Thomas Scott Baldwin | |
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| Born | June 30, 1854 |
| Died | May 17, 1923 (aged 68) |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, Virginia |
| Occupation | Balloonist |
| Spouse | Cary Poole |
| Parent(s) | Jane and Samuel Yates Baldwin |
Thomas Scott Baldwin (June 30, 1854 – May 17, 1923) was a pioneer balloonist and U.S. Army major during World War I. [1] He was the first American to descend from a balloon by parachute.
Thomas Scott Baldwin was born on June 30, 1854, to Jane and Samuel Yates Baldwin. [2] He worked as a brakeman on the Illinois railroad, then joined a circus working as an acrobat. In 1875, he started an act combining trapeze and a hot air balloon. [3]
On January 30, 1887, he made one of the earliest recorded parachute jumps from a balloon. [4] Baldwin repeated the feat on multiple occasions as a paid entertainer, netting $1500 from one dangerous jump over the water from 600 feet at Rockaway Beach in August 1887 marred by parachute difficulties. [5]
In 1900, Baldwin created a small pedal-motorized powered airship. It never served as anything more than a curiosity. In 1902-1903 he supervised the construction of California Eagle, based on the ideas of August Greth and financed by the American Aerial Navigation Company of San Francisco. It utilized a De Dion-Bouton engine and paddle propeller based on marine technology so prevalent in airship design in the period. After collaborating with Greth and John J. Montgomery in 1903–1904, Baldwin acquired sufficient knowledge to begin his own independent airship project. [6]
In June and July 1904, Baldwin built an aerodynamic cigar-shaped hydrogen-filled dirigible California Arrow , using a 7 hp (5.2 kW)Hercules motorcycle engine manufactured by Glenn H. Curtiss. California Arrow made the first controlled circular flight in America on August 3, 1904, at Idora Park in Oakland, California. In October and November, 1904, the aircraft was piloted by Roy Knabenshue at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Expositionin St. Louis, Missouri. [7] [8]
In August 1908, after several test flights at Fort Myer, Virginia, the Army Signal Corps paid Baldwin US$10,000 for a dirigible that could be used for sustained and controlled navigation. Baldwin created a dirigible that was 95 feet (29 m) long and powered by a new, more powerful Curtiss engine. The Army bought it and designated it Signal Corps Dirigible No. 1. Baldwin picked up the sobriquet, "Father of the American Dirigible". He received the Aero Club of America's first balloon pilot certificate.[ citation needed ]
In 1910 Baldwin designed his own airplane, and it was built by Glenn Hammond Curtiss. It used a 25 horsepower (19 kW), four-cylinder Curtiss engine that was later replaced by a Curtiss V-8 engine.
On September 10, 1910, Baldwin made history with the first airplane flight over the Mississippi River. The St. Louis flight started just east of Bellefontaine Cemetery. Baldwin and his Red Devil plane took off at 5:11 p.m. 200,000 citizens lined the riverfront on both sides to watch the red biplane fly from the north St. Louis field and land in Illinois across the river from Arsenal Street. On the return flight, the aviator astounded the crowds by flying under both the Eads and McKinley bridges at fifty miles per hour (80.5 km/h). Baldwin landed at 6:05 back at his starting place.
Baldwin flew it at an air meet in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 7, 1910. He spoke to State University of Iowa engineering students on October 11, 1910 [9] and flew demonstrations at the Iowa City, Iowa fairgrounds on October 12–13, 1910. The flight on October 12 was unsuccessful. On October 13, he flew two flights, one of which was photographed by Julius Robert Hecker. [10] On the second flight he did not gain sufficient altitude and the plane was damaged on a barn but he was uninjured. [11] He then took his airplane to Belmont, New York. He put together a company of aerial performers including J.C. "Bud" Mars and Tod Shriver in December 1910 and toured countries in Asia, making the first airplane flights in many of those locations. The troupe returned to the United States in the spring of 1911.
Baldwin met Cecil Peoli at a model aircraft competition and offered to teach him to fly. At seventeen, flying a Baldwin-designed biplane, Peoli qualified at the Mineola, Long Island airfield on June 22, 1912, becoming the youngest person to gain a pilot's license. [12] [13] Baldwin sponsored Peoli flying a Red Devil on the U.S.-Canada exhibition circuit in 1912 and 1913. [14]
In 1914 he returned to dirigible design and development, and built the U.S. Navy's first successful dirigible, the DN-I. He began training airplane pilots and managed the Curtiss School at Newport News, Virginia. One of his students was Billy Mitchell, who would later become an advocate of American military air power.
When the United States entered the World War I, Baldwin volunteered his services to the United States Army. He was commissioned a captain in the Aviation Section, U. S. Signal Corps and appointed Chief of Army Balloon Inspection and Production. Consequently, he personally inspected every lighter-than-air craft built for and used by the Army during the war. He was promoted to the rank of major during the war.
After the war, he joined the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, as a designer and manufacturer of their airships.
