| has gloss | eng: The Wright Exhibition Team was a group of early aviators trained by the Wright brothers at Wright Flying School. The team made its first public appearance on June 13, 1910 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Both Wright brothers were with the team. They performed aerial shows and set records for altitude and endurance. Ralph Johnstone was the first to be killed. After attempting another altitude record over Denvers Overland Park in November, Johnstone put his plane into Walter Richard Brookins spiral dip dive, and he never recovered. The plane plummeted to the ground, and Johnstone was crushed. A month later, on New Years' Eve, 1910, Arch Hoxsey was killed in an identical crash. Although the team had lost its star fliers, newer pilots trained by Welsh joined the team and continued performing around the country. The last big meet the team participated in was in Chicago, August 1911. Although several of the pilots were killed in later crashes, there were no further fatalities while the team performed. However, the team was not helping the Wright Company sell as many airplanes as they had hoped, so the Wrights disbanded the team in November 1911. |
