Sunday, October 9, 2011

The search for Houdini's airplane continues

Last year as part of the Centenary celebrations of Houdini's first flight in Australia, a search was launched to find out what happened to Houdini's historic Voisin bi-plane. The investigation culminated with the tantalizing idea that Houdini's plane could have landed in the hands of Chung Ling Soo (aka William Robinson) via a fellow magician and aviation enthusiast, Donald Stevenson, who purchased the plane from Houdini in 1913.

Not long after I first posted this story on my old website, a gentlemen named Andrew Stevenson posted the following in my Comments:

"I am Donald Stevensons grandson and we know he had a plane later on on display at his aeronautical and automotive engineering works in Maidenhead. We are trying to find some photos to see if it is the same plane."

Unfortunately, Mr. Stevenson did not post a follow-up comment, so it's unknown whether he confirmed or denied that this Maidenhead plane was Houdini's Voisin.

Now Jon Becker has taken up the case and is chasing down new leads and uncovering new information about Stevenson and Houdini's plane. Obviously, he would love to get in touch with Andrew Stevenson, or anyone who might have information on Houdini's plane. Are you still out there Mr. Stevenson?

Jon can be contacted via a special email address he has dedicated to his search: Houdiniplane@gmail.com.

I'm thrilled to hear the search for Houdini's Voisin is continuing. Let's help Jon find this sucker!
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5 comments:

  1. CarnegieOctober 9, 2011 at 5:03 PM

    We can only hope this important item is rediscovered. How exciting it would be not to just us Houdini folk but to Aviation historians as well.

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  2. Dan RobinsonOctober 10, 2011 at 2:51 AM

    Pity I didn't know about this earlier as I will be in maidenhead this afternoon. I am meeting with a fellow Houdini fan, so will see if we can start the call rolling from this end.

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  3. John CoxOctober 10, 2011 at 8:45 AM

    Fantastic! Thanks, Dan.

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  4. StrangerOctober 20, 2011 at 5:54 AM

    Further to my other post re meeting Stevenson's relatives, sadly the plane displayed in the Maidenhead showroom is remembered as a small monoplane and so not likely to have been the Voisin.
    Paul Zenon

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  5. John CoxOctober 20, 2011 at 8:21 AM

    Ah, thank you for the update, Paul.

    ReplyDelete