Record Setting Transcontinental Glider Flight

Frank Hawks at the End of a Rope

- John Lockwood

After the Wright brothers’ first successful flights on December 17, 1903, it wasn’t long before adventurous souls of both sexes began attempting to set distance and speed records. It was truly the golden age of barnstorming and of stunt flying. In 1911, for instance, Calbraith Perry Rodgers piloted the Vin Fiz, the first airplane to cross the United States, although he made many stops along the way.

Among this select group of record seekers is one Frank M. Hawks. In World War I, he flew for the U.S. Army Signal Corps and, after the war, became one of the nation’s premier barnstormers and record setters. In his day, he broke hundreds of speed records, dashing from one city to another. Perhaps his most audacious record was set in 1930, when he flew a glider on tow from San Diego to New York City. It could be said that he pogo-sticked his way across the country because he made so many stops along the way.

At the time, Hawks was chief of the Aviation Department of the Texas Oil Company, which gladly sponsored his glider flight for the publicity attached to it.