USA

welcome to USA Aviation Portal / bienvenido al Portal de Aviacion de USA

history / historia

With the backing of the city of St. Petersburg, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line commenced operations on January 1, 1914, to become the world's first scheduled commercial airline. Its pilot, Tony Jannus, carried freight and one passenger across the Tampa Bay in a Benoist Type XIV flying-boat. This had been constructed by Thomas Benoist of St. Louis, who was responsible for the operations of the airline. Frequency was two round trips a day. Demand was such that a second, larger, flying-boat had to be acquired, flown by Tony's brother Roger. With the end of the tourist season in April the service was terminated.
Author: C. V. Glines
Source: Aviation History Manazine
St. Petersburg, Florida, is not generally considered a city that can boast of an aviation "first." But on January 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line was born there--the world's first scheduled airline using winged aircraft. A plaque on the entrance to St. Petersburg International Airport proclaims: "The Birthplace of Scheduled Air Transportation."
Traveling in that first passenger airplane made of wood, fabric and wire was a far cry from flying in today's comfortable, air-conditioned airliner. From all accounts, however, those first airline flights were not so bad, provided you did not mind sitting out in the breeze with water spraying in your face. Passengers sat on a wooden seat in the hull of a two-place seaplane that did not have a windshield and rarely flew more than five feet above the water. That is the way it was on that momentous day in sunny Florida only a decade after Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic first flights at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
The aircraft in St. Petersburg was a Benoist (pronounced Ben-wah or Ben-weest) Model 14, built by St. Louis manufacturer Thomas W. Benoist. Best known for the sparking batteries and automobile self-starters he manufactured, Benoist also built 17 different models of landplanes and seaplanes between 1910 and 1917. His aircraft advertisement claimed: "My plane is figured down to the last equation, and improved up to the second. Every nut, bolt, wire, wood member, and piece of cloth is examined, tried and tested before it goes into our machines. Some others may be built as good, but none are built better, because we use the best of everything." An early aviation visionary, he said he often "dreamed of the skies filled with air lanes carrying the world's passenger and freight traffic."
The pilot on that historic January 1914 flight was Antony H. Jannus, a Benoist test pilot and instructor who had carried Captain Albert Berry aloft to make the first parachute jump from an airplane on March 1, 1912. Jannus flew a number of exhibitions demonstrating Benoist planes throughout the Midwest and was a contestant at a Chicago air meet in September 1912. Later that month, he established an American passenger-carrying record by taking three men with him on a 10-minute flight. On November 6, 1912, flying an early model Benoist on a single float, Jannus and J.D. Smith, his mechanic, left Omaha for New Orleans in an attempt to set a distance record for winged aircraft. Although it took six weeks to make the 1,973 mile trip because of stops for exhibitions, a near-disastrous fire, repairs and a bout with appendicitis, Jannus received wide acclaim in the newspapers as "the pioneer flying-boat pilot of the world." Shortly thereafter, he was credited with setting a "continuous flight with passenger" record by flying the 251 miles from Paducah, Ky., to St. Louis in four hours, 15 minutes.
Jannus, who was born in Washington, D.C., in 1889, had been employed by the Emerson Marine Engine Co. in Alexandria, Va. He had been sent to the airfield at College Park, Md., in November 1910 to install a marine engine in a modified Curtiss-type airplane with Farman landing gear, made by Frederick Fox and Rexford Smith, and was instantly obsessed with learning to fly. He began flying after receiving only cursory instructions and was soon making cross-country flights at altitudes up to 300 feet. Jannus flew several times from the Polo Grounds in Washington and made some air-to-ground radio tests for the Signal Corps. In July 1911, he traveled to St. Louis, where he was hired by Benoist as a flying instructor. Roger, his older brother, a graduate of Lehigh University, also was caught up in the excitement of flying. He later joined Tony at the Benoist factory and took lessons from him.
The driving force behind the St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line was Percival Elliot Fansler, a Florida sales representative for Kahlenberg Brothers, a Wisconsin manufacturer of diesel engines for fishing boats. He became fascinated with Benoist's progress in aircraft design and manufacture. He recalled later: "My appetite for speed was whetted by my experiences in racing boats. Having heard that Tony Jannus had made his famous trip down the Mississippi in a flying boat, I started correspondence with Tom [Benoist]. After receiving two or three letters that dealt with the details and capabilities of the boat, the idea popped into my head that instead of monkeying around with the thing to give 'jazz' trips, I would start a real commercial [air]line from somewhere to somewhere else. My experience in Florida led me to conclude that a line could be operated between St. Petersburg and Tampa. The distance was about 23 miles--some 15 of which were along the shore of Tampa Bay, and the remainder over open water. I wrote to Tom about the scheme and he became immediately enthusiastic."
