As a young man, Benjamin O\u2019Dell Howard was never one to seek conventional education, so with a how-to-fly book and a second-hand biplane, he experienced his first flight . . . quickly followed by his first crash. Undaunted, he rejected a high-paying job to work from the ground up at the Curtiss factory, where he learned hands-on about aircraft design and building. By the age of 20, he designed and built his first aircraft. What followed was a wildly colorful, Golden Age career, modifying aircraft for bootleggers and chasing racing prizes during the romantic \u201820s and \u201830s. Each aircraft Benny built was identified with his own official trademark, DGA, which stands for \u201cDa*ned Good Airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n
In partnership with Gordon Israel, Benny created two of the smallest and quickest aircraft in the 1932 races: low-wing wire-braced monoplanes known as \u201cMike\u201d and \u201cIke,\u201d who took turns being the faster. After Benny and Gordon added a third aircraft, \u201cMr. Mulligan,\u201d to the stable, prize money and acclaim poured in, culminating in 1935 when Howard aircraft won the Bendix, Thompson, and Greve Trophy\u2014a season of racing events that became unofficially known as the \u201cBenny Howard National Air Races.\u201d Benny claimed he preferred building racing planes because they \u201cpaid for themselves,\u201d but his legacy was bigger than trophies. Howard\u2019s aircraft were among the safest in the hell-bent-for-leather races, never killing a pilot. And while many of the original classic racers\u2014including all the GeeBees\u2014are long gone, Howard\u2019s original \u201cIke\u201d and \u201cMike\u201d are still preserved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIke\u201d appears in All of Life is a School as the character Benny, a shy but gifted racing plane who enjoys the company of Zee and the gang.<\/p>\n