Bertrand Blanchard Bert Acosta was born in San Diego, CA, on January 1,1895. In his resume to the Navy, he mentioned that he had been learning to fly in 1910 – doing personal research constructing experimental and research work in heavier-than-air aircraft. In other words, he built his own plane and at the age of 15 years flew it.
From that time on, flying was in his blood and the career of Aviation's most gifted natural pilot ever to come down the road began. He was considered by many to be a genius with an airplane. Elinor Smith, record setting Aviatrix, in an interview said, Bert didn't fly an airplane, he wore it. So was his reputation as a pilot.
He was a multi-task aviator. He was a pilot of big and small aircraft, a mechanic, laying the first air mail routes, an air mail carrier, a record setter, a barnstormer, an Aeronautical Engineer, a flight trainer, an inventor, an aircraft demonstrator, and a very serious test pilot, acknowledged to have been the first true test pilot by his peers, and one of the first, if not the first, test pilot of heavy airtransport aircraft.
One of the most memorable and historical records was the one he set with Clarence Chamberlin in 1927. It was an endurance record of 51 hours, 11 minutes and 25 seconds. That flight proved an airplane could cross the Atlantic. Shortly after that, Lindbergh flew to Paris, and the ease with which to go from the US to Europe was established.
Five weeks later, Cmdr. Byrd, his four-man crew, Bert as Chief Pilot, departed for France in the America. The lift off was what set Bert apart. Because the plane weighed on lift off, 7˝ tons or 15,000 pounds plus, in rainy weather with the runway muddy, and because of his many years of experience test-flying heavy transport aircraft, coupled with a superhuman effort, he was able to guide the heavy plane up until they were air borne. That was the heaviest load with cargo, plane and crewmen anyone had ever lifted and part of that load was 150 pounds of mail; the first transcontinental transport flight to carry mail to Europe.
In a letter to Commander George O. Noville, Adm. Byrd wrote: I had for him much affection as a friend, and great admiration for him as one of the great fliers of all time. On the Trans-Atlantic Flight of 1927 he demonstrated his greatness in connection with the most remarkable take-off in history, and at the controls of the plane as we fought through three storms over the Atlantic.
Bert's life was full, and interesting, replete with good times and bad times. After his best years of flying were over, his health declined due to a cancer condition that didn’t get better, brought about by alcoholism, and he died in a sanitarium in Denver, Co, on September 1,1954.
Norberto Cisneros
LAAHS USA