Fansler went to Tampa in late November 1913 but found no one there interested in issuing a contract for an airline franchise. On December 4, he went across Tampa Bay to St. Petersburg, then a city of only about 9,000 people during the winter months. "They thought I had a mighty clever idea," he wrote later, "but they didn't believe there was any such thing as a flying boat. I talked a group of a dozen men into putting up a guarantee of $100 each, and the Board of Trade came in with a like amount."
Fansler immediately wired Benoist to come to St. Petersburg. On December 17, 1913, Benoist signed the world's first airline contract for heavier-than-air planes--10 years to the day after the Wright brothers had first flown successfully at Kitty Hawk. (Delag, a German airline using dirigibles, operated a scheduled route between Freidrichshafen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Potsdam and Dresden from 1910 to 1914 and carried 37,000 passengers without mishap. German historians concede that the schedule was rarely kept.)
The agreement called for a cash subsidy of $2,400 from the city of St. Petersburg, but only if the Benoist company supplied planes and pilots and maintained two scheduled flights daily between St. Petersburg and Tampa, six days a week for three months. Regular service was to begin on January 1, 1914. For each day that the scheduled flights were made on time, the city guaranteed to pay $40 a day through January and $25 a day in February and March.
The day after the contract signing, the St. Petersburg Times reported that "a fleet of hydro-aeroplanes" would make regular trips between St. Petersburg and Tampa, and predicted that the service would "prove to be of great benefit to the city." When queried about the safety of the operation, Fansler said, "there is no more liability of accident in one of the boats than in an automobile, and the airboat will seldom be more than five feet above the water."
Fansler, as general manager of the airline, fixed the price of a one-way ticket at $5 for the 22-minute trip. Passengers were allowed a maximum weight of 200 pounds gross, including hand baggage. "Excess weight [was] charged at $5 per hundred pounds, minimum charge 25 cents," according to the handbills distributed throughout the two cities. Besides operating two scheduled flights per day, six days a week, Fansler recalled that "our agreement with our backers permitted us to indulge in special flights at any price we cared to name, and we made a number of these trips at $10 to $20 each."
Charter flights could be arranged from St. Petersburg to several other Florida sites--Pass-a-Grille, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Bradenton, Sarasota, Palmetto, Safety Harbor and Egmont Key. Advertisements for these flights stated they would cost $15 and "trips covering any distance over water routes [would be made] from the waters' surface to several thousand feet high at passenger request."
Today, a 22-minute flight from St. Petersburg to the famous Cigar City would seem a long time, but the alternatives in 1914 were a 21?2-hour trip by steamship to circumnavigate the bay area, or 12 hours by train. There is no reliable estimate of the time it would have taken by automobile in those days of hand-cranked engines, solid rubber tires and unpaved roads.
In addition to starting the airline, Fansler announced that a training school for pilots would be established. Three Benoist airboats were shipped from the St. Louis factory for both purposes. One was a Model 13; the other two were Model 14s. The Model 13 was to be operated by the school for instruction, and the 14s were to be used for passenger transport. A large, open-ended hangar was planned.
The first of the two Model 14 Benoist airboats, No. 43, arrived by train from Paducah, Ky., and was promptly assembled. It weighed 1,250 pounds, was 26 feet long and had a wingspan of 44 feet. Although the plane was built to hold only a pilot and one passenger on a single seat, sometimes two small passengers could be accommodated. Tony Jannus gave it two test flights on December 30 and 31, 1913, accompanied on one of them by Benoist's chief mechanic, J.D. Smith, and on the other by a local man named J.G. Foley.
Smith, whom Jannus called "Smitty, the Infallible," was especially adept at maintaining the Roberts 6-cylinder, in-line, liquid-cooled, 75-hp engines that Benoist used in his planes. Smith had raced motorcycles as a young man, and when he read about Benoist in 1912, he left his home in Jamestown, Pa., for the St. Louis plant. Benoist found him voluntarily sweeping snow off a plane in subfreezing weather and hired him on the spot.
