A facsimile of the photograph of Thomas McGooey that ran in the Duluth News Tribune on October 15, 1911, the day he became the first person to take off and land an airplane in the Zenith City. (Image: X-Comm)
On this day in Duluth in 1911, Thomas McGoey became the first person to pilot a plane in Duluth. Dubbed “The Birdman” by the local press, McGoey took flight from Athletic Park in the shadows of the ore docks. A football game between two local teams—the Jeffersons and the Adams—was interrupted at 2 p.m.for McGoey’s display. An estimated crowd of 15,000 showed up to watch McGoey fly his Curtis biplane, fitted with a Hall-Scott 8-cylinder engine. It was considered a bad day for flying, misty with dark clouds hanging low over the West Duluth hillside. McGoey would later describe some trouble he had in the air, saying that clouds would “break loose with gusts [of wind] that made his trip perilous.” He only managed one flight that day. (By the way, Jefferson beat Adams 11–0.) The week before he had might several flights in Superior, likely the first to do so in the Wisconsin city as well. One crowd was estimated at 5,000 and included a throng of Duluthians. On another day, a crowd of 300 watched McGoey fly for 15 minutes “in the face of a 30-mile-an-hour gale” a “feat said never to have been performed before.” Read some of the coverage of the Birdman’s time in the Twin Ports here: McGoey_10.09.1911_DNT, McGoey_10.14.1911_DNT, McGoey_10.15.1911_DNT, McGoey_10.16.1911_DNT
Jim Heffernan writing: My father, George, would have been 18 years old when that first Duluth flight took place. He often recalled that his first flight (as a passenger) took off from Athletic Park.. Not sure when George took his ride, but it must have been not too long after this first flight, if they were still using Athletic Park as an airport.