WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.359 Welcome to the deep dive. So I want you to imagine 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:06.219 stepping onto a modern commercial airliner today. 00:00:06.900 --> 00:00:09.560 You turn left, you peek into the cockpit, and 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:11.779 you see the pilot. Right. The person you are 00:00:11.779 --> 00:00:15.720 trusting with your life. Exactly. But it's not 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:18.239 someone in a crisp uniform who spent I don't 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:21.399 know, years running safety protocols in a highly 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:24.019 controlled flight simulator. No, definitely not. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:26.699 Instead, it's a guy whose previous job was literally 00:00:26.699 --> 00:00:29.359 strapping himself to the outside of a biplane 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.740 wing for carnival crowds. Just a literal daredevil. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:35.299 Yeah. And in the 1920s, that wasn't a safety 00:00:35.299 --> 00:00:37.719 violation. That was actually like the only way 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:39.899 airlines knew their pilots were qualified to 00:00:39.899 --> 00:00:42.039 survive. It's kind of wild to think about. It 00:00:42.039 --> 00:00:45.039 really is. So today, we are exploring an era 00:00:45.369 --> 00:00:47.649 when the people building the corporate foundations 00:00:47.649 --> 00:00:50.829 of an industry were also literal, death -defying 00:00:50.829 --> 00:00:53.189 daredevils. It is a phenomenal contradiction, 00:00:53.369 --> 00:00:55.590 honestly. You have this brief chaotic period 00:00:55.590 --> 00:00:59.369 in history where the reckless adrenaline junkie 00:00:59.369 --> 00:01:01.450 and the stuffy corporate tycoon were often the 00:01:01.450 --> 00:01:03.990 exact same person. Right. And our mission for 00:01:03.990 --> 00:01:06.290 this deep dive is to unpack how one specific 00:01:06.290 --> 00:01:09.250 individual completely embodied that contradiction. 00:01:09.500 --> 00:01:11.599 We've got this really concise but fascinating 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:14.439 Wikipedia article today, and we're exploring 00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:17.239 the life of Charles W. Holman. Better known to 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:20.420 history as Speed Holman. Speed Holman, yes. We're 00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:22.340 going to see how he navigated the incredible 00:01:22.340 --> 00:01:25.599 and honestly often fatal transition between the 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:29.000 Wild West era of barnstorming and the birth of 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:31.299 modern commercial aviation. He really is the 00:01:31.299 --> 00:01:33.799 perfect lens for this because, you know, his 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:36.980 life traces that exact trajectory from the carnival 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:39.159 atmosphere of early flight right into the boardroom 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:41.920 of a major airline. OK, let's unpack this because 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:44.159 to understand the mindset here, we have to look 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.420 at the world he was born into. Charles Willis 00:01:46.420 --> 00:01:48.840 Holman was born in Bloomington, Minnesota, right 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:51.159 at the very end of the 19th century. December 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:54.519 27, 1898. Right, and we have to set the historical 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:56.260 stage for you here. Think about what the world 00:01:56.260 --> 00:01:58.480 looked like in 1898. It's a completely different 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.239 reality. Exactly. The internal combustion engine 00:02:01.239 --> 00:02:04.540 is still this terrifying, loud, messy novelty. 00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:06.959 The Wright brothers haven't even flown at Kitty 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:09.250 Hawk yet. No, that wouldn't happen until, what, 00:02:09.590 --> 00:02:13.009 1903. Right, 1903. So, Holman is born into a 00:02:13.009 --> 00:02:15.689 world where the very idea of human flight is 00:02:15.689 --> 00:02:18.409 still considered literal science fiction by most 00:02:18.409 --> 00:02:21.210 sensible people. He grows up exactly as the world 00:02:21.210 --> 00:02:23.469 is discovering the whole concept of mechanized 00:02:23.469 --> 00:02:26.030 speed. And he caught the bug incredibly early. 