A. Roy Knabenshue

Grave Marker inscription:

Roy Knabenshue

1876-1960

America's First Dirigible Pilot

St. Louis, Mo. Oct. 24, 1904

Father of Aerial Transportation

Built First Passenger Dirigible in US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Roy_Knabenshue

Augustus Roy Knabenshue (July 15, 1875 – March 6, 1960) was an American aeronautical engineer and aviator.

Biography

He was born on July 15, 1875 in Lancaster, Ohio, the son of Salome Matlack and Samuel S. Knabenshue. Samuel Knabenshue, an educator and political writer for the Toledo Blade for many years, served as U.S. consul in Belfast, Ireland, from 1905 to 1909 and as consul general in Tianjin, China, from 1909 to 1914.

In 1904, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Roy Knabenshue piloted Thomas Scott Baldwin's California Arrow dirigible to a height of 2,000 feet (610 m) and was able to return to the takeoff point.

He was the first to make a dirigible flight over New York City in 1905.

He performed barnstorming and worked as the general manager of the Wright Exhibition Team. From 1933 to 1944 he worked for the National Park Service and then worked for a Los Angeles, California firm reconditioning used aircraft.

In 1958 he had a stroke. He had a second stroke at his home at a trailer park 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.

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 Company hired him in 1910 to manage the 1910-1911 Wright Exhibition Team

In 1913 he built the first passenger dirigible in America: White City

http://www.earlyaviators.com/eknabens.htm

http://nationalaviation.org/knabenshue-roy/

Obituary published in PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, March 8, 1960, pg. 10, top left

KNABENSHUE, AIR PIONEER, DIES ON COAST

GAVE PITTSBURGH FIRST VIEW OF CRAFT IN AIR IN 1907

Roy Knabenshue, 83, pioneer aviator and one-time business manager of the Wright Brothers, died in Temple City, California, Sunday. Mr. Knabenshue suffered a stroke on February 21 in his trailer home in Temple City, near Los Angeles, He was on of the first baloonists and exhibition aviators, and was the first to fly a motor-controlled balloon, forerunner of the dirigible.

FLEW OVER CITY

In 1904, Mr. Knabenshue flew a "dirigible balloon" at the St. Louis Fair and in 1905 flew over New York in the same ship. Then he began a country-wide exhibition routine. Pittsburghers got their glimpse of the motor-controlled air vehicle in 1907 and 1908 when Mr. Knabenshue appeared in McKeesport. During his career, he designed airplanes for World War 1 and more than 15 dirigibles.

QUIT FLYING in 1934

He was active in aviation for more than 50 years, but gave up flying in 1934 when then President Roosevelt told him he was "too old" to fly. Mr. Knabenshue did not retire from the aviation world until 1949. He was one of the organizing members of the National OX5 Club, composed of pioneer airmen. Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Jane Knabenshue, two sons and two daughters.