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40-673: Jannus was born in Washington, D.C., where his father Frankland Jannus was a patent attorney and his great-grandfather, Roger C. Weightman , had previously been mayor from 1824 until 1827. By 1910, the 21-year-old was employed as a boat engine mechanic. He became interested in flying when he saw an airshow in Baltimore, Maryland , in November, 1910, and began flight training that year at College Park Airport in Maryland. In 1911, Jannus

80-522: A New York Times -sponsored air exhibition. He flew actress Julia Bruns in a Baldwin Red Devil 4,000 ft above Staten Island for twenty minutes on October 12, 1913. The next day, he flew in an air race over Manhattan, the Times reporting that "The graceful Benoist biplane sailed along on an even keel...driven by the famous Tony Jannus". Jannus described flying as, "...poetry of mechanical motion,

120-627: A Curtiss H-7 he was using to train Russian pilots, had engine problems and crashed into the Black Sea , killing Jannus and his two-man Russian crew. His body was never recovered. The Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society founded in 1963, perpetuates the memory of Jannus as the first commercial airline pilot, by annually conferring the Tony Jannus Award for outstanding achievement in scheduled air transportation. Past recipients of

160-573: A 75th anniversary re-enactment of Jannus' flight, on January 1, 1989. It is now exhibited at the St. Petersburg Museum of History at the St. Petersburg Pier, approximately 100 yards (91 m) from the site of the inaugural flight. On January 29, 2011, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics dedicated an historic site plaque on the museum's grounds, commemorating the site of the world’s first regularly scheduled airline. The birth of

200-508: A fascinating sensation of speed, an abstraction from things material into an infinite space." On 15 October, Jannus crashed on take off while setting off to search for Albert Jewell , an aviator who had disappeared over off southern Long Island while flying to join the race on 13 October; Jannus was unhurt in the crash, though the airplane was written off. The following month, Jannus moved to St. Petersburg, Florida Prior to 1914, travel from Tampa, Florida , to St. Petersburg , located on

240-433: A narrow margin, but had then pressed the matter in court in a legal battle that lasted until the end of Carbery's term. In 1824, Weightman won more decisively by use of blustery promises and insults against his opponent. One handbill from the era reads, NOTICE EXTRAORDINARY. R.C. Weightman, a man of known liberal principles; all those who vote for this gentleman at tomorrow's election, will have general permission to sleep on

280-597: A scheduled air service between the Florida cities of St Petersburg and Tampa . Their newly formed company, the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line purchased the Lark of Duluth and another Benoist XIV to inaugurate operations. The first scheduled flight between the two cities departed shortly before 10:00 a.m. on January 1, 1914 , piloted by Tony Jannus and carried former St Petersburg mayor Abram C. Pheil as its passenger for

320-493: A test pilot for Curtiss Aeroplane Company . In July, 1915, Jannus successfully flew the prototype Curtiss JN-3 , forerunner of the JN-4 "Jenny" of World War I fame. On October 1, 1915, he was sent by Glenn Curtiss to Russia as the company's test pilot and trainer of Russian pilots flying Curtiss airplanes in combat during World War I. Jannus died on October 12, 1916, near Sevastopol (then part of Czarist Russia ) when his plane,

360-447: A then-isolated peninsula, required a slow steamboat trip across Tampa Bay or a circuitous, five-hour journey by railroad. A bumpy automobile or horse and buggy ride took many hours over primitive, unpaved roads. The airplane at the time was a rare novelty, lacking any practical application. Impressed by the record-setting overwater flight made by Jannus in 1912, Florida businessman Percival Fansler approached some St. Petersburg businessmen

400-704: The British troops descending on the White House during the Siege of Washington, a battle in the War of 1812, and was made to march with them to the Executive Mansion. Rear Admiral George Cockburn made Weightmann accompany the invaders into the mansion where the admiral teased him with mischievous relish. When Cockburn told him to select a memento of the visit, Weightman chose an item of value, only to be told by

440-758: The C&;O Canal . From 1827 to 1837 he served as a Justice of the Peace. He continued to serve in the Militia of the District of Columbia, rising to the level of Major General. During the Civil War he helped organize Union Troops, pitting him on the opposite side in the war as his oldest son. In addition to his busy social and professional life, Weightman was a noted and generous philanthropist — generous enough that his sizable fortune had dwindled to very little by

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480-454: The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line . The aircraft was a conventional biplane with equal-span unstaggered wings with small pontoons at their tips. The engine was mounted on a pedestal aft of the cockpit and drove a two-blade pusher propeller . Accommodation for the pilot and single passenger was side by side in an open cockpit. The first example, given Benoist construction number 43 and named Lark of Duluth , carried joyriders over