00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:28.909 Like, long before he ever took to the sky, he 00:02:28.909 --> 00:02:31.169 was chasing adrenaline on the ground. Oh, absolutely. 00:02:31.330 --> 00:02:35.430 By 1917... when he's just a teenager, he is already 00:02:35.430 --> 00:02:37.810 racing motorcycles at the Minnesota State Fair, 00:02:38.150 --> 00:02:39.930 and that's actually where he earned his first 00:02:39.930 --> 00:02:44.310 nickname, which was Slim. Slim, yeah, but apparently 00:02:44.310 --> 00:02:46.750 Slim wasn't quite punchy enough. No, not at all, 00:02:46.770 --> 00:02:48.969 because he later upgraded it to the much cooler 00:02:48.969 --> 00:02:51.539 moniker Speed. It's a great rebrand. And you 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:54.199 know, racing motorcycles on dirt tracks in 1917 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:56.740 was no joke. Can't even imagine. You had primitive 00:02:56.740 --> 00:02:59.740 suspension, crude brakes, and essentially an 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:01.740 exploding engine strapped to a heavy bicycle 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:03.879 frame. You had to be fearless. Right. But what's 00:03:03.879 --> 00:03:06.199 really crucial here is what happens the very 00:03:06.199 --> 00:03:09.099 next year, in 1918. The obsession shifts from 00:03:09.099 --> 00:03:12.039 two wheels on the dirt to the sky. He desperately 00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:14.979 wants to fly. But there's a massive barrier that 00:03:14.979 --> 00:03:18.620 almost every early aviator faced. He's totally 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:22.330 broke. Yeah, completely. And flying was unimaginably 00:03:22.330 --> 00:03:25.169 expensive back then. It was. The machines were 00:03:25.169 --> 00:03:28.289 incredibly fragile, the high octane fuel was 00:03:28.289 --> 00:03:31.530 costly, and the knowledge of how to operate these 00:03:31.530 --> 00:03:34.909 aircraft was guarded by a very small, elite group 00:03:34.909 --> 00:03:37.250 of people. Right. It's not like today. Exactly. 00:03:37.330 --> 00:03:39.050 There were no commercial flight schools you could 00:03:39.050 --> 00:03:41.210 just, you know, take out a student loan for. 00:03:41.650 --> 00:03:44.789 So he gets creative. And what blows my mind is 00:03:44.789 --> 00:03:47.650 how he actually got his foot in the door. Since 00:03:47.650 --> 00:03:50.110 he couldn't pay for lessons, he literally bartered 00:03:50.110 --> 00:03:53.409 his sweat. Yeah. He went to a pilot named Walter 00:03:53.409 --> 00:03:56.150 Bullock and offered to wrench on the planes as 00:03:56.150 --> 00:03:58.550 a mechanic in exchange for stick time. Which 00:03:58.550 --> 00:04:00.469 is brilliant, honestly, because understanding 00:04:00.469 --> 00:04:02.469 the mechanics of an aircraft becomes the ultimate 00:04:02.469 --> 00:04:04.789 survival tool for him later on. Right. But free 00:04:04.789 --> 00:04:06.909 lessons still don't pay for your food or your 00:04:06.909 --> 00:04:09.830 rent. Exactly. So to earn actual cash, he doesn't 00:04:09.830 --> 00:04:12.330 just, like, get a normal side gig. He starts 00:04:12.330 --> 00:04:14.409 doing parachute jumps and wing walking. Just 00:04:14.409 --> 00:04:16.949 casually walking out onto the canvas wing of 00:04:16.949 --> 00:04:19.649 an airplane mid -flight to pay the bills. It's 00:04:19.649 --> 00:04:21.709 wild to think about that as a financial strategy. 00:04:22.089 --> 00:04:26.449 It's almost like a modern extreme sports unpaid 00:04:26.449 --> 00:04:29.790 intern doing death -defying stunts just to get 00:04:29.790 --> 00:04:32.009 course credit. That's a great way to put it. 00:04:32.050 --> 00:04:34.910 Right. You are personally funding your entry 00:04:34.910 --> 00:04:37.750 into a whole new industry using this completely 00:04:37.750 --> 00:04:41.089 reckless hustle because polite society thought 00:04:41.089 --> 00:04:43.370 you were out of your mind. What's fascinating 00:04:43.370 --> 00:04:46.389 here is the pure economic grit of these early 00:04:46.389 --> 00:04:49.170 aviators. We tend to look back at barnstormers 00:04:49.170 --> 00:04:51.250 and wing walkers and think of them purely as 00:04:51.250 --> 00:04:53.350 thrill seekers. Yeah, just adrenaline junkies 00:04:53.350 --> 00:04:55.750 showing off at county fairs. Exactly. But it 00:04:55.750 --> 00:04:58.069 was a very necessary economic hustle. You had 00:04:58.069 --> 00:05:00.790 to monetize your bravery. Wow. The only way you 00:05:00.790 --> 00:05:03.089 could afford to put fuel in the tank and master 00:05:03.089 --> 00:05:06.129 the incredibly complex mechanics of flight was 00:05:06.129 --> 00:05:08.990 to convince people on the ground to pay to watch 00:05:08.990 --> 00:05:11.649 you cheat death. It was a very blunt transaction. 