The hull of the Benoist flying boat was made of three layers of spruce with fabric between each layer. The Roberts engine and a pusher propeller gave the aircraft a top speed of 64 mph. The wings were of linen stretched over spruce spars. It was claimed, though not accurately, that the Benoist was the only plane in the world at the time that had the engine placed down in the hull. The plane was touted for publicity purposes as "a motor boat with wings and an air propeller." It was priced at $4,250.
Although this early Benoist had greater stability than later models, the low placement of the engine proved to be a maintenance headache. The propeller had to be located high enough to avoid the water spray, and the connection between the engine in the hull and the pusher propeller required a chain drive that often slipped off its track. Later Benoist models had one or two 100-hp Roberts direct-drive engines mounted under the top wing.
By New Year's Day of 1914, the continual attention the local paper was giving to the promised inauguration of scheduled flights had built up intense interest in the new venture. After a parade from downtown St. Petersburg to the waterfront, an Italian band from the Johnny Jones Show played at the municipal pier as Jannus readied the airboat for flight. A crowd of 3,000 looked on while a ticket for the first flight round-trip to Tampa on the airline was auctioned off. Former Mayor Abraham C. Pheil won the honor of being the first airline passenger with a bid of $400. The airline donated the money to the city for the purchase of harbor lights.
Fansler made a short speech as the airboat was being placed in the water, "What was impossible yesterday is an accomplishment today, while tomorrow heralds the unbeliev able," he concluded. At 10 a.m. the ex-mayor donned a raincoat, stepped gingerly into the hull and sat on the small wooden seat beside the pilot. Jannus started the two-cycle engine and tested the controls. He waved to the crowd, taxied out and took off into history. Halfway to Tampa, however, the engine began misfiring, and he landed in the bay briefly to adjust it. He took off again and, 23 minutes after the original takeoff, landed at the entrance to the Hillsborough River before an excited crowd of 2,000.
Police held the crowd back as Jannus and Pheil obliged a cameraman who asked them to pose for pictures. A reporter from the Tampa Tribune asked Pheil why his hands were all greasy. He replied that it was from "assisting Mr. Jannus to adjust some machinery." Pheil went to a telephone and called St. Petersburg to announce their arrival.
Jannus and Pheil left Tampa for the return trip at 11 a.m. and arrived back in St. Petersburg before another cheering crowd. Just before the afternoon flight, a second auction was held, with Noel A. Mitchell the successful bidder for a round-trip flight at $175. The next day, Mrs. L.A. Whitney, wife of the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, made the flight to Tampa and back to become the first woman passenger to fly on a fixed-wing scheduled airline. (Actually, Mae Peabody of Dubuque, Iowa, was the first woman to make a local flight out of St. Petersburg.) Whitney described the flight as "the most delightful sensation imaginable--it is like being rocked to sleep in your mother's arms."
The St. Petersburg Times announced that it had signed a contract with the airboat line to fly papers daily to Tampa, which would make it "the first newspaper in the world to use flying machines for delivery purposes." The announcement added, "This will be the most unusual carrier system in all the world and Tampa readers, when they receive their copy... will read a newspaper delivered as no other."
The Tampa Tribune noted that the first flight had been made "without mishap" and gave the event a banner headline in its January 2 edition--"The First Commercial Air Ship Line Inaugurated." The article stated: "When the airboat arrived yesterday morning, a crowd of 2,000 was waiting near the temporary landing [site], another 1,000 saw what they could from the Lafayette Street bridge, and 500 more were across the river. When the dock was reached, an enthusiastic cheer went up, and there was a clapping and the waving of hats and handkerchiefs. A moment later, there was a rush down the three narrow planks connecting the platform with the shore; men, women and children [were] fighting to get down to the boat and its two occupants."
There was amused reaction from other state newspapers. The Jacksonville Metropolis editorialized that "St. Petersburg is now a city of pelicans, porpoises & planes." Its rival, the Jacksonville News, advised: "St. Petersburg papers might secure an obituary sketch of all aeroplane passengers at the same time they take the passenger manifests. It might save time." The Estero Eagle asked, "Is Tampa such a tough and wicked old city that its residents are preparing to fly from it?"
The Tampa Tribune responded to that question a few days later: "All airboat passengers have been from St. Petersburg and are apparently eager to get to Tampa." The St. Petersburg Independent replied: "It is noticeable that the time from Tampa is always faster than the time to Tampa. Once having reached Tampa, no matter how anxious to get there, the passengers are always in a hurry to get away."
