control from drinking during their flight. Bad boy persona In 1928 Connecticut suspended his pilot license for trying to fly under the Whittemore Memorial Bridge in Naugatuck. According to local Naugatuck tradition, the wing span of his aircraft was much longer than the width of the center arch of the bridge. The flight may have been a publicity stunt, as there was an advertisement for Splitdorf Spark Plugs on the fuselage. In 1929 he was fined $500 for low flying and stunting. When he failed to pay the fine, the Department of Commerce revoked his pilot license. He was arrested by Connecticut State troopers in 1930 for flying without a license. A new Terle Sportplane was being tested at Roosevelt Field in New York in 1931, but the CAA did not register it as a licensed aircraft. The aircraft was later test flown by Acosta, who found it perfect for his use since he was currently grounded from flying licensed aircraft from a previous infraction. After performing aerobatics with the aircraft to a large crowd, Acosta and designer Joseph Terle planned to produce the aircraft together as the "Acosterle Wild Cet". The aircraft was test flown for two years, but could not meet certification requirements. In 1931 he planned to fly from New York to Honduras with Captain Lisandro Garay of the Honduran Air Force in a Bellanca CH-300. Acosta disappeared before a fully loaded "test flight" with 360 gallons of gasoline. Instead, Garay departed from Floyd Bennett Field without him, making it as far as Cape Hatteras, NC, where due to a storm he was forced to land at sea. Spanish Civil War In 1936 Acosta was head of the Yankee Squadron in the Spanish Civil War with Eddie August Schneider and Frederic Ives Lord. Time magazine wrote on December 21, 1936: Hilariously celebrating in the ship's bar of the Normandie with their first advance pay checks from Spain's Radical Government, six able U.S. aviators were en route last week for Madrid to join Bert Acosta, pilot of Admiral Byrd's transatlantic flight, in doing battle against Generalísimo Francisco Franco's White planes. Payment for their services: $1,500 a month plus $1,000 for each White plane brought down. Time magazine wrote on January 4, 1937, although the attack was later determined to be propaganda: On Christmas Eve the "Yankee Squadron" of famed U.S. aviators headed by Bert Acosta, pilot of Admiral