00:05:11.790 --> 00:05:13.670 You know, you give me a few dollars, I'll show 00:05:13.670 --> 00:05:15.810 you something that might kill me. Precisely. 00:05:16.149 --> 00:05:18.589 And for Holman, that hustle worked. He gets his 00:05:18.589 --> 00:05:21.110 flight time. He masters the machines inside and 00:05:21.110 --> 00:05:24.870 out. And as the 1920s progress, we see a massive 00:05:24.870 --> 00:05:27.110 pivot in his career. Yeah, he transitions. He 00:05:27.110 --> 00:05:30.550 does. The barnstorming hustle evolves into laying 00:05:30.550 --> 00:05:33.430 the actual infrastructure for commercial aviation. 00:05:33.870 --> 00:05:36.250 Because he proves he has serious skill. Like 00:05:36.250 --> 00:05:39.110 by 1924, he takes second place in a competitive 00:05:39.110 --> 00:05:42.129 flying event called the Onto Dayton Race. A huge 00:05:42.129 --> 00:05:44.750 achievement. Right. And that competitive edge 00:05:44.750 --> 00:05:47.709 lands him one of the most grueling jobs you could 00:05:47.709 --> 00:05:51.029 possibly imagine in 1926. He becomes an airmail 00:05:51.029 --> 00:05:53.750 pilot. This is a critical stepping stone. He's 00:05:53.750 --> 00:05:56.370 flying the Cam 9 route alongside another famous 00:05:56.370 --> 00:05:59.870 aviation pioneer, Matty Laird. And the Cham 9 00:05:59.870 --> 00:06:02.470 route went from Minneapolis to Chicago. Let's 00:06:02.470 --> 00:06:03.970 really think about the mechanics of what that 00:06:03.970 --> 00:06:06.120 means for a second. It's brutal. Yeah, flying 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.879 from Minneapolis to Chicago in 1926 means flying 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:11.800 open cockpit biplanes through Midwestern winters. 00:06:11.980 --> 00:06:14.220 It is punishing work. We aren't talking about 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:16.980 sitting in a heated cabin with autopilot. These 00:06:16.980 --> 00:06:19.300 pilots were completely exposed to the elements. 00:06:19.699 --> 00:06:22.040 They would cover their faces in thick grease 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:25.600 just to prevent frostbite. Good grief. And the 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:27.379 engines were incredibly temperamental in the 00:06:27.379 --> 00:06:30.000 cold blake. Oil would literally freeze in the 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.660 lines, plus there was no radar. Right, so how 00:06:32.660 --> 00:06:34.620 did they even know where they were going? They 00:06:34.620 --> 00:06:37.079 navigated using what they called the iron compass, 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:40.680 which meant flying dangerously low just to visually 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:43.439 follow train tracks through snowstorms. Surviving 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:45.540 that requires a level of physical and mental 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.680 endurance that is just hard to even fathom today. 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:52.600 Yeah. But that CM9 airmail route is the seed 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:55.050 of something much bigger. Right. Because this 00:06:55.050 --> 00:06:57.509 is where the money men step in. Right. A man 00:06:57.509 --> 00:07:00.389 named William Bushnell Stout, along with several 00:07:00.389 --> 00:07:03.149 financiers, look at this airmail route and decide 00:07:03.149 --> 00:07:05.329 to reorganize it into a commercial passenger 00:07:05.329 --> 00:07:08.089 business. OK. They form Northwest Airlines and 00:07:08.089 --> 00:07:10.509 they hire Speed Holman as their very first pilot. 