Jannus' flight records show that an additional five short flights of about 10 minutes each were made that epic day. He noted that the engine was burning 13 gallons of fuel and about a gallon of lubricating oil per hour of flight.
The airline service had to sort out a few administrative problems. The Tampa Port Inspector required that the airline get a license for all its pilots and planes, so Jannus immediately applied for one, which was issued on February 17, 1914, by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Some historians claim it was the first airline pilot's license in the United States. According to Edward C. Hoffman, president of the Florida Aviation Historical Society, the license they have on hand has the word "steamboat" crossed out and "Aeroplane" typed in. (Another license was granted on August 10, 1914, at Cleveland, Ohio, which states that it is issued for "Operator Motor" and appears to be for operation of motorboats.)

En las afueras de la ciudad de St. Petesburg, la St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line inició operaciones el primero de Enero de 1,914 convirtiendose en la primera aerolinea comercial de itinerario. Su piloto, Tony Jannus, transportaba carga y un pasajero a travez de la Bahía de Tampa en un hidroavión Benoist Tipo XIV. Este fue construido por Thomas Benoist de St. Louis, que fue el responsable por las operaciones de la aerolinea. La frecuencia fue de dos viajes de ida y vuelta diariamente. La demanda obligo a la adquisición de un segundo mas grande hidroavión piloteado por Roger, el hermano de Tony. Con el final de la temporada turistica en Abril, el sevicio finalizó.
Autor: C. V. Glines
Fuente: Aviation History Manazine
St. petesburg, Florida no es generalmente considerada la ciudad que en aviación fue "la primera". Pero en Enero 1, 1914, la Línea de hidroavión St. Petesburg-Tampa nacio como--la primera aerolinea mundial de itinerario utilizando aeronave con alas. Una placa en la entrada del Aeropuerto Internacional de St. Petesburg proclama: "El lugar de nacimiento de la Transportacion Aérea de itinerario".
Viajar en ese primer avión de pasajeros contruido en madera, tela y alambre esta muy lejos de lo que hoy en dia es volar en una confortable y climatizada aerolinea. De cualquier manera, esos primeros vuelos no fueron tan malos, si no toma en cuenta estar sentado al aire libre con agua rociada en su cara. Los pasajeros debian sentarse en un asiento de madera en el fuselaje del hidroavión bi-plaza que no contaba con cortaviento (parabriza) y raramente volaba a mas de 1.5 metros sobre el agua. Este es la forma en que fue en ese memorable soleado dia de Florida solo una decada despues que Orville y Wilburg Wright hicieran su historico primer vuelo en Kitty Haawk, N.C.
La aeronave en St. Petesburg fue un Benoist (pronunciado Ben-wah o Ben-weest) modelo 14, construido por el fabricante de St. Luois Thomas W. Benoist. Mejor conocido por baterias de encendido y arrancadores de automobiles que el construía, Benoist tambien construyó 17 diferentes modelos de aviones e hidroaviones entre 1910 y 1917. La publicidad de este avión decía: "Mi avión esta calculado hasta la ultima ecuación, y mejorado sobre la segunda. Cada tornillo, tuerca, cable, pieza de madera, y pieza de tela es examinada, probada y comprobada antes de incluirse en las maquinas. Algunos otros podrian construir algo mejor, pero nunca seran construidos mejor, porque nosotros usamos lo mejor de todo." Como un temprano visionario de la aviación, el dijo amenudo "sueño con los cielos llenos de aerolineas transportando los pasajeros del mundo y el trafico de carga."
El piloto en ese histórico vuelo de Enero de 1914 fue Antony H. Jannus, piloto de prueba e instructor de Benoist quien transporto al Capitan Albert berry para realizar el primer salto en paracaidas desde un avión en Marzo de 1912. Jannus volo en numerosas exibiciones y demostraciones de aviones Benoist a travez del medio-oeste y fue concursante en la exibición aérea de Chicago en Setiembre de 1912. A final de ese mes, el establecio un record americano en transporte de pasajeros con tres hombres con el, en un vuelo de 10 minutos. En Noviembre 6, 1912, volando en un primer modelo Benoist de un solo flotador, Jannus y J.D. Smith, su mecánico, salen de Omaha para New Orleans en el intento de marcar un record de distancia para una aeronave de alas. A pesar que esto tomo seis semanas para hacer el viaje de 1,973 millas a causa de las paradas de exhibición, un cercano incendio, reparaciones y un caso de apendicitis, Jannus fue recibido y ampliamente aclamado en los diarios como "el piloto de hidroplanos pionero en el mundo." Poco tiempo despues, el fue acreditado por haber puesto en marcha un "vuelo continuo con pasajero", record por volar 251 millas de Paducah, Ky., a St. Louis en cuatro horas, 15 minutos.
