Milo Burcham

Burcham sold burglar alarms of his own design to finance flying lessons from the O'Donnell School of Aviation in Long Beach, California, where he became chief instructor.

In 1933, Burcham and Lt. Tito Falconi of the Italian Air Service competed in setting inverted flight endurance records.

Burcham's flight of 4 h 5 min 22 s flying in circles over Long Beach, California that December was not broken until July 24, 1991 when U.S. airshow pilot Joann Osterud set a new world's record of 4 h 38 min 10 s. In 1936, Burcham flew his Boeing 100 to the World's Aerobatic Championship at the National Air Races in Los Angeles.

On January 9, 1944, he turned the first flight of Lulu-Belle, the XP-80 prototype, into a thrilling low-level airshow before a crowd of military and civilian VIPs at Muroc Army Air Base (now Edwards AFB).

The engine flamed-out on takeoff due to a main fuel pump failure and the airplane crashed one mile west of the terminal, killing him.