00:07:10.709 --> 00:07:12.589 He eventually becomes their first operations 00:07:12.589 --> 00:07:15.329 manager and then their chief pilot. OK, wait. 00:07:15.389 --> 00:07:17.250 I have to stop you there because this makes zero 00:07:17.250 --> 00:07:19.829 business sense to me. Well, if you're William 00:07:19.829 --> 00:07:23.160 Bushnell Stout. or one of these wealthy financiers 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:26.800 in the 1920s, your biggest hurdle is convincing 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:29.360 a highly skeptical public that flying is safe. 00:07:29.740 --> 00:07:31.740 Yeah. That they won't die if they buy a ticket. 00:07:31.939 --> 00:07:34.319 Right. Safety is the ultimate product. Exactly. 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:38.980 So why on earth do you hire the guy whose resume 00:07:38.980 --> 00:07:41.879 highlights include wing walker and parachutist 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:44.579 as your chief pilot? Doesn't that just screen 00:07:44.579 --> 00:07:47.579 danger to your potential customers? I mean, it 00:07:47.579 --> 00:07:50.160 sounds like a terrible PR move today. You wouldn't 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:52.699 hire a Hollywood stunt driver to be the safety 00:07:52.699 --> 00:07:55.319 director of a public transit system. But you 00:07:55.319 --> 00:07:57.199 have to look at the reality of the labor pool 00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:00.379 in 1926. The broader context is that the only 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:02.639 people on Earth with enough flight hours to actually 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:05.000 run an airline were the daredevils. Because no 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:06.519 one else had survived that much time in the air. 00:08:06.699 --> 00:08:08.639 Exactly. There were no corporate flight schools 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:11.300 cranking out trained professionals. The machines 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:14.259 were incredibly unpredictable. Engines failed 00:08:14.259 --> 00:08:16.660 constantly. So you need someone who won't panic. 00:08:17.250 --> 00:08:19.750 Precisely. The financiers knew that when things 00:08:19.750 --> 00:08:22.310 went catastrophically wrong in the air, they 00:08:22.310 --> 00:08:24.230 needed someone in the cockpit who had already 00:08:24.230 --> 00:08:27.250 navigated a hundred mid -air crises. Someone 00:08:27.250 --> 00:08:29.689 who used to fix engines while standing on the 00:08:29.689 --> 00:08:32.549 wing mid -flight. Wow. The daredevils were the 00:08:32.549 --> 00:08:35.549 only ones qualified to make aviation boring and 00:08:35.549 --> 00:08:38.070 safe for the rest of us. That makes perfect sense 00:08:38.070 --> 00:08:40.450 when you explain the sheer mechanics of survival 00:08:40.450 --> 00:08:43.070 back then. And Holman wasn't just an employee 00:08:43.070 --> 00:08:46.070 taking a paycheck either. What blows my mind 00:08:46.070 --> 00:08:48.570 is that he became a major investor in Northwest 00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:51.490 Airlines. He really bought in. Yeah, he actually 00:08:51.490 --> 00:08:53.929 bought $2 ,000 worth of stock in the company. 00:08:54.090 --> 00:08:56.190 Which is a massive amount of capital in the late 00:08:56.190 --> 00:08:59.210 1920s. It shows he wasn't just in it for the 00:08:59.210 --> 00:09:01.889 weekend thrills. He saw the structural business 00:09:01.889 --> 00:09:04.649 potential. He was literally financially invested 00:09:04.649 --> 00:09:06.870 in building the future of commercial aviation. 00:09:07.809 --> 00:09:10.149 But, and this is the wild duality of the man. 00:09:10.409 --> 00:09:12.950 Despite becoming a successful corporate executive 00:09:12.950 --> 00:09:15.250 and a major investor, he just couldn't leave 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:17.490 his daredevil roots behind. No, he couldn't. 00:09:17.690 --> 00:09:19.690 It's like his professional corporate success 00:09:19.690 --> 00:09:24.470 merely funded bigger, faster, more insane physical 00:09:24.470 --> 00:09:27.029 thrills. He was living a complete double life. 00:09:27.409 --> 00:09:30.070 Executive by day, pushing the absolute limits 00:09:30.070 --> 00:09:32.769 of aerodynamics by the weekend. And the timeline 00:09:32.769 --> 00:09:35.429 of how he pushes those limits is just staggering. 