T.S. Baldwin died on May 17, 1923, in Buffalo, New York, at the age of 68. [15] [16] [17] He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. [18]
Baldwin was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1964. [2]
Thomas Etholen Selfridge was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in an airplane crash. He was also the first active-duty member of the U.S. military to die in a crash while on duty. He was killed while seated as a passenger in a Wright Flyer, on a demonstration flight piloted by Orville Wright.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1910:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1912:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1907:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1904:
This is a list of aviation-related events during the 19th century :
The Aero Club of America was a social club formed in 1905 by Charles Jasper Glidden and Augustus Post, among others, to promote aviation in America. It was the parent organization of numerous state chapters, the first being the Aero Club of New England. It thrived until 1923, when it transformed into the National Aeronautic Association, which still exists today. It issued the first pilot's licenses in the United States, and successful completion of its licensing process was required by the United States Army for its pilots until 1914. It sponsored numerous air shows and contests. Cortlandt Field Bishop was president in 1910. Starting in 1911, new president Robert J. Collier began presenting the Collier Trophy.
The Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps (1907–1914) was the first heavier-than-air military aviation organization in history and the progenitor of the United States Air Force. A component of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the Aeronautical Division procured the first powered military aircraft in 1909, created schools to train its aviators, and initiated a rating system for pilot qualifications. It organized and deployed the first permanent American aviation unit, the 1st Aero Squadron, in 1913. The Aeronautical Division trained 51 officers and 2 enlisted men as pilots, and incurred 13 fatalities in air crashes. During this period, the Aeronautical Division had 29 factory-built aircraft in its inventory, built a 30th from spare parts, and leased a civilian airplane for a short period in 1911.
Augustus Roy Knabenshue was an American aeronautical engineer and aviator.
Major Harold Geiger was an American military officer and pioneer U.S. Army aviator, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1927. He was U.S. military aviator number 6. He was also a balloonist. Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory.
The Los Angeles International Air Meet was among the earliest airshows in the world and the first major airshow in the United States. It was held in Los Angeles County, California, at Dominguez Field, southwest of the Dominguez Rancho Adobe in present-day Rancho Dominguez, California. Spectator turnout numbered approximately 254,000 over 11 days of ticket sales. The Los Angeles Times called it "one of the greatest public events in the history of the West."
Cromwell Dixon was a teenage dirigible pilot and aviator. He became the first person to fly an airplane across the Continental Divide in September 1911 when he flew fifteen miles over Mullan Pass.
Cecil Malcolm Peoli was an American aviator. He was, at the time of his death, the youngest professional aviator in the world.
Signal Corps Dirigible No. 1 was the first powered aircraft ordered for the Signal Corps by the Aeronautical Division of the United States Army. The purchase of SC-1, a dirigible designed by Thomas Scott Baldwin, was the result of urgings by Chief Signal Officer Brigadier General James Allen. After seeing Baldwin demonstrate a dirigible at the St. Louis air meet in 1907, Allen had urged the U.S. Army to buy a dirigible, as many European armies had dirigibles by the turn of the century.
James Cairn Mars, also known Bud Mars and the Curtiss Daredevil, was an aviation pioneer. He was the eleventh pilot licensed in the United States. As a balloonist, he was a student of Thomas Scott Baldwin, and as an airplane pilot, of Glenn Curtiss.
Arthur John Hartman was an American pilot and early aircraft builder.
Charles Keeney Hamilton was an American pioneer aviator nicknamed the "crazy man of the air". He was, in the words of the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, "known for his dangerous dives, spectacular crashes, extensive reconstructive surgeries, and ever present cigarette" and was "frequently drunk". He survived more than 60 crashes.
Albert C. Triaca was an Italian balloonist, pioneer aviator, and businessman.
Aviation Act of 1917 was a United States military appropriations bill authorizing a temporary increase for the United States Army Signal Corps. The Act of Congress authorized provisions for airship or dirigible operations governed by the U.S. Army Signal Corps Aeronautical Division. The legislation provided United States President Woodrow Wilson emergency authority for the maintenance, manufacture, operation, purchase, and repair of airships and associated aerial machines.
Forty years ago this week the first successful flight of a dirigible airship in this country was made. A. Roy Knabenshue took off from the aeronautic concourse of the St. Louis World's Fair grounds in Capt. Thomas Scott Baldwin's "California Arrow," and a ...
Major Thomas Scott Baldwin, 69, pioneer in aviation and the inventor of the parachute.
Thomas Scott Baldwin of Quincy, one of the pioneer flyers and in this country, died in the ... Hospital here ...
Next in the air but on a bed of sickness Major Thomas Scott Baldwin died in Buffalo at the age of 69. Long associated with aeronautics, " Cap " Baldwin was the originator of the parachute and was the first man to dare descend in one—in San Francisco in 1885. For many years he flew and manufactured balloons, dirigibles and planes. In 1893 he operated at the World's Fair in Chicago the first balloons owned by the United States Army. During the war he was Chief of the Army Balloon Inspection Service.
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