AN EARLY BIRDMAN

In September 1910, prior to a San Francisco air meet, the American News Service touted James Cairn Mars of Muskegon, Mich., as “the most daring of American aviators.” Mars, better known as “Bud,” had gained a reputation for death-defying flights in early airplanes, but unlike some of his contemporaries he managed to live to old age.

Mars began his career at 16 as a featured “carny” high-diver and over the next decade morphed into a balloonist and an innovative parachutist, advertising the use of a “self-steering” chute he dubbed the “fool killer.” From 4,000