Q: Who flew the first loop-the-loop in the USA?

A: Lincoln Beachey, on November 18, 1913. (Adolphe Pegoud of France
flew the first loop on September 21, in a Bleriot XI-2. He had been
inspired the previoius month by watching from his parachute the aerial
death-dance of a plane he had just bailed out of.)


Q: Who made the first non-stop transcontinental flight in the Western
Hemisphere?

A: Robert Fowler, in a Gage Biplane, on April 27 1913. (That's
right, five months before the first loop.) According to

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero...aft/fowler.htm

"Robert Fowler started his Isthmus of Pamana crossing with a takeoff
from the Atlantic side at 9:45 a.m. on April 27. It was an
extraordinarily dangerous flight, with no open areas available for
emergency landings between the takeoff point and the final
destination. Treacherous winds over the rough terrain and the
ever-present possibility of a sudden change in the weather compounded
the difficulties. Nevertheless, he completed the 83 km (52 mi) flight
in one hour and 45 minutes, landing with his passenger/cameraman, R.E.
Duhem, in the shallow water at Cristobal at 11:30. "

Don