Distinctly Montana Magazine

52 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 5 All that summer, meanwhile, aviators na- tive to Montana and otherwise continued to flirt with danger. In May 1911, Montanan George E. M. Kelly was flying over an airfield near San Antonio, Texas when he lost control. His last, heroic act was to yank his controls to narrowly avoid a group of infantrymen on the field. He crashed into the ground , but he avoided any collateral damage. And on June 20th, R. C. "Lucky Bob" St. Henry very nearly died when circumstances forced him to attempt a risky gliding landing in Mandan, South Dakota. His misadventure there detained his scheduled flight in Miles City, prompting disappointment among the locals, according to the Daily Star: "Well, when Ralph Gilmore and his 'bunch' came in last night...they expected to remain over for the airship stunts which St. Henry proposes to put on. "There was much disappointment, howev- er, when the boys learned the airship business had been postponed until June 24 and 25. "Dick Anderson and 'Hooton' Pete Wells were mad enough to 'slap leather' and 'Hooky' Bill Combs and Smith White were so savage they could have shot up the Olive hotel where St. Henry was sleeping with his boots on." Hooton Pete, the article went on, was heard to admit, "Tell you what, fellows, I'd sooner ride the most vicious and meanest bronc in Montana than ride that airship critter." To which "Hooky" Bill replied, "I betcher life she's no worse 'an the yeller bronc I bust- ed up last year." Nevertheless, St. Henry performed on the 24th and 25th with no accidents and disap- peared into history—one assumes that word of his death would survive in papers or in memory. He must, therefore, have died in some more prosaic way than behind an air- craft's controls. Across the world in France, on May 21, 1911, the pilot Louis Émile Train crashed into a group of assembled watchers, including the French Minister of War, Henri Maurice Ber- teaux, killing him. It was the beginning of the annual Paris to Madrid air race. In Chicago, a bit closer to home, two avia- tors, William R. Badger and St. Croix John- stone, both died on the same day, in separate plane crashes at the 1911 Chicago Interna- tional Aviation Meet. Badger crashed while trying to exit a controlled dive, while John- stone accidentally splashed into Lake Mich- igan after being beset with engine trouble. In other words, aviation was a very risky business, and the Continental Divide still beckoned, begging for someone to conquer it.

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