00:09:35.950 --> 00:09:38.690 Once you realize he mastered survival in the 00:09:38.690 --> 00:09:41.289 open cockpit winters of the airmail rounds, it 00:09:41.289 --> 00:09:43.549 makes perfect sense why he felt comfortable pushing 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:46.049 the absolute limits of g -force and speed in 00:09:46.049 --> 00:09:47.789 the late 20s. Right, he was already forged in 00:09:47.789 --> 00:09:51.529 the fire. Exactly. So in 1927, he wins the New 00:09:51.529 --> 00:09:54.330 York to Spokane cross -country air derby in a 00:09:54.330 --> 00:09:57.070 layered commercial biplane. That same year, he 00:09:57.070 --> 00:09:59.629 gets his first official pilot's license and the 00:09:59.629 --> 00:10:01.870 signature on that license. Orville Wright himself. 00:10:02.289 --> 00:10:04.970 That detail alone shows you how incredibly compressed 00:10:04.970 --> 00:10:07.730 this technological history is. It's crazy. The 00:10:07.730 --> 00:10:10.009 man who invented the airplane is physically signing 00:10:10.009 --> 00:10:11.909 the commercial license for the man who was building 00:10:11.909 --> 00:10:14.970 one of the first major passenger airlines. The 00:10:14.970 --> 00:10:16.629 dawn of flight and the dawn of the corporate 00:10:16.629 --> 00:10:18.809 airline industry overlap perfectly right there 00:10:18.809 --> 00:10:21.509 on that piece of paper. It's an amazing historical 00:10:21.509 --> 00:10:25.789 collision, but Holman doesn't stop. By 1928, 00:10:26.250 --> 00:10:29.240 cross -country endurance isn't enough. He decides 00:10:29.240 --> 00:10:31.799 to set a looping record over the St. Paul Airport. 00:10:32.019 --> 00:10:35.220 And this is a record of pure, punishing physical 00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:37.360 endurance as much as it is of piloting skill. 00:10:37.659 --> 00:10:39.399 Here's where it gets really interesting, because 00:10:39.399 --> 00:10:41.620 there's actually a funny historical discrepancy 00:10:41.620 --> 00:10:43.419 we uncovered in the source text for this. Oh 00:10:43.419 --> 00:10:46.179 yeah, the numbers. Right. On one hand, the Wikipedia 00:10:46.179 --> 00:10:49.399 article states he did 1 ,433 consecutive loops 00:10:49.399 --> 00:10:52.809 in five hours. But right next to that... A photo 00:10:52.809 --> 00:10:57.049 caption claims it was 1 ,093 loops in four hours 00:10:57.049 --> 00:10:59.889 and 27 minutes. A bit of historical fuzziness, 00:11:00.070 --> 00:11:02.110 which is, you know, common for early aviation 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:04.850 records. Yeah, but honestly, either way you slice 00:11:04.850 --> 00:11:07.409 the math, the man spent roughly half a day doing 00:11:07.409 --> 00:11:10.710 nonstop somersaults in the sky. If it was the 00:11:10.710 --> 00:11:14.470 1 ,433 loops in five hours, that's nearly five 00:11:14.470 --> 00:11:17.070 loops every single minute. That is just nauseating 00:11:17.070 --> 00:11:19.370 to think about. Can you imagine the inner ear 00:11:19.370 --> 00:11:21.870 damage, the sheer centrifugal force draining 00:11:21.870 --> 00:11:23.710 the blood from your head over and over again? 00:11:23.950 --> 00:11:26.090 It's a relentless physical punishing of his own 00:11:26.090 --> 00:11:29.129 body. It is. And he escalated the danger even 00:11:29.129 --> 00:11:33.090 further the very next year. In 1929, while serving 00:11:33.090 --> 00:11:36.250 as a leading executive pilot for Northwest, he 00:11:36.250 --> 00:11:38.850 becomes the fourth person in the entire world 00:11:38.850 --> 00:11:41.490 to perform an outside loop. Wow. And the very 00:11:41.490 --> 00:11:43.929 first person to ever do it in a commercial aircraft. 00:11:44.169 --> 00:11:46.389 Okay, we need to explain the physics of an outside 00:11:46.389 --> 00:11:48.950 loop because it is terrifying. Normally, when 00:11:48.950 --> 00:11:51.309 you loop a plane, you pull the nose up and go 00:11:51.309 --> 00:11:54.230 over backwards. The positive g -forces push you 00:11:54.230 --> 00:11:56.129 safely down into your seat. Right, like a roller 00:11:56.129 --> 00:11:59.289 coaster. Exactly. But in an outside loop, you 00:11:59.289 --> 00:12:01.990 push the nose down and loop under. Which entirely 00:12:01.990 --> 00:12:04.210 reverses the aerodynamic stress on the airplane. 00:12:04.350 --> 00:12:07.370 Right. In 1929, an outside loop was considered 00:12:07.370 --> 00:12:09.450 an absolute death sentence for the airframe. 