THE CAPITAL JOURNAL, SALEM, OREGON
RANKIN LISTED
"ACE" STUNTER
Tex Rankin, famous Hollywood
motion picture .stunt pilot, who re
cently literally flew away with the
title of International Acrobatic
champion at the Decoration day
air races held in St. Louis and whose
exhibition stunt flying will be the
feature of the Ores an air tour, has
been flying for twenty years. During
this time, Rankin, who is well
known on the Pacific coast and
jwclally in the Pacific northwest,
has set many aviation records.
In addition to the international
title which he has just acquired.
Udnkin holds the world's record for
continuous outside loops, in fact, he
bet three world's records for con
tinuous outside loops. The first was
for 19 loops, the second with 78
and the last, which still stands, was
lor 131 loops made at Charlotte,
N. C, tn lsai.
During the last 17 years Rankin
has taught and supervised the
teaching of more than 3500 students
in his civilian flying activities with
out a serious injury to a single stu
dent, a record unequalled in avia
tion history.
Born in Texas, Rankin lived there
until he was 17 when he moved to
Oregon where he has passed most
of his time since 1911 until several
years ago when he moved to Los
Angeles to fly for the movies. He
took his first flight lesson in 1916.
Rankin first became interested tn
flying in 1913 and so intensely fas
cinating was this new mode of
transportation that he began mak
ing a deep study of flight, reading
everything he could get which con-,
cerned flight. His interest in flying !
was suddenly interrupted, however,'
when as a member of the Washing
ton state National guard in 1916 he
was called to the Mexican border
for service. Soon afterwards when
he returned he was mustered into
the federal service and after many
weeks of intensive training was sent
to France. Here a friendly com
mander, Major Walter Root obtain
ed a transfer from the infantry to
the aviation section of the United
States Signal Corps where Rankin
had plenty of opportunity of con
tinuing his one Interest in life, avia
tion.
When he returned to this coun
try late in the summer of 1919 Ran
kin had his heart set upon aviation
as a definite career and in May
1920 he opened a civilian flying
school at Walla Walla, Wash., with
one old Standard Jl airplane as his
sole asset. Business prospered and
later in the summer he added a
Curiiss JN4D (Jenny) plane to the
school s equipment.
"Flight lessons in those days cost
real money," Tex said. "I charged
one dollar a minute for flight in
struction which is five times as
much as the best flight instruction
costs now."
In 1922, Rankin moved the school
to Portland, Ore., and purchased
the assets of the defunct Oregon,
Washington, Idaho Airplane cor
poration. He now had six airplanes,
several spare engines and a lot of
spare wings and other parts which
were vitally needed in those days
of aviation.
"In all my flying experience,"
Rankin said, "I have had just thir
teen crashes. These, of course, do
not include the motion picture
crashes I do especially for the films.
In these crashes as well as the mov
ie crackups I have never been even !
slightly injured nor have I ever in
jured anyone else in my entire flying
career. I am especially proud of
that record."
Rankin's school prospered and
expanded until it became the
world's largest civilian flying school
in 1928 with 610 students enrolled
tone time.
A major air meet or tour without
Tex Rankin Is like bread without
butter for he has participated in
practically every major air race
meet held in the United States in
the last fifteen years. His favorite
race entry number is "13" and he
always tried to get that number as
signed to his plane as he believes
it is his lucky number.
During the last two years Rankin
has made a special study of pre
cision flying especially as it relates
to acrobatic flying. He Is specializ
ing in this type of flying and his
winning of the St. Louis Interna- For playing football with two boys
uonai crown lor acrobatics from a in the street at Glasgow, Scotland,
field of the world's best stunt fly- a sixty-year-old man was arrested
ers is indicative of the intense study recently.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1937
and preparations he has made In
this daring division of flying.
Tex, however, doesn't think of
acrobatic flying as dangerous de
spite the fact that all of his ma
neuvers In his exhibition work are
performed anywhere from five feet
off the ground to several hundred
feet. He has perfected some 85 in
tricate maneuvers which he does
with precision and skill. Unlike
many of the stunt pilots Rankin j
files a stock model Ryan plane and I
does not go in for special stunt
ships. His ship is a sport plane ana
also is used generally throughout
the country as a training plane. It
is a Ryan all metal low wing mon
oplane with 125 HP Menasco engine
whose purr is hardly discernablc
over the roar of the higher horse
power engines generally used by I
stunt fliers. 1
During the last several months
Tex has worked in three pictures
and belore coming on the Oregon
air tour Just finished a picture as
signment. He Is a member of th3
Motion Picture Pilots association
and enjoys picture work more than
any other type of flying because
each picture, he says, provides an
opportunity to create new and bet
ter acrobatic maneuvers.
When not engaged in teaching
flying, doing picture work, or giving
exhibition stunt flights throughout
the country, Rankin is at home with
his family. Yes he is married and
has a son 14, another son 11, daugh
ters 11 (twins), and another daugh
ter 8. All are vitally interested in
flying with music and dancing as
second and third choice.
Rankin, who Is booked for 19 ex
hibitions in various parts of the
country this summer, recently re
turned from a trip by air which
totaled approximately 8,000 miles.
He visited 32 cities. In addition to
his flying activities Rankin has
found time to devote to writing. He
is the author of the "Rankin Sys
tem of Flying Instruction" and of
more than eight text books known
"Rankin Text." They are some
of the most popular books in the
aviation field.
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