WINNER: Clyde Panghorn
Panghorn’s year became truly remarkable when, in a two-week span, he invented three air-shattering stunts: the Australian Shoehorn, the Waterfall of Terror, and the Horny Gorilla. He became famous throughout the country, and his face was on the cover of national magazines all summer. He was unquestionably America’s aerial hero.

Runner-up: Ormer Locklear
Known as the “Heavenly Hammer”, Locklear spent the year performing stunts that highlighted the luxury that would later define the “roaring” decade to come. Stunts included (while airborne): holding a bottle of champagne with his feet and drinking it, juggling pure-bred Persian cats, and harvesting caviar out of a live sturgeon. Pure extravagance.

3rd Place: Morton St. Clair
St. Clair was always pushing the boundary of what could be done with a spinning propeller, and 1920 was his most successful year. His greatest moment of the season came when he carved a life-size statue of singer Al Jolson using just a block of pine and the plane’s prop. In December, perhaps in karmic retribution, he fell into a propeller while trying to shred pillows and sky-write “Repeal Suffrage” with the scattering feathers.