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xoxoxoBruce Saturday Sep 30 11:40 PM Oct 1st, 2017: Calbraith Perry Rodgers
Rogers made the first US transcontinental flight from Sheepshead Bay NY to long Beach CA.
His father, an Army Captain, died before he was born, his grandfather Commodore John Rodgers, great-grandfather Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry, and great-great uncle Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry.
He couldn't join the military because he was deaf in one ear and half deaf in the other from scarlet fever.
He played with boats, cars and motorcycles then discovered airplanes.
Quote:
In June 1911, Rodgers visited his cousin John, a naval aviator, who since March was studying at the Wright Company factory and attending flying school in Dayton, Ohio. Rodgers became interested in aviation. He received 90 minutes of flying lessons from Orville Wright, and purchased a Wright Flyer with John. On August 7, 1911, he took his official flying examination at Huffman Prairie and became the 49th aviator licensed to fly by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. He was one of the first civilians to purchase an airplane.
Instead of flying home, Rodgers entered the 1911 Chicago International Aviation Meet where he competed with the leading aviators of the time. He set several records including the duration record and won $11,285 in prize money.
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That $11,285 is $281,224 in 2017,
Quote:
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On October 10, 1910, publisher William Randolph Hearst offered the Hearst prize, US$50,000 to the first aviator to fly coast to coast, in either direction, in less than 30 days from start to finish. Rodgers persuaded J. Ogden Armour, of Armour and Company, to sponsor the flight, and in return he named the plane, a Wright Model EX after Armour's grape soft drink Vin Fiz. A special train of three cars including sleeper, diner, and shop-on-wheels full of spare parts was assembled to follow Rodgers who planned to fly above the railroad tracks.
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Hurst's $50,000 is $1,246,009 in 2017.
He died a year later… you knew it had to be a plane crash, didn't you.
link
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