00:12:09.990 --> 00:12:12.210 The wings of commercial biplanes were braced 00:12:12.210 --> 00:12:15.149 with wires meant to handle air pressure pushing 00:12:15.149 --> 00:12:17.190 from the bottom up. So pushing down? Pushing 00:12:17.190 --> 00:12:19.610 the nose down into an outside loop reverses that 00:12:19.610 --> 00:12:21.970 stress, threatening to literally rip the wooden 00:12:21.970 --> 00:12:25.240 wings right off the q -slot. Not to mention, 00:12:25.659 --> 00:12:27.820 the negative G -forces are trying to violently 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:30.340 eject the pilot out of the open cockpit. And 00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:32.960 he's held in by nothing but a primitive lap belt. 00:12:33.299 --> 00:12:35.899 It's just a lap belt, while rushing all the blood 00:12:35.899 --> 00:12:39.100 directly into his brain, what pilots call a red 00:12:39.100 --> 00:12:41.620 -out. Doing that in a passenger plane speaks 00:12:41.620 --> 00:12:44.620 to his absolute mastery of the machine. He knew 00:12:44.620 --> 00:12:46.539 exactly where the structural breaking point of 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:48.860 the aircraft was, and he loved to dance right 00:12:48.860 --> 00:12:51.870 on that invisible line. He really did. Which 00:12:51.870 --> 00:12:55.090 leads us to what is perhaps his most famous racing 00:12:55.090 --> 00:12:58.909 moment, the 1930 Thompson Trophy. Oh, this story 00:12:58.909 --> 00:13:02.190 is incredible. So Maddie Laird, the guy Holman 00:13:02.190 --> 00:13:04.549 used to fly the grueling airmail routes with, 00:13:04.909 --> 00:13:06.710 was commissioned to build a racing plane for 00:13:06.710 --> 00:13:08.570 the Thompson Trophy race. It was called the Laird 00:13:08.570 --> 00:13:11.330 Solution. OK. And it was built for a pilot named 00:13:11.330 --> 00:13:14.549 Lee Schoenherr who flew for B .F. Goodrich. Right. 00:13:14.649 --> 00:13:17.210 A very prominent pilot with a major corporate 00:13:17.210 --> 00:13:20.129 sponsor. Yeah. But Schoenherr looks at the calendar. 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:22.720 looks at the plane being built and backs out. 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:25.320 He refuses to fly it because the aircraft hasn't 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:28.000 been properly tested. He essentially thinks it's 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.379 a death trap. Which, let's be clear, is a perfectly 00:13:30.379 --> 00:13:33.399 reasonable, logical, self -preserving corporate 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:36.639 decision. A racing plane is built for pure speed. 00:13:36.779 --> 00:13:39.720 It's got stubby wings, a massive engine. It is 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:43.159 inherently unstable. Exactly. But where a sensible 00:13:43.159 --> 00:13:46.940 pilot backs away, Speed Holman steps in. He enters 00:13:46.940 --> 00:13:50.600 this untested plane. And how exactly do you test 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:53.899 an airplane in 1930? You don't put it in a wind 00:13:53.899 --> 00:13:55.860 tunnel. No, you physically take it up. Right. 00:13:56.259 --> 00:13:58.879 Holman flew this plane in the actual race only 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:00.779 a few minutes after he flew it on its maiden 00:14:00.779 --> 00:14:02.970 flight. Think about the mechanics of what he's 00:14:02.970 --> 00:14:05.330 doing in those few minutes. He takes off, and 00:14:05.330 --> 00:14:07.730 he has to instantly feel the vibration in the 00:14:07.730 --> 00:14:10.429 stick. If the ailerons start fluttering, the 00:14:10.429 --> 00:14:12.750 wing is about to fail. He has to listen to the 00:14:12.750 --> 00:14:14.669 pitch of the engine, feel the rudder authority. 00:14:15.029 --> 00:14:18.450 He is processing all of this raw tactile engineering 00:14:18.450 --> 00:14:21.070 data at 200 miles an hour. He basically takes 00:14:21.070 --> 00:14:23.190 it around the block once to make sure the wings 00:14:23.190 --> 00:14:25.090 don't snap off, and then lines up against the 00:14:25.090 --> 00:14:27.919 best racers in the world. and he wins. It's unbelievable. 00:14:28.059 --> 00:14:30.340 He wins the Thompson Trophy at an average speed 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:34.000 of nearly 202 miles per hour. That moment in 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:36.700 1930 perfectly encapsulates his personality, 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:39.360 jumping into an untested machine because the 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:42.059 original pilot was too scared. It wasn't a blind 00:14:42.059 --> 00:14:44.299 death wish though, it was a calculated risk. 00:14:44.740 --> 00:14:47.500 He trusted his own mechanical knowledge, from 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:50.440 his days bartering mechanic work for flight lessons, 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:53.139 more than he feared the unknown variables of 00:14:53.139 --> 00:14:56.200 