James Herman Banning -- USA

James Herman Banning was an American aviation pioneer. In 1932, James Banning, accompanied by Thomas C. Allen, became America's first black aviator to fly coast to coast. And he was the first black male aviator to be granted a license by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

He was the son of Riley and Cora Banning, born in 1899 in Oklahoma, James Banning briefly studied at Iowa State University before dropping out to pursue a career in aviation.  Unable to get tuition at flight schools, he was forced to take private lessons from an ex army aviator who taught him at Raymond Fisher’s Flying Field in Des Moines Iowa.

Banning owned an auto repair shop in Ames from 1922 until 1928, and then in 1929 he moved to Los Angeles, where he became the chief pilot for the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, which was named after the first black female to receive a pilot’s license.  

The aim of the organisation was to encourage aviation among African Americans,  he became a demonstration pilot, performing in air circuses and flew politicians during their campaigns.  In 1930, he flew Illinois Representative Oscar De Priest, who was the first black person to serve in Congress since Reconstruction.

In 1932, Banning and a co-pilot, Thomas C. Allen, became the first black pilots to fly from Los Angeles CA, to Long Island New York.  The flight took 41 hours and 27 minutes, however the trip actually took 21 days to complete, because the pilots had to raise money for fuel and maintenance each time they stopped.

After that historic flight Banning returned to Los Angeles and tried to rent a plane, so he could participate in a San Diego air show, but was refused.  Instead he flew as a passenger in a biplane, sitting in the front cockpit without any controls, piloted by a relatively inexperienced white Navy aviator.  The Navy pilot took the plane into a steep four hundred feet climb, causing the engine to stall and enter an unrecoverable tailspin in front of hundreds of horrified spectators.  Banning was recovered from the wreckage but died one hour later at a local hospital.