520-563: The White House , from about 1813 onward. He was a successful businessman, running a book store and owning several buildings, including ones used by the city for offices until City Hall was built. Wieghtman served in the Army during the War of 1812 and fought at the Battle of Bladensburg . In August 1814, Weightman (by now a First Lieutenant in D.C.'s Light Horse Cavalry ) was apprehended by

560-490: The 1870s, when Weightman was living on his pension as a soldier and employee of the Patent Office. However, upon his death on February 2, 1876, his funeral was one of the best attended and most remembered of the era. In 1814, he married Louissa Serena Hanson and together they had ten children, including Richard Hanson Weightman who would serve as New Mexico territory's delegate to Congress from 1851–53, and then die in

600-419: The 22-mile (35 km), 23-minute flight. Regular tickets were priced at $ 5.00 (equivalent to $ 152.09 in 2023), but Pheil had paid $ 400.00 ($ 12,000 in 2023) at auction for the ticket for the first crossing. Over the next three months of the airline's short lifetime, the Lark of Duluth and her near-sister Florida (construction number 45) carried 1,205 passengers over Tampa Bay . At the end of March, however,

640-523: The Benches in the Market House, this intense warm weather. May the curse of Dr. Slop light on all those who vote for Tom Carberry. While mayor, Weightman headed the 1825 committee for the inauguration of John Quincy Adams , then the following year chaired the national memorial committee for the president's deceased father and his successor Thomas Jefferson . In 1827, Weightman became cashier of

680-587: The Civil War as a Colonel in the Confederate Army. Louissa died around 1839. A school built at 23rd and M, NW in 1887 was named the Weightman School in his honor. It later became the Roger C. Weightman School for Crippled Children and still later Roger C. Weightman Elementary School. It was razed sometime after 1938. Benoist XIV The Benoist XIV , also called The Lark of Duluth ,

720-489: The Declaration of Independence. The letter says: The kind invitation I receive from you on the part of the citizens of the city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration of the 50th anniversary of American independence, as one of the surviving signers of an instrument pregnant with our own, and the fate of the world, is most flattering to myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniment proposed for

760-596: The Washington Bank, and resigned his position as mayor. He would run again, unsuccessfully, against Walter Lenox in 1850. The last letter that Thomas Jefferson , the third president of the United States and the writer of the Declaration of Independence , ever wrote was sent to Roger C. Weightman. It was a letter declining an invitation to join a celebration for the 50th anniversary of the signing of

800-602: The admiral that everything of value would be destroyed and that he must instead select a worthless souvenir. Weightman choose a souvenir (albeit one of no monetary value) to remember the day the American capital was defeated. After serving seven one-year terms as an alderman on Washington's city council, the council elected Weightman in 1824 to serve the remainder of the late mayor Samuel N. Smallwood 's term. In 1826 he ran against former mayor Thomas Carbery ; four years prior, Weightman had run against Carbery for mayor and lost by

840-591: The airboat's arrival in Tampa, the Tampa Tribune reported, "a crowd of two thousand was waiting...Messrs. Jannus and Pheil bowed and smiled". Thereafter, flights departed St. Petersburg daily except Sundays at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.. Return flights left Tampa at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Following the end of the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line's scheduled service between the two Florida cities on March 31, 1914, Jannus left St. Petersburg and quit flying for Benoist, becoming

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880-469: The aviation industry. Jannus was designated a "Great Floridian" by the State of Florida in 2010. The St. Petersburg concert venue Jannus Landing (now known as Jannus Live) is named for him. Roger C. Weightman Roger Chew Weightman (June 15, 1787 – February 2, 1876) was an American politician, civic leader, and printer. He was the eighth mayor of Washington, D.C. from 1824 to 1827. Weightman

920-509: The award have been influential in aviation. These include Eddie Rickenbacker , Donald Douglas , Jimmy Doolittle , C. R. Smith (the founder of American Airlines ), William A. Patterson (president of United Airlines 1934–1966), and Chuck Yeager . Those so honored are enshrined at the St. Petersburg Museum of History's Tony Jannus exhibit. An operational replica of the Benoist Model XIV airplane flew across Tampa Bay in

960-466: The bold and doubtful election we were to make, for our country, between submission, or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact that our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the world what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the Signal of arousing men to burst

1000-411: The chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self government. That form which we have substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view

1040-462: The civic activity of the District. During the 1820s, Weightman was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences , who counted among their members former presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams and many prominent men of the day, including well-known representatives of the military, government service, medical and other professions. In

1080-452: The comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a personal participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence is a duty, under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted to controul. I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there, congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us, on that day, in

