Dates

• Existence: 1875 February 15 - 1915 December 20

Biographical Note: William S. Luckey

William S. Luckey was an acclaimed Curtiss Flying Team pilot best known as the winner of The New York Times race around Manhattan Island on Oct. 13, 1913.

William Sofield Luckey was born February 15, 1875 in New Jersey. He served in the Spanish American War, enlisting as a Private, Company B, Fourth regiment, Infantry, New Jersey National Guard on July 2, 1898 and was discharged on September 10 of the same year. He later worked as a manufacturer of trunks and suitcases.

He took an interest in aviation in 1912 and learned to fly at the Curtiss Flying School in Hammondsport, New York. He was taught by Francis "Doc" Wildman. After his training, he joined the Curtiss Exhibition Flyers and flew his first public exhibition date at Hershey, Pennsylvania on May 30, 1913. Then, with R. V. Morris and Charles Niles, he flew in Kingston, Ontario, Canada from June 3-13. In July Luckey flew a hydroplane at Sullivan's Island, South Carolina and then hydro and land planes at the Isle of Palms, Charleston, South Carolina. From there he flew at Walkerton Fair (unknown state) on September 11-12; in Buffalo, New York on September 13 for the Perry Centennial Celebration; and he made hydroplane flights in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 23.

On October 13, 1913 Luckey won the New York Times-sponsored Race Around Manhattan, part of the Aeronautical Society of New York’s memorial to Wilbur Wright’s first powered flight a decade earlier. Luckey was in competition with Charles Niles, C. Murvin Wood, Tony Jannus, and J. Guy Gilpatric. The 60-mile event started at Staten Island, then went counter-clockwise across New York Bay to the East River, up the east side of Manhattan, through the Harlem River to the Hudson, then back to the starting point at Staten Island. Luckey won the 1st-place prize of $1,000 with a time of 52 minutes, 54 seconds.

Over the winter of 1913, Luckey went to Hammondsport, New York where he developed the sport of "snowboating" in which a hydro or flying boat could be operated from a snow-covered frozen lake and did some test flying for Curtiss in the spring of 1914. On July 1, 1914 Luckey resumed exhibition flying with an event at Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada on July 1. By the first week of November he flew at the Velodrome Race Track, Buffalo, New York, in a race against a motorcycle.

He continued exhibition flying in 1915. From February 11-18, he flew in a Mardi Gras Carnival in Apalachicola, Florida; July 2-3 he flew at Big Stone Gap, Virginia; and he flew July 27-28 in Peekskill, New York. In August, from the 9th to 15th, he conducted demonstration flights at the National Guard Camp of Pennsylvania at Indiana, Pennsylvania. He carried two officers and (possibly) the state Governor as passengers. On August 14 he flew at Big Stone Gap again; he flew at various locations in Kentucky and then Ohio, and on September 1 was at a fair in Warren, Pennsylvania.

On September 6, 1915 he was scheduled to fly at Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Canada. His first flight and landing was sucessful, but on the second flight his tail struck an embankment as he was landing, throwing him out while still airborne. He was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal where it was found he had a broken back. He remained there in a critical condition until he died on December 20, 1915.

Luckey was married to Annie Laura Barlow on Decmeber 25, 1907.

Biographical note derived from collection materials and records on ancestry.com.

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