the new plane. But when you constantly escalate 00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:58.840 that level of risk, you know, when you make a 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:01.519 habit of operating at the absolute edge of physics 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.159 and structural engineering, there's a brutal 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:07.299 math to it. There is. And sadly, the hosts of 00:15:07.299 --> 00:15:09.480 that math eventually come to collect. It brings 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:11.919 us to the inevitable tragedy. The conclusion 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:14.620 of Holman's story is solemn, but given everything 00:15:14.620 --> 00:15:16.820 we've just discussed about the aerodynamic limits 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:20.559 he was pushing, perhaps not surprising. On May 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:24.110 17, 1931, Charles Speed Holman died. He was only 00:15:24.110 --> 00:15:27.450 32 years old. 32. It's staggering to think about 00:15:27.450 --> 00:15:29.850 how much infrastructural history he crammed into 00:15:29.850 --> 00:15:32.110 barely three decades of life. The details of 00:15:32.110 --> 00:15:34.409 the crash are heartbreaking. He was at the opening 00:15:34.409 --> 00:15:36.990 of an airport in Omaha, Nebraska. He was doing 00:15:36.990 --> 00:15:38.970 what he always did, pushing the limits, entertaining 00:15:38.970 --> 00:15:41.289 the crowd. Yeah. He was flying his aircraft upside 00:15:41.289 --> 00:15:45.250 down and he crashed. Right in front of 20 ,000 00:15:45.250 --> 00:15:48.149 spectators. Just imagine being one of those 20 00:15:48.149 --> 00:15:51.330 ,000 spectators. You show up to celebrate the 00:15:51.330 --> 00:15:54.149 miracle of flight. only to witness the brutal 00:15:54.149 --> 00:15:56.789 reality of its dangers. It must have been horrific. 00:15:56.970 --> 00:15:58.730 And we have to talk about the macro effect of 00:15:58.730 --> 00:16:01.549 that crash. When Holman crashes in front of 20 00:16:01.549 --> 00:16:04.090 ,000 people, it isn't just a localized tragedy. 00:16:04.250 --> 00:16:07.409 Right. It is a massive industry -wide PR crisis. 00:16:07.649 --> 00:16:10.269 Exactly. Northwest Airlines and these other commercial 00:16:10.269 --> 00:16:12.330 companies are trying to sell the illusion of 00:16:12.330 --> 00:16:15.509 safety to the general public. Yeah. And their 00:16:15.509 --> 00:16:18.129 chief pilot, the guy supposed to represent ultimate 00:16:18.129 --> 00:16:21.500 control, just died a very public, very violent 00:16:21.500 --> 00:16:24.399 death. It shatters that illusion instantly. It 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:27.200 was a deeply traumatic reminder that while aviation 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:29.639 was rapidly becoming a standardized business, 00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:33.100 the sky was still an incredibly unforgiving environment 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:35.799 that frankly did not care about corporate charters. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.500 The outpouring of grief was massive. His funeral 00:16:38.500 --> 00:16:40.279 was one of the largest ever held in St. Paul, 00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:43.639 Minnesota. The community lost a hero, but they 00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:46.000 made sure his legacy was permanently cemented 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:48.399 in the region's infrastructure. His name is still 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:50.720 woven all throughout Minnesota aviation today. 00:16:50.860 --> 00:16:53.720 Yeah, the list of honors from the source is extensive. 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:57.159 The St. Paul downtown airport was named Holman 00:16:57.159 --> 00:17:00.259 Field in his honor. The Holman Field administration 00:17:00.259 --> 00:17:02.500 building is actually listed on the National Register 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:05.319 of Historic Places. Oh, wow. There is a Holman 00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:07.980 Street in St. Paul. There is even a restaurant 00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:10.119 located right at the airport called Holman's 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:12.779 Table. And of course, he was inducted into the 00:17:12.779 --> 00:17:15.059 Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame. They made sure 00:17:15.059 --> 00:17:17.779 his name would outlast his incredibly short life. 00:17:18.339 --> 00:17:20.859 If we connect this to the bigger picture, it's 00:17:20.859 --> 00:17:23.759 about... what those 32 years actually represented. 