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Origin of the 'mile high club'
Never heard of the Mile-High Club? Let's just say that membership is restricted to couples who couple in flygrante delicto.
The founder of the Mile-High Club was Lawrence Sperry. In November 1916, Sperry -- daredevil pilot, mechanical genius and notorious New York playboy -- was enjoying the airborne company of a married female socialite thanks to his latest invention, the automatic pilot. Sperry was helpless when, having accidentally bumping the autopilot's gyroscope, his plane suddenly dove 500 feet into Hudson Bay.
Two duck hunters paddled out to rescue the couple and were astonished to find them stark naked.
Sperry claimed their clothes were "divested" by the force of the crash. At least one New York tabloid wasn't buying. A front-page headline in the next day's Mirror & Evening Graphic read:
Aerial Petting
Ends in Wetting