Biography

Pioneer American aviator who probably garnered the most fame for his famous night flight at the San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exhibition in 1915.

He and his wife to be, teenage Aimee Cour, eloped by airplane on October 26, 1912. The plane malfunctioned twice, however, and the second time it crashed, nearly killing them both. It is said that that was the first elopement by airplane in history.

Is commemorated in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a memorial, erected shortly after his death, designed by James Novelli. Smith Field, Fort Wayne's first airport, was also named for him. A replica of one of his first planes hangs in Fort Wayne International Airport.

In the 1920s, he served as a mail carrier. It was on one such flight in 1926 that he ran into a thick patch of fog and crashed. Apparently he had mistaken the lights of a farm house for those of a landing strip when he realized he was mistaken, it was too late. He swerved and hit a patch of trees.

Replaced Lincoln Beachey as aeronautics headliner at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, following an accident that caused Beachey's death. (1915).