Emory C. Malick -- USA

Emory Conrad Malick was born on 12 Dec 1881, and grew up in central Pennsylvania, first in Seven Points, then in nearby Sunbury, where he built his own gliders and flew them across the Susquehanna River to his job as a farmhand and carpenter on Cattie Weiser’s farm.  By 1910, Malick worked as a carpenter and master tile layer in Philadelphia, he also worked for Flying Dutchman Air Service, which offered flight instruction, passengers flights and he took aerial photographs for Dallin Aerial Surveys.

Malick attended the Curtiss Aviation School on North Island, San Diego California, and earned his International Pilot’s License (Federation Aeronautique Internationale, or F.A.I., license), #105, on 20 March 1912.  Making him the first licensed African American aviator, at the age of 31 years old, he was also the first black person to get a pilot’s license in the United States.  After receiving his pilot’s license Malick obtained, assembled and improved on a Curtiss “pusher” biplane that he flew over Selinsgrove Pennsylvania, becoming the first pilot to soar through the skies of Snyder and Northumberland, Counties in 1914.

At a Camden, New Jersey air show, in March 1928 Malick took two passengers for a quick flight in his Waco three seater.  They were just airborne when the engine stalled, Malick banked to avoid spectators; but the wind caught the aircraft, and he crashed injuring the two passengers.  “The entire plane seemed to crumple as if it had been smitten by the fist of a giant,” reported the Sunbury (Pennsylvania) Daily Item.  Malick crashed again later that year, this time injuring himself and killing his passenger, with the result that he never flew again.

He maintained an interested in aviation; attending a flying club banquet, Malick displayed the 60-horsepower engine that powered his 1914 flight over the town.  But he refused all opportunities to go flying, according to documents at the Snyder County Historical Society.  During the 1930s local pilots offered to take Malick flying, he would reply, “I had my fun, and now I’m done.”  In Philadelphia during December 1958, when he was 77 years old, Malick slipped and fell on an icy sidewalk.  He was taken to hospital where he died, his body was unclaimed in the morgue for more than a month, until his identity could be established.  There’s still a lot about Malick that is unknown, but investigations are ongoing.