J. Clifford Turpin

Thomas DeWitt Milling and Turpin in 1912

Turpin(right) and Lieutenant John Rodgers ( in 1912) Rodgers name is misspelled on photo. The names on the photo are labeled to the wrong man.

James Clifford Turpin (May 6, 1886 – January 1966) was a pioneer aviator with the Wright Exhibition Team.

Biography

He was born on May 6, 1886.

He attended Purdue University, the first graduate(class of 1908) to receive a pilot's license. Turpin joined the Wright Exhibition team in 1910, flying demonstrations across the country. The group was disbanded in 1911. In May 1912, Turpin rented a Wright Model C for his own exhibitions. While flying in a Seattle stadium, Turpin clipped a pylon avoiding a cameraman, and veered into a grandstand, killing a spectator.^[1] After the death of his flying partner, Phil Parmalee, in Yakima, Washington, Turpin quit flying.

He died in January 1966. He was buried in Lothrop Hill Cemetery in Barnstable, Massachusetts.^[2] Turpin reputedly was the father of one daughter.^[3]

External links

• James Clifford Turpin at Findagrave
• Washington's first airplane fatality occurs at the Meadows Race Track in Georgetown on May 30, 1912.

References

1. Air & Space. April 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
2. "James Clifford Turpin". Early Aviators. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
3. EarlyAviators.com: James Clifford Turpin