Biographical Sketches

EDWIN CHARLES MUSICK

Born: August 3, 1894    In: St Louis, MO
Died: January 11, 1938    In: near Samoa

After learning to fly at Venice CA, young Edwin Charles Musick survived the crash in 1911 of a home-made Curtiss clone built with help from a pal, Harry Reynolds. While the plane was a total loss, it led to an illustrious career in aviation starting in 1913 when he made a living as a barnstormer until 1917.

After losing a close friend in a tailspin accident, Musick began studying and analyzing aerial spins, back then quite fearsome and not fully understood, testing his theory of stick and control movements until he found the way to master spins. Because of his findings, inadvertent tailspins lost their deadly charm and became a popular staple in aerobatics.

First commercial job came as a civil flight instructor with the USAAC in San Diego, then he switched roles and services in 1918 by enlisting as a USMC pilot. In 1920 he resigned his commission to fly for Aeromarine Co and Aeromarine Airways and, subsequently, a few other commercial airlines, finally settling on an offer from Pan American Airways in 1927.

As chief pilot for their Caribbean Division, Musick trail-blazed new routes there and over the Pacific, also set 10 world records while flying his Sikorsky S-42. But his star shone brightest when he inaugurated scheduled transpacific flight on Sept 22, 1935 by flying the air mail in PAA’s Martin China Clipper from San Francisco to Manila, via Hawaii, Midway, Wake and Guam islands, for which he was awarded the Harmon Trophy and made the cover of Time magazine. That was followed by establishing a South Pacific route to New Zealand in 1937.

One of the first pilots to log 10,000 hours of flying, Musick made his last flight on January 11, 1938 on the way to New Zealand in the Samoan Clipper. Shortly after leaving Pago Pago he radioed a report of an engine oil leak, then made a fateful decision to lighten the plane for an emergency landing by dumping fuel, which collected on the wings and made the S-42 a flying bomb. It exploded in mid-air, and neither plane nor survivors were found, only floating wreckage.

REFERENCES:
From Crate to Clipper; William S Grooch, Longmans, Green and Co 1939.
Morehouse Early Pioneers

Denotes an individual known to have soloed an aircraft prior to December 16, 1917, whether they were members of the "Early Birds of Aviation" Organization or not.