JOHN A. MACREADY 1887-1979

John Macready Courtesy of Sally Macready Wallace

 

NATIONAL AVIATION HALL OF FAME      You will find a very comprehensive biography of John on the National Aviation Hall of Fame site. To access that page, click on the title above. You will find yourself on the homepage of the site. Next, click on "Enshrinees List", which you will find on the left side of the secreen. You will then find a complete list of the enshrinees is displayed. Scroll down to "Macready, John" and click on it. That will open his page and you can read his story. Use your "BACK" button to return to this site.

 

FIRST CROP DUSTING, AUGUST 31, 1921 This was the first successful demonstration of crop dusting in the United States. The plane was piloted by John Macready. A six acre Catalpa grove in Troy, Ohio, had been infested by the Sphinx moth. Text & photo courtesy of Sally Macready Wallace

 

John A. Macready in the Packard LePere LUSAC Courtesy of Sally Macready Wallace

TURBOCHARGER TESTING, 1917-1923 John joined the Army in 1917 and was assigned to high altitude testing of turbochargers. For a complete story of this phase of his career, which is detailed on the webpage of the USAF Museum, click on: Macready

Photo copy of barograph printout of John Macready's flight to 40,800' in open cockpit Lusac 11, Lepere biplane, 9/28/21 Courtesy of Sally Macready Wallace

 

FIRST NON-STOP FLIGHT ACROSS THE U.S., MAY 2,3, 1923

United States Army Air Service Fokker T-2 flown by Lieutenant John A. Macready and Lieutenant Oakley G. Kelly Courtesy of Roy Nagl

 

Lt. John A. Macready & Lt. Oakley G. Kelly Library of Congress Collection, 9-14-07

 

Lt. Oakley G. Kelly & Lt. John A. Macready Library of Congress Collection, 9-18-10

 

Artist's rendering of T-2 flying through thunder and lightning storms over central U.S. Courtesy of Sally Macready Wallace

Photo of map of United States showing route of successful First Non Stop Flight Across the U.S., May 2,3 1923, John Macready and Oakley Kelly, pilots. Text and photo courtesy of Sally Macready Wallace For enlarged version, click on: Route Map

 

PULITZER CUP RACE WORLD'S GREAT SPEED CLASSIC November 3, The 1921 race was to have been held in Detroit, but assurance that the army and navy flyers could be sent to take part was not forthcoming, it was said, and the plans were canceled. The Aero Club of Omaha, Neb., then flew into the breach, and with financial aid of citizens arranged the International Air Congress with the Pulitzer race, Nov 3, 1921, as its chief attraction.      There was a throng of spectators and a good field of contestants at the race in Omaha. The course was a 20-mile triangle and the distance 150 miles. This time, Bert Acosta, a civilian, of the Aero Club of New York, won with a speed of 176 miles per hour, about four miles an hour below the winning rate of the year before, Second place went to another civilian, C. E. Coombs of New York, flying for S. E. J. Cox, wealthy Texas oil man. Lieut. John A. MacReady, co-holder of the record for the recent transcontinental flight, came in third. This From the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, Sunday, September, 1923

 

AVIATION HISTORY IS WELL SUMMARIZED in the three pilots shown above. In the cockpit is Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, conqueror of the Atlantic. Beside his plane, from left to right, are Brigadier General Gilmore, and Lieut. J. A. Macready, one time holder of the world's altitude, distance and endurance flight records and Orville Wright, co-inventor of the airplane      Wright no longer flies. Macready quit the U. S. Air Service more than a year ago to enter industry as assistant chief engineer of Frigidaire Corporation. The above picture was taken at Dayton, Ohio, as Lindbergh was on his way to Washington to complete arrangements for his future activities. Text & Photo Courtesy of Sally Macready Wallace

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      Using the Google search engine using "John A. Macready" +aviation, (12-14-06), you will find about 156 links. A good place to start is the website of the USAF Museum. It features a section called: USAF People      To access the page devoted to John Macready, which has a brief biography illustrated with several great photographs, just click on: Macready First Transcontinental Flight, 1923      Lieutenants John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly took off from Long Island, New York, on May 2, 1923, and landed at Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, on May 3, slightly more than 26 hours and 50 minutes later. They flew in a Fokker T-2 which is on display at the National Air and Space Museum. The plane, along with a story of the flight, may be found on the website of the National Air and Space Museum by clicking on: First Flight WRIGHT 1911 MODIFIED "B" FLYER      On the website of the USAF Museum, you will find the actual plane which was flown by Lt. Macready during the International Air Races at Dayton, OH., in Oct. 1924. To access the page, just click on: Wright Flyer

 

Making Commercial Night Flying Safe By James A. Macready      "This is the first article Lieutenant Macready has written for publication since he left the Air Service to take a general's pay in industry," wrote the Editor of the December 1926 issue of U. S. Air Services magazine. "He entered the electric refrigerator field last April and is now assistant chief engineer for Frigidaire Corporation."      I was alerted to this very interesting article by Larry Radka, the webmaster of his "RARE HISTORY" website. We are grateful to Larry for finding this obscure article by "James" A. Macready and for making it so readily available to our online community. You can access the page by clicking on the title above.

 

ONLINE VIDEO CLIP      The website of the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame offers a number of video clips of Hall of Fame inductees, including one of John Macready. You can enjoy the clip by clicking on: Macready and scrolling down to the second entry. As time permits, I think you will enjoy viewing each of the other clips of Hall of Fame inductees, as well as many of the other features which are available on the homepage of the site.

 

RECOMMENDED READING

John Macready Aviation Pioneer by Sally Macready Wallace A celebration of the first non-stop transcontinental flight and the pioneer who made it happen. Sunflower University Press, Manhattan, Kansas

 

John A. Macready died in 1979.

 

Editor's Note: If you have any information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

Back