In 1926 director/producer Richard E. Norman created a black-and-white, silent film with an all African-American cast, The Flying Ace. Inspired by the story of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman and Native American to hold both a pilot’s license and an international pilot’s license. Coleman died in April 1926, after taking off in a Curtiss JN-4 from Jacksonville, FL, the city where Richard Norman’s studio was located and where most of the principal photography took place.
In 2021 the film was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
The Jacksonville Symphony is commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the film by commissioning 6 African-American composers to write music for each of the 6 reels of the film. The composers are
The premiere of the new version with modern orchestra score takes place on Nov. 14, 2026. For more information or to purchase tickets, please click here.
Here is the original silent film
