100 years ago in Spokane: Ace aviator narrowly escapes after engine fails, propeller falls off at 1,500 feet

Spokane’s ace aviator, “Deb” Wylie, “raced with death” 1,500 feet above the Parkwater airfield – and won.

Wylie’s Curtiss biplane was ascending in big circles over Parkwater (now Felts Field) when “the regular roar of the exhaust became intermittent, and then suddenly stopped.”

His Maximotor engine had failed.

“A second later, the polished blades of the propeller, smashed to kindling wood, drifted out behind the falling plane,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

The broken propeller tore into the airplane’s framework and wing.

Mrs. Wylie, “her husband’s constant companion,” feared the worst. She had seen Wylie perform an emergency landing only a few weeks earlier and was worried that this one would not end as well. She raced her auto toward the spot where the plane was heading.

Fortunately, the tear in the framework “did not impair the wind-riding qualities of the plane.” Wylie “kept his head” and brought the machine down in a series of circle dives. He was able to land it on some rocky scabland southeast of the old Upriver Golf Course.

Mrs. Wylie came roaring up in her car seconds later, to find Wylie unharmed.

“I saw Deb fall 4,000 feet once and I wasn’t taking any chances,” she said.