George Salyer, 101; Held World Records as Oldest Skydiver, Pilot

George Salyer, 101, a record-setting skydiver who was jumping well past the age of 90, died in a house fire Sunday in Everett, Wash.

A retired Boeing Co. worker, he held the Guinness Book of Records title of world’s oldest male skydiver in 1994. He also was proclaimed the world’s oldest male pilot, and had been flying since his first solo stint in the cockpit in 1935.

Born in 1901, two years before the Wright brothers’ historic flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., Salyer was a machinist for Boeing until his retirement in the 1960s.

The owner of 17 planes during his lifetime, he took up skydiving at the age of 88. He became a skydiving enthusiast, observing each subsequent birthday by jumping from altitudes of about 12,000 feet.

In 1992, when he was 91, he became the oldest male tandem skydiver in the world. In 1995, Salyer, then 94, and a 71-year-old son, a 40-year-old grandson and a 15-year-old great-grandson set a record for a multigenerational jump.

He continued making jumps until a few years ago, when his tandem skydiving partner quit for health reasons, his daughter, Jo Salyer, told the Everett Daily Herald.