Hugh Robinson, Pioneer Aviator Hardcover - 1995

From the publisher

"Vergara's careful documentation of Robinson's close relationship with Glenn Curtiss and his pivotal role in the history of aviation gives us a fresh new perspective on the 'early birds' who created that 'wonderful era of discovery, daring, and innovation."--Arva Moore Parks, Historian

"An opportunity to discover how it all began. . . . Hugh Robinson's story helps to put the history of flight into the proper perspective."--Lindsley A. Dunn, curator, Glenn H. Curtiss Museum, Hammondsport, New York

Hugh Robinson (1881-1963) was a daredevil, a compulsive inventor, an important figure in the early history of American aeronautics, and one tough customer. He survived test flights, fifteen serious crashes, the "Circle of Death" circus act (his own invention), and spectacularly dangerous international air shows. Based on the Robinson family's trove of early aviation memorabilia and 82 rare photographs, this biography describes his passage from childhood--when he attempted to fly his homemade bicycle off a 100-foot-high hill--to his final years as a consulting engineer for National Scientific Laboratories in Washington, D.C. Obsessed with a desire to fly, Robinson's first experience aloft was in 1907 (four years after the Wright Brothers had flown for twelve seconds at Kitty Hawk) in a dirigible with a 40-horsepower engine of his own design. The air was calm, the engine was not powerful enough for controlled flight, and Robinson drifted about the countryside knocking down power lines over East St. Louis until he finally came to rest in a tree, where he spent the night. In 1909 he met famous aviator Glenn Curtiss at the St. Louis Centennial Exposition. Thanks to the propeller Curtiss lent him, Robinson succeeded in making three short flights at the Exposition, all straight ahead, in a single-wing monoplane he had designed and constructed. In 1911 Curtiss hired Robinson to be engineer and chief pilot at his "aviation camp" in San Diego, where he was instrumental in the development of the first hydroplane and helped teach the first military pilots to fly. He became Curtiss's main hydroplane exhibition flier--giving most observers their first opportunity to see people in flight--and chief instructor at the Curtiss camp in Hammondsport, New York. Later, he demonstrated and sold the Curtiss hydroplane on the French Riviera. After returning to the States he joined Tom Benoist in St. Louis, where he helped design, build, and test-fly the Benoist Flying Boat, the first commercial airplane in the world, based in Tampa, Florida. In this story of pioneers who stumbled into the air, George Vergara writes with admiration, enthusiasm, and sometimes with his heart in his throat, conveying the excitement of what it must have been like to fly at 10,000 feet, "feeling like a feather in the wind," with nothing but a small board between pilot and ground.

George L. Vergara is a cardiologist and amateur aviation historian who learned to fly during his service in the U.S. Navy. He is a founding member of the Miami Historical Museum and a resident of Miami.