Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of a group of actors, to tour the country specializing in plays that would appeal to their rustic audiences; thus n. barnstorming; also used by carnivals.

1881		Daily L.A. Herald 13 Aug. 2/3: To travel with a theatrical company though interior towns is called ‘barnstorming’.
1890		Sporting Times 18 Jan. 1: To this succeeded a trying time of provincial barn-storming with the company travelling ‘on the dresses’.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 31: One night when they were barnstorming in Kansas.
1960		J. Havoc Early Havoc 113: The barnstorming tour didn’t prove to be a gold mine.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 142: Miss Caylor had barnstormed through the United States since her early teens, jumping into stage volcanoes, getting wrecked on desert islands.
1999		Observer Rev. 26 Sept. 9: He could barnstorm as Abraham, Rochester or Fagin, but he was also adept at comedy.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Barnstorming — Operating an attraction from spot to spot with little pre-planning or advance publicity [...] generally be done in the off-season.

2. (US) to make a living as an itinerant flyer who travels the country putting on flying and aerobatic displays; thus barnstorming n. and adj.

1928		L. Gravatt Pioneers of Air 210: He gave exhibitions at county fairs, or barnstormed as the pilots say [OED].
1936		Christian Science Monitor 20 Aug. 3/4: Barnstorm, to fly about from town to town taking passengers up for a small sum [OED].
1946		J.E. Dadswell Hey, Sucker 214: He had a dilapidated old tri-motored Ford airplane. It was a relic of the barnstorming dollar-a-ride days.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Outside the carnival, 'barnstorming' referred to an aviator with his own light, land-it-in-someone's-backyard airplane, going from town to town offering rides for money.