In 1929, Hollywood stunt pilot Roscoe Turner deployed a whole-airplane parachute for kicks before 15,000 spectators in Santa Ana, California, and landed softly in his 2,800-pound Lockheed Air Express. But is his RT-14 Meteor, the only repeat Thompson Trophy winner, even cooler?

it was retired in 1939 after just 30 hours of flying time.

Born in Mississippi in 1895, Turner had been trained as a balloon pilot during World War I and went into barnstorming following the war.

Turner had a flair for such commercial tie-ins; when working with the Gilmore Oil Company in a promotional plane that had its lion’s head logo painted on it, the pilot obtained a lion cub he also named Gilmore who flew with him until the animal got too big and unmanageable.

“He had a parachute and a harness for the lion,” Kinney says. “Gilmore became a symbol for this golden-age idea of the outrageous things people would do in marketing.” When the big cat got too ornery for plane rides, Turner kept Gilmore as a pet in his Beverly Hills home until the lion died in 1952. Even then, it was hard to let go, Kinney says. “Turner had him stuffed and kept him in the family den for decades.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-things-work-whole-airplane-parachute-67493177/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/the-record-shattering-airplane-behind-dashing-pilot-meteoric-rise-to-fame-180980207

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/06/have-you-seen-gilmore-airplane.html
https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/10/jean-harlow-at-national-air-races-of.html