Promising to actualize Abbott's dream of "uplifting the Race," Coleman decided to start an aviator school open to all people. In 1923, a few days after being able to purchase an old Curtiss JN-4 plane for $400, Coleman was flying from Santa Monica for an exhibition in Los Angeles, her plane stalled at 300 feet, nose-dived, and smashed into the ground. Bessie spent the next eighteen months in Chicago recuperating from a broken leg, broken ribs, and numerous lacerations.
In 1926, in order to participate in a May Day sponsored by the Negro Welfare League, Coleman turned to chewing-gum heir Edwin M. Beeman to help her purchase an old Army surplus plane from World War I. The day before the celebration, Coleman and her mechanic took the plane out for a flight and Coleman sat in the back, with her seatbelt unfastened so that she could study the coutours of the field. Only ten minutes after its take off, the plane crashed down and Coleman was thrown 500 feet. Both Coleman and William D. Wills were killed instantly. (1)