What Bert Acosta Did and Probably Didn’t Do: Through 1922

“You have to love Bert Acosta (1895-1954), an aviation pioneer who became famous for his talent and his misbehavior in pre-World War II aviation.”[1]

Unrivaled accomplishments as a test pilot, finding and proving routes for cross-country flights that led to air mail routes, making long-distance and endurance flights, flying for fledgling airlines and racing, especially racing, from 1919 through 1922, make Bert Acosta a hero of early aviation. In 1927, he coaxed Richard Byrd’s over-loaded tri-motor America off the ground at Roosevelt Field to begin the third successful aerial crossing from New York to France. A decade later, in 1936, he sailed to Spain to fly for the Republicans (“Loyalists”) against General Franco’s (“Nationalist”) forces. The Great Depression torpedoed his plans to become an airplane manufacturer.

Acosta’s making (unofficial) record-setting long-distance flights in 1920,[2] his successes in the 1920 and 1921 Pulitzer Trophy Air Races3 and his reputation for being able to fly anything including the fabled “kitchen table”[4] or “barn door”[5] when equipped with an engine, make a wonderful beginning for the story of an aviation pioneer. But his glory period lasted only three years, 1920 through 1922, and he would never repeat the success of those years. [See Tables 1 and 2 and note how few additional achievements appear in Table 2.]

Acosta’s life on the ground as well as in the air was attention-getting. Thomas G. Foxworth provides details about Acosta on the ground in two articles in the Historical Aviation Album: All American Series, Volumes VI (1969)[6] and VII (1970)[7] and in his magisterial The Speed Seekers,[8,9] the standard history of high-speed flight in the 1910s and 20s. Foxworth writes stories about Acosta’s womanizing and those, combined with reports of his excessive drinking, dominate what is known (or reported as known) about Acosta’s private life.

His drinking was, almost certainly, partly responsible for his losing his decade-long job with Glenn Curtiss in 1923. He was jailed and lost his pilot’s license for flying under bridges and was later arrested for flying without a license.[10] He served jail time for speeding and failure to pay child support. He fell from being an admired, sometimes adored, quick-silver public personality in his 20s and 30s, to a tubercular, unemployed, broke, broken and drunk man in his 50s, old before his time, unable to live on his own. He died at age 59 in 1954.

Coming early in his life, Acosta’s accomplishments shine above the later messiness, helplessness and failures, but taken altogether, his life is a story of loss.