lie Greatest Pilot on Earth”
Dr. Thomas C. Parramore
Sampson County's Belvin Maynard was once
known across America as "the greatest pilot
on earth." Towns and clubs begged him for
appearances, and honors poured in daily.
Never heard of him? You've got company.
Today he is all but forgotten, even in North
Carolina. How could such a gifted aviator almost
vanish from history?
Maynard was born in Anson County and grew
up on a Sampson County farm. In school he
played baseball and was in the band, the debat¬
ing club, and a singing quartet. At home he
became an expert
mechanic and kept the
farm machinery
repaired; he could take a
car apart and rebuild it.
But he hoped to become
a preacher, so in 1913 he
went to Wake Forest
College for ministerial
study. Now having a
wife and child, he did
odd jobs but soon had
to leave school to find
better-paying work.
When America
entered World War I in
1917, Maynard joined
the army and learned to
fly, spending the next
year testing new planes
at a French airfield. The army found him too
valuable there to send him to the front lines.
Maynard had learned so much about flying many
types of aircraft that he had become indispens¬
able in Iris testing role. When the war ended in late
1918, Maynard, waiting to go home, spent the
winter testing airplanes. For recreation he some¬
times flew stunts, dazzling big crowds. He even
broke a world record by doing 318 loops in sixty-
seven minutes.
Returning home the next summer, Maynard
was soon back at Wake Forest. But as classes
began, he was invited to fly in an air race from
Long Island, New York, to Toronto, Canada, and
back — a distance of more than one thousand
miles, the longest air race ever held. It was billed
as "the greatest air race in history." Maynard
would fly a de Havilland biplane. The race took
place in October 1919, and he won, beating some
of the world's best flyers.
Newspapers called him the Flying Parson and
"the greatest pilot on earth." In North Carolina,
he was a conquering hero. The race showed that
airplanes, evolving from the rickety stick-and-
cloth machines of
prewar davs into
mankind's fastest
means of travel, would
bring huge changes,
with Maynard leading
the way.
He had resumed
classes at Wake Forest
when he was invited
to participate in
another race, one that
made the New York-
Toronto one seem
timid. It would cover
some six thousand
miles, from Long
Island to San
Francisco. Its sixty-
seven planes would
land at certain points for fuel and rest. (Only fly¬
ing time counted in picking the winner.) With
Mavnard were his puppv, Trixie (wearing a
Snoopy-style scarf), and his mechanic, William
Klein. Their de Havilland was named Hello Frisco.
Maynard avoided bumpy cloud banks that
forced some planes down earlv in the race, and
he reached San Francisco in first place. After a
brief stay, he set off for New York, confident that
he would win. But the next day, near Omaha,
Nebraska, his motor stopped. He had to land in a
rural cornfield. Klein found the camshaft broken.