Jannus, nació en Washington, D.C., en 1889, estuvo empleado por la Emerson marine Engine Co. en Alexanria, Va. Fue enviado al aeródromo de College Park, Md., en Noviembre de 1910 a instalar un motor marino en un modificado avion typo de Curtiss con tren de aterrizaje Farman, hecho por Frederic Fox y Rexford Smith, y se obsesionó instantaneamente con aprender a volar. Empezo a volar despues de recibir solo instrucción teórica y de inmediato realizo vuelos en zonas despobladas a mas de 300 pies de altura. Jannus volo muchas veces de los Campos de Polo en Washington y realizo algunas pruebas de señales de radio aire-tierra. En Julio 1911, viajo a St. Louis, donde fue contratado por Benoist para volar como instructor. Roger, su hermano mayor, graduado de Lehigh University, tambien fue cautivado por la exitación de volar. El luego se unió a la fábrica Benoist y tomo lecciones de el.
La fueza directriz detraz de St. Petesburg-tampa Airboat Line fue Percival Elliot Fansler, un representante de ventas de Florida para Kahlenberg Brothers, fabricantes de Wisconsin de motores diesel para botes de pesca. El empieza a fascinarse con los progresos de Benoist en el diseño y construcción de aviones. El recalcaria mas tarde: " mi apetito por la velocidad la obtuve de mis experiencias en carrera de botes. Habiendo oido que Tony Jannus ha hecho su famoso viaje a bajo Mississippi en un hidroplano, empece correspondencia con Tom [Benoist]. Despues de recibir dos o tres cartas explicando los detalles y capacidades del bote, la idea surgio dentro de mi cabeza de jugar con la idea alrededor de la posibilidad de hacer viajes de 'jazz', quiero empezar una aerolinea comercial real desde algun lugar a otro. Mi experiencia en Florida me permite concluir que esta linea puede ser operada entre St. Petesburg y Tampa. La distancia es alrededor de 23 millas--unas 15 de ellas a lo largo de la costa de la bahía de Tampa, y el resto sobre mar abierto. Le he escrito a Tom sobre el esquema y el inmediatamente se entusiasmó."
Fansler va a Tampa a fin de Noviembre 1913 pero no encontro nadie interesado en hacer un contrato por franquicia de una aerolinea. En Diciembre 4, cruza la Bahía de Tampa a St. Petesburg, entonces una ciudad con solo alrrededor de 9,000 personas durante los meses de invierno. " Ellos piensan que tengo una muy buena e ingeniosa idea," el escribio despues, "pero ellos no creen que pueda existir una cosa como un bote volador. He hablado a grupos de docenas de personas convenciendolos de dar una garantia de $ 100 a cada uno, y la mesa de negociacion retorno en cantidad similar."
Fansler inmediatamente telegrafió a Benoist que viniera a St. Petesburg. En Diciembre 17, 1913, Benoist firmó el contrato mundial de la primera aerolinea por aviones mas pesados que el aire--10 años del dia despues que los hermanos Wrighthicieron su primer vuelo exitoso en Kitty Hawk. (Delag, una aerolinea alemana usando dirigible, operando ruta de itinerario entre Freidrichshafen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzing, Potsdam and Dresden de 1910 a 1914 y transporto 37,000 pasajeros sin contratiempo. Historiadores alemanes coinciden que este itinerario raramente se mantenia.)
El Acuerdo requirio subsidio de dinero de $ 2,400 de la ciudad de St. Petesburg, pero solo si la compañía de Benoist proporcionaba aviones y pilotos y mantenia dos vuelos diarios de itinerario entre St. Petesburg y Tampa, seis dias a la semana por tres meses. El servicio regular debía empezar en Enero 1, 1914. Por cada dia que los vuelos de itinerario se mantuvieran a tiempo, la ciudad garantizaba el pago de $ 40 por dia durante Enero, y $ 25 al dia en Febrero y Marzo.
