By S. Mark Rhodes

Fully 20 years before the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, N. C., a California aviation pioneer and inventor named John J. Montgomery managed to fly heavier than air craft in 1883 marking the first such flights in the Western Hemisphere. Authors and aviation historians Craig Harwood and Gary Fogel have recounted the story of Montgomery and have helped place the American West (and Montgomery) in context with regard to aviation history with their new book, Quest for Flight: John J. Montgomery and the Dawn of Aviation in the West (University of Oklahoma Press). Mr. Harwood was nice enough to correspond via email with In Flight USA’s Mark Rhodes about this work and John Montgomery’s legacy as an aviation trail blazer.

IF USA: The story of John Montgomery is of particular interest to you is it not?

CH: “John Montgomery was the brother of my great grandfather, James, and his story was relayed to me by my grandmother (John’s niece) and my great grandmother (his sister-in-law).”