Spokane, WA Famous Aviator Killed, Oct 1911

DIXON IN AEROPLANE PLUNGES TO DEATH.

FALLS 100 FEET AT SPOKANE FAIR WHEN CROSS CURRENT OF AIR UPSETS MACHINE.

"HERE I GO!" HE CRIES.

DIXON CROSSED THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS LAST SATURDAY -- FLEW AT HARVARD AVIATION MEET.

Spokane, Wash., Oct. 2. -- CROMWELL DIXON
who flew across the Rocky Mountains last Saturday, fell 100 feet at the Inter-State Fair grounds here today and suffered injuries which caused his death.
Caught by an adverse current of air, DISON'S machine turned on its side and plunged into a rocky railroad cut. While falling DIXON pluckily attempted to right his aeroplane and shouted to the spectators:
"Here I go, here I go."
He was picked up unconscious and taken to a hospital, where it was found that his skull was fractured, his right leg and collarbone broken. He died within an hour.
DIXON was flying in an eight-cylinder sixty horse-power Curtiss biplane, which had a double surface of rubberized silk on the planes. The machine weighed more than 800 pounds, and was capable of making sixty miles an hour.
The accident occurred in the first attempt at flight of the day. DIXON left the ground after much difficulty in getting his areroplane to mount.
Just clearing the telegraph wires north of the fair grounds, his biplane swerved to the right and crashed into a pit beside the railroad track.
According to Manager Scott, in charge of the Curtiss aviators, the wind, sweeping up the Northern Pacific Railroad cut, caused DIXON'S fall. The aeroplane, he said, had not attained sufficient altitude to escape the dangerous currents. DIXON fell to the bottom of the cut and was hauled up the side with ropes.
DIXON'S death makes the ninety-eighth fatality connected with aeroplanes since Lieut. Selfridge's death in 1908. Lieut. Selfridge was the first aeroplane aviator killed.

New York Times New York 1911-10-03
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!