MCKEON, E. J.

MCKEON, Edmund J. (Dubuque, IA- ). McKeon served as an assistant Dubuque County engineer in 1917. (1) He was a also a former students at the BAYLESS BUSINESS COLLEGE. (2)

In 1928 he was a partner with Victor "Speed" Johnson in a flying school established in 1916 at San Mateo, California. On May 22, 1928 near Tracy, California, he piloted a biplane to an altitude of 4,000 feet, cut out the engine, released the controls, and pulled a cord that opened a parachute. The plane fell to a height of about 1,500 feet and McKeon was preparing to jump trusting his own chute before the parachute on the plane "caught." The airplane settled to earth with only minor damage done to the tail. The dual parachute, the larger chute having a smaller one of an estimated 100 feet diameter inside it, was attached by steel cables to the top of the wings in a way that the plane landed in an upright position. Two motion picture cameras were carried aboard the plane to record the event.

The event which was repeated near San Francisco in 1929 was to test a safety device invented by Charles Broadwick, a San Francisco inventor. (3)

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Source:

1. "Board of Supervisors," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, April 5, 1917, p. 13

2. "Former Dubuquer Startles Fliers," Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal, May 9, 1928, p. 2

3. "Former Dubuquer Aids in Development of Airplane 'Chutes," Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal, September 1, 1929, p. 5