00:17:24.180 --> 00:17:27.200 Right. He lived fast enough to see aviation transition 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:30.480 from a dangerous novelty to a foundational global 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:33.420 industry. From Orville Wright physically signing 00:17:33.420 --> 00:17:35.960 a sporting license to navigating the freezing 00:17:35.960 --> 00:17:38.119 airmail routes to the establishment of Northwest 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:40.599 Airlines. He saw it all. He was the vital bridge. 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:43.519 And he literally sacrificed his life to push 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:45.420 those engineering limits forward so that the 00:17:45.420 --> 00:17:47.240 rest of us could eventually buy a ticket and 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:49.460 safely complain about the leg room. So what does 00:17:49.460 --> 00:17:51.940 this all mean? When we distill this deep dive 00:17:51.940 --> 00:17:54.559 down, the real takeaway for you listening is 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:58.039 about recognizing the incredible duality of a 00:17:58.039 --> 00:18:01.180 figure like Speed Holman. He wasn't just a reckless 00:18:01.180 --> 00:18:03.799 adrenaline junkie chasing the next high, and 00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:06.359 he wasn't just a stuffy corporate pioneer crunching 00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:09.539 numbers in a hanger. He was both. Exactly both. 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:12.140 His story reminds us that sometimes profound 00:18:12.140 --> 00:18:14.700 technological progress requires individuals who 00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:17.539 are willing to operate at the absolute dangerous 00:18:17.539 --> 00:18:21.009 edge of safety. The comfortable board rooms and 00:18:21.009 --> 00:18:23.990 the strict safety regulations only arrive after 00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:26.369 people like Holman have mapped out where the 00:18:26.369 --> 00:18:28.890 fatal edges actually are. This raises an important 00:18:28.890 --> 00:18:30.309 question though and it's something I think we 00:18:30.309 --> 00:18:32.769 should all reflect on. We look back at early 00:18:32.769 --> 00:18:35.509 aviation and we can clearly see that it required 00:18:35.509 --> 00:18:37.829 these daredevils to build the foundation of a 00:18:37.829 --> 00:18:40.799 safe industry. But look at the emerging industries 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:43.900 of today. It makes you wonder if the pioneers 00:18:43.900 --> 00:18:46.460 of today's tech industries like commercial space 00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:49.259 play or artificial intelligence or biotechnology. 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:53.299 were forced to physically ride inside the machines 00:18:53.299 --> 00:18:55.319 they are building, the way Speed Holman did, 00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:58.140 would they push the limits just as fast? Oh, 00:18:58.140 --> 00:19:00.279 that's a great point. Would the whole move fast 00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:03.140 and break things ethos look completely different 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:05.700 if it was their own lives on the line? Are we 00:19:05.700 --> 00:19:08.039 prepared for the crashes that inevitably happen 00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:11.079 before those industries become safe? That is 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:13.980 exactly the right question to leave on. The frontier 00:19:13.980 --> 00:19:16.539 always demands a price and it changes everything 00:19:16.539 --> 00:19:18.700 when you're the one paying it. I want to thank 00:19:18.700 --> 00:19:20.819 you so much for joining us on this deep dive 00:19:20.819 --> 00:19:23.200 today. Keep questioning the world around you, 00:19:23.299 --> 00:19:25.759 stay curious, and keep seeking out these incredible 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.460 complex stories that are hiding right in plain 00:19:28.460 --> 00:19:28.759 sight.