Corpus Christi got its first look at powered flight during the city's July Fourth celebrations in 1911, when pilot Oscar Brindley flew a Wright brothers' company biplane over North Beach on July 3 and 4 of that year.
The demonstration took place just north of the Epworth by the Sea Grounds, near what is now the Corpus Christi shoreline, and drew an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 people from Corpus Christi and across South Texas.
Admission was 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children, with an additional 25 cents for seating. Between flights, spectators could pay another 25 cents to inspect the plane and speak with a mechanic.
Brindley, an Army major who later became a flight instructor, was scheduled to make 4 demonstration flights but completed 7, thanks to ideal weather conditions. The biplane was stored in a makeshift hangar between demonstrations.
The highlight of the two-day event came when local real estate developer F.Z. Bishop — founder of Bishop, Texas — volunteered for a passenger flight. Weighing between 200 and 220 pounds, Bishop flew with Brindley at about 2,000 feet for 15 minutes. The Corpus Christi Caller reported the flight as a world record for the heaviest person ever taken up in an airplane at that time.
The demonstration came just 8 years after the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, making it one of the earliest aviation demonstrations in Texas. The event marked the beginning of Corpus Christi's long relationship with aviation, which would later include the city becoming home to one of the world's largest naval air training stations during World War II.
Brindley was killed in an aviation accident in Dayton, Ohio, in May 1918, shortly after being named chief instructor of American aerial forces.
