, and restrictions on how low certain tricks could be performed at (making it harder for spectators to see what was happening). The military also stopped selling
Jennys in the late 1920s, which, combined with the regulations, made it too difficult for barnstormers to continue making a living.
Contemporary barnstorming
Some modern pilots flying restored
vintage aircraft, or accurate reproduction aircraft of vintage design, continue the barnstorming tradition and offer open cockpit biplane rides to the public from a handful of airports around the country.
Typical performances
Most barnstorming shows started with a pilot, or team of pilots flying over a small rural town to attract the attention of the local inhabitants. They would then land at a local farm (hence the name "barnstorming") and negotiate with the farmer for the use of one of his fields as a temporary runway from which to stage an air show and offer airplane rides to customers. After obtaining a base of operation, the pilot or group of aviators would "buzz" the village dropping
handbills offering airplane rides for a small fee and advertise the daring feats that would be performed. Crowds would follow the planes to the field, purchase rides and watch the show. In some towns the appearance of a barnstormer or an aerial troop would lead to almost everything in the town shutting down as people attended the show.
Barnstormers would perform a variety of stunts, with some specializing as stunt pilots or aerialists. Stunt pilots performed a variety of
aerobatic maneuvers, including spins, dives, loop-the-loops and
barrel rolls while aerialists would perform feats of
wing walking, stunt
parachuting, midair plane transfers or even playing tennis, target shooting or dancing while on the plane's wings.
Flying circuses
Although barnstormers often worked in solitude or in very small teams, some also put together large "flying circuses" with several planes and stunt people. These acts employed
promoters to book shows in towns ahead of time. They were the largest and most organized of all of the barnstorming acts.
Notable barnstormers
In popular culture
- Many of Richard Bach's novels feature a modern barnstormer as a protagonist or other elements of barnstorming
- In 1982, Philip Jose Farmer's book A Barnstormer in Oz featured Hank Stover, a barnstorming pilot.
- In RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, a roller coaster type titled "Barnstorming Roller Coaster" is available when the Time Twister expansion pack is installed. The coaster cars of this coaster type are replica biplanes.
- The name of the minor-league baseball team of Lancaster, PA is the "Barnstormers."
- The name of the AF2 Arena Football team of Des Moines, Iowa is the "Iowa Barnstomers".
Filmography
- Nothing by Chance (1975) – a documentary produced and narrated by Hugh Downs about the biplanes that barnstormed across America during the 1920s
See also
