Credit: Cecil B. Demille Trust

Word of the plane-changing job passed around local aviation circles as the Lasky Company searched for a stunt man to double for Houdini.  No one responded because several stunt men had already been killed at air shows while trying to duplicate Locklear’s famous stunt. Robert E. Kennedy, a former lieutenant and flying instructor in the Air Service, applied for the dangerous job and immediately received a contract.

The logical choice would have been Locklear.  After all, Houdini knew him and Locklear was the only pilot in America at the time, indeed in the world making plane transfers.  But the man Willat hired for the stunt was Robert E Kennedy, fresh out of the Air Service where he had been an instructor at March Field.  It was first time that Kennedy had ever attempted a plane change.  But like so many other pilots at the time, he had heard of Locklear’s exploits and thought it worth an attempt.

Future related posts will include:

• What happened to Robert E Kennedy after the plane incident?
• What happened to David Thompson, whose plane flipped over in the plane incident?

Sources:

• The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood Classic Aviation Movies by H.Hugh Wynne
• Locklear: The Man Who Walked on Wings by Art Ronnie