MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS
James Herman Banning at the controls of “Miss Ames,” his White Hummingbird aircraſt . Photo: Courtesy of Ann Pellegreno
changes our entire perception. Was Malick the anomaly? Or were there other minority pilots that we just don’t know about? It is a question I have pondered with regard to unknown females in aviation history as well.” How did the presence of a black man at the Curtiss school not cause mention in aviation publications? My own conclusion is that he was among a dozen or more men (and two women) who were an unusual mix of cultures attending Curtiss’s North Island school in 1911 and 1912. One source notes that in 1912 these students “were of all classes and all nationalities. The list includes trades and professions, from horse trainers to bankers.” Curtiss’s school was known to include students from eight European countries as well as others from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Japan.
According to newspaper accounts, Malick grew up in Pennsylvania and by 1910 he was commuting to work
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as a carpenter and farm hand using a glider he built to fl y across the wide Susquehanna River. At Philadelphia he was hired to fl y for the Dutchman Air Service and the Dalin Aerial Survey Company. Malick complied with new U.S. Federal regulations for aviators and mechanics in 1927, earning License No. 1716. By 1928, Malick was giving exhibition fl ights at the controls of his Waco aircraft. He survived two crashes but he never fl ew again after one of his passengers was killed. Before the discovery of Malik’s
FAI license, it was assumed that James Herman Banning was America’s fi rst licensed black aviator in 1927.
THE FLYING HOBOS
Bessie Coleman [1892-1926] became the fi rst African-American woman and Native American woman to earn her aviator’s license during 1921. Coleman received her FAI license in France because American schools would not accept black students. She
returned to the U.S. and became a popular exhibition pilot whose career was cut short by an accident. During the 1930s, Cornelius Coff ey [1903- 1994] and Willa Brown [1906-1992] became the fi rst male and female African-Americans to earn both licenses as pilots and mechanics. Elsewhere in Oklahoma, another young African-American had become airminded with a big idea. Born in 1899, James Herman Banning did well in high school and at age 20, he enrolled as an engineering student at Iowa State College in Ames, IA. Just one year into his education, Banning dropped out to make aviation his profession. Rejected by white fl ight schools, Banning paid for private lessons with income from his automobile garage in Ames and bought himself a WWI surplus JN4 “Jenny.” In “Iowa Takes to the Air,” author Ann Pellegreno writes that Banning fl ew out of Gerbracht Field near Ames after earning License No. 1324. Pellegreno notes that Banning later owned a White Hummingbird (which he named “Miss Ames”) and which he fl ew in the fi rst Iowa Good Will Tour in 1928. The following year at a county fair in Iowa, he had an accident in which he sustained several broken bones. As soon as he recovered, Banning moved to California. He joined the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, where he barnstormed and made exhibition fl ights with other black aviators. It was during this time that he met Thomas Allen [1907-1989], another black pilot and mechanic. Without major funding, Banning and Allen partnered in 1932 to fl y their White Hummingbird across the U.S.. Fuel, food and accommodations were donated to the fl yers along their route. They nicknamed themselves the “Flying Hobos.” Their fl ight from California to New York took 21 days with more than 40 hours of fl ying
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