Allen, Thomas C.

Impact on the world

Met pilot James Herman Banning only four days before the two took off together on a cross-country flight from Los Angeles in 1932, completing the first transcontinental flight by Black pilots in American aviation history in a 14-year-old secondhand biplane, with Allen serving as mechanic and co-pilot, raising fuel money along the way at stops across the country to keep the journey going.

Life & background

A skilled Black pilot and aircraft mechanic, Allen met James Herman Banning in Los Angeles in 1932 and agreed, within days of their introduction, to join him on an ambitious cross-country flight inspired by the fame of Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing but undertaken with virtually none of Lindbergh's financial backing or media support. Flying Banning's secondhand, 14-year-old Alexander Eaglerock biplane, nicknamed 'Miss Ames,' the two men completed the first transcontinental flight by Black pilots in U.S. history, raising money for fuel as they crossed the country rather than relying on outside sponsorship. Allen's technical skill as a mechanic was essential to keeping the aging aircraft airworthy across the journey, and the flight remains a celebrated, if still underrecognized, milestone in the history of Black American aviation.

Sources

1. Blue Sky News (Black Aviators); HowStuffWorks (Bessie Coleman); San Diego Air & Space Museum