1120-771: The commercial air transportation industry is also commemorated by another replica of the Benoist airplane at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport 's baggage claim area in the terminal and a Tony Jannus Award exhibit at Tampa International Airport . On December 17, 2006, Jannus was posthumously inducted into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine at the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina , joining other honorees such as Wilbur and Orville Wright , Charles Lindbergh , Amelia Earhart , and Chuck Yeager, who have shaped

1160-495: The downtown St. Petersburg Municipal Pier on Second Avenue North, Jannus piloted the twenty-three-minute inaugural flight of the pioneer airline's Benoist XIV flying boat biplane. A crowd of 3,000 gathered at the pier to watch the history-making takeoff at 10 a.m. and were told by Fansler that "What was impossible yesterday is an accomplishment today, while tomorrow heralds the unbelieveable" [ sic ]. Abram C. Pheil, former mayor of St. Petersburg, won an auction for

1200-628: The first parachute jump from a moving airplane near St. Louis. Later that year, Jannus set a 1,900-mile (3,058 km) overwater flight record following the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers from Omaha, Nebraska, to New Orleans in a Benoist Land Tractor Type XII mounted with floats. During the Great Lakes Reliability Cruise in 1913, Thomas W. Benoist entered three aircraft flown by Antony Jannus , Hugh Robinson , and Benoist himself. Also in 1913, Jannus participated in

1240-492: The first ticket with a winning bid of $ 400 and was a passenger on the inaugural flight . It was the first time a ticket was sold to the general public for point-to-point scheduled air travel. The Benoist reportedly reached a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour (121 km/h) during the flight, according to a United Press account. Other reports indicate that Jannus flew over the Bay at an altitude of less than 50 feet (15 m). Upon

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1280-614: The harbour at Duluth, Minnesota through the Summer of 1913, but the endeavor was not a commercial success. The aircraft was wrecked once by Hugh Roberts, designer of the engine that powered the aircraft prior to competing in the Great Lakes Reliability Tour. The repairs and paint job left the aircraft with the partial name, "of Du". Later that year, Percival Fansler , a business associate of designer Thomas W. Benoist , convinced Benoist to join him in establishing

1320-403: The next year with a proposal to use Benoist flying boats for "a real commercial line" over open water between the two cities. Convinced by Fansler's plan, several St. Petersburg community leaders, led by L. A. Whitney of the local chamber of commerce and Noel Mitchell, agreed to provide financial support for the creation of an airline service to connect the two cities. A 90-day contract with Benoist

1360-405: The palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born, with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them ... Weightman was always heavily involved in

1400-408: The trip to and from Tampa will be one of the most beautiful in the country. Skimming a few feet above the surface of the water... with the purr of a 75 h.p. engine and the whirring of a propeller turning several hundred times a minute, the rush of the cool salt air and the shimmering sunlight on Tampa Bay — no trip could be more enjoyable.". Departing from a location on January 1, 1914, near

1440-799: The years following his mayoralty, Weightman would be curator of the Columbia Institute ; a founding member and officer of the Washington National Monument Society ; Grand Master of the Freemasons of the District of Columbia; chief clerk, and later librarian, of the United States Patent Office ; and the center of Washington's social activity. He managed the Washington Turnpike and led the citizen's committee for building

1480-491: Was a small biplane flying boat built in the United States in 1913 in the hope of using it to carry paying passengers. The two examples built were used to provide the first heavier-than-air airline service anywhere in the world, and the first airline service of any kind at all in the United States. The first fixed-wing scheduled airline was started on January 1, 1914. The flight was piloted by Tony Jannus and flew from St. Petersburg, Florida , to Tampa, Florida , operated by

1520-463: Was born in Alexandria, Virginia , in 1787, moving into the new capital in 1800 and taking an apprenticeship with a local printer. His father Richard Weightman was an emigrant from Whitehaven, England. Chew was his mother's maiden name. Weightman bought the printing business in 1807, making him a congressional printer. He maintained a number of shops on Pennsylvania Avenue , about ten blocks from

1560-456: Was signed on December 17, 1913 (the 10th anniversary of Wilbur and Orville Wright 's historic first airplane flight), to provide airplanes and crew for two daily round trips across Tampa Bay, dubbed the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line — the world's first scheduled airline. Fansler told the St. Petersburg Times : "The St. Petersburg waterfront is an ideal place for starting and landing as

1600-528: Was the first pilot to fly the Lord Baltimore II , an amphibious airplane built in Baltimore, from the city's Curtis Bay . His older brother, Roger Weightman Jannus (1886-1918), also learned to fly and both brothers became test pilots for airplane builder Thomas W. Benoist in St. Louis, Missouri , in late 1911. On March 1, 1912, Tony Jannus piloted a Benoist biplane when Albert Berry made

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