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In Flight USA Articles
Author Craig Harwood Restores John J. Montgomery to the Pantheon of Aviation Pioneers with Quest for Flight
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).”
A New Biography for Young Readers: The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont
By S. Mark Rhodes
Santos-Dumont helped make aviation into a spectator sport in the early 20th century (Abrams)Alberto Santos-Dumont is the most influential early aviation pioneer you (probably) never heard of; equally urbane and enigmatic, Santos-Dumont lived like a character out of a Jules Verne novel, taking his flying machines out to shop, have coffee (with his good friend Louis Cartier with whom he helped develop one of the first popular wristwatches) or for a quick trip around the Eiffel Tower.
Santos-Dumont’s charming, full life and contributions to aviation are well chronicled in Victoria Griffith’s The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont (Abrams Books for Young Readers). Ms. Griffith was nice enough to correspond with In Flight USA’s Mark Rhodes about (among other things) her book, Santos-Dumont’s life and times, the illustrations of her artist collaborator Eva Montanari and whether Santos-Dumont would have been good company.