Augustus Roy Knabenshue
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| Augustus Roy Knabenshue | |
 From left to right are: Frank Coffyn; Roy Knabenshue; and Walter Brookins in Atlantic City in 1910
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| Born | July 15, 1875 |
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| Died | March 6, 1960 (aged 84) Temple City, California |
| Cause of death | Stroke |
| Resting place | Portal of the Folded Wings |
Augustus Roy Knabenshue (July 15, 1875 – March 6, 1960) was an American aeronautical engineer and aviator.
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[edit] Birth and career
Augustus Roy Knabenshue was born on July 15, 1875 in Lancaster, Ohio.[1] He used the name A. Roy Knabenshue. He was the first to make a dirigible flight over New York in 1905, one year after his original lighter-than-air powered flight at the St. Louis Exposition. After several years of barnstorming and working as the general manager for the Wright Brothers, he went west and built a 13-passenger airship in Pasadena, California for passenger flights. From 1933 to 1944 he worked for the National Park Service and then worked for a Los Angeles, California firm reconditioning used aircraft.
[edit] Death and funeral
In 1958 he had a stroke, and then had a second stroke at his trailer park home in Arcadia, California on February 21, 1960. He died on March 6, 1960 at the Evergreen Sanitarium in Temple City, California. Interment and services were held March 9, 1960 at the Portal of the Folded Wings in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California. Twelve pioneer aviators. Present were Matilde Moisant, Edmond Bates, Tom Hamilton, Charles Willard, George Prudden, Warren Eaton, P. H. Spencer, Ralph Carter, Tiny Broadwick, Horace Keene, George Barnhart and Ivan P. Wheaton. The widow of Walter Brookins attended. A fund was created to help the widow and two surviving children.
[edit] Legacy
- One of the first in America to pilot a steerable balloon
- In 1904 he piloted the first successful dirigible in America at the St. Louis World’s Fair
- The Wright brothers hired him in 1910 to manage the Wright Exhibition Team
- In 1913 he built the first passenger dirigible in America: White City
[edit] External links
- Knabenshue bibliography
- Early Aviators
- NAHF: Knabenshue
- NASM: Knabenshue
- Centennial of Flight: Knabenshue
[edit] References
- ^ World War I draft registration
[edit] Further reading
- New York Times; August 21, 1905; Knabenshue's Airship Sails Over The City; From Central Park To The Times Building And Back. Steered With Perfect Ease Aeronaut Up 1,000 Feet In The Air Traveled More Than Two Miles. Thousands Watch Him. Knabenshue's Airship Sails Over The City. New York had its first view yesterday of a real airship or dirigible balloon. The former designation is for the benefit of those who believe that aerial flight will be the principal means of rapid transit in the near future. The second term, however, best suits A. Roy Knabenshue of Toledo, Ohio, the inventor, constructor, and navigator of the machine in which he sailed from Central Park south over the city yesterday afternoon.
- New York Times; January 2, 1911; Hoxsey's Winnings For His Mother; The Wrights Will Also Pay Her a Substantial Sum and Meet the Funeral Expenses. Los Angeles, January 1, 1910. Hoxsey's body was removed to Pasadena today, where it will lie in a mortuary chapel until Roy Knabenshue of the Wrights' team completes plans for the funeral. All funeral expenses will be borne by the Wright brothers, and a comfortable sum will be presented to Mrs. Hoxsey, his mother.
- Knabenshue World War I draft registration
- New York Times; October 28, 1944; 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 ...
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