El dia despues de firmado el contrato, el St. Petesburg Times reportaba que "la flota de hidroplanos" harian viajes regulares entre St. Petesburg y Tampa, y predecia que el servicio "provaria ser de gran beneficio para la ciudad." Cuando le preguntaban sobre la seguridad de la operacion, Fansler dijo, "esta no es mas responsable de accidente en uno de los botes que en un automovil, y el hidroplano rara vez va a estar a mas de cinco pies sobre el agua."
Fansler, como gerente general de la aerolínea, fijó el precio del boleto de ida a $ 5 por el viaje de 22 minutos. Pasajeros permitidos con un peso máximo de 200 libras, incluído equipaje de mano. "Exceso de peso sera cargado a $ 5 por 100 libras, cargo mínimo $ 0.25," de acuerdo con los volantes distribuidos a travez de las dos ciudades. Además de operar dos vuelos de itinerario por dia, seis dias a la semana, fansler recalco que "nuestro acuerdo con nuestros patrocinadores nois permiten realizar vuelos especiales a cualquier precio que podamos fijar, y podemos fijar esos viajes de $10 a $20 cada uno."
Vuelos fletados pueden arreglarse desde St. Petesburg a varia otros lugares de Florida--Pass-a-Grille, Clearwater, tarpon Springs, Bradenton, Sarasota, Palmetto, Safety harbor and Egmont Key. Anuncios por esos vuelos establecen ellos pueden costar $15 y "viajes cubren cualquier distancia sobre rutas acuáticas [esperamos hacerlo] desde la superficie del agua a varios cientos de pies de altura como el pasajero requiera."
Hoy, a 22 minutos de vuelo de St. petesburg a la famosa Cigar City puede parecer largo tiempo, pero la alternativa en 1914 era 21-22 horas de viaje por bote a vapor circunnavegando el área de la bahia, o 12 horas en tren. Este no es un estimado confiable del tiempo que podia tomarse en automovil en esos dias de encendido manual de motores, ruedas de caucho sólido y caminos no pavimentados.
Adicionalmente a la puesta en marcha de la aerolínea, Fansler anuncio el futuro establecimiento de una escuela de pilotos. Tres hidroplanos Benoist fueron embarcados desde St. Louis para ambos propósitos. Uno fue el modelo 13; los otros dos fueron modelos 14. El modelo 13 seria operado para la escuela de instrucción, y los 14 serian usadospra transporte de pasajeros. Un gran, flexible hangar seria planeado.
El primero de los dos modelos 14 de hidroplano Benoist, No. 43, llego por tren desde Paducak, Ky. y fue rapidamente ensamblado. Pasaba 1,250 libras, tenia 26 pies de largo y una envergadura de alas de 44 pies. A pesar que el avion fue construido para sostener solo un piloto y un pasajero en un solo asiento, algunas veces dos pequeños pasajeros podian acomodarse. Tony Jannus hizo dos vuelos de prueba en Diciembre 30 y 31, 1913 acompañado en uno de ellos por el jefe de mecanicos de Benoist, J.D. Smith, y en el otro por una persona local de nombre J.G. Foley.
Smith, a quien Jannus llamaba "Smytty, el infalible," era especialmente adepto a mantener el Roberts 6-cilindros, en linea, enfriado por liquido, motores de 75 hp que benoistusaba en sus aviones. Smith habia corrido motocicletas cuando era joven, cuando el leyó acerca de Benoist en 1912, cambio su casa en Jamestown, Pa., por la planta de St. Louis. Benoist lo encontro barriendo nieve de un avion voluntariamente en clima helado y lo contrato en ese mismo lugar.
El fuselaje del hidroplano benoist fue hecho de tres capas de madera con tela entre cada capa. El motor Roberts y la hélice de propulsión permitian a la aeronave un maximo de velocidad de 64 mph. Las alas eran de lino estirado sobre travezaños de madera. El sostenia, no obstante no con exactitud, que el Benoist era el unico avión en el mundo en ese momento que tenia el motor ubicado dentro del fuselaje. El avión fue elogiado para propositos de publicidad como "un bote a motor con alas y propulsor de aire." Su precio fue de $ 4,250.00.

Thank's. You are our visitor since February 14, 2004

Copyright© 2002-2005. All rights reserved by AVISUPSER- Aviation Support & Services. Please, see our Privacy and Terms & Conditions to Use policy. Web site designed by DGR Solutions Webmaster