Alan R. Hawley

Alan Ramsay Hawley (July 29, 1864 – February 16, 1938) was one of the early aviators in the United States. In 1910, he won the national race with his balloon America II. He was the first passenger to fly in an airplane from New York City to Washington, D.C. in May of 1916. He was the president of the Aero Club of America from 1913 to 1918.^[1]

Biography

He was born on 29 July 1869 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey to Peter William Radcliffe Hawley (1829–1884) and Isabella Meritt (1838–1904). He attended the Trinity School in New York City before becoming a stockbroker with his brother, William Hawley, until he retired in 1912.

Before becoming interested in aeronautics, Hawley was a pioneer in the automobile movement, at the time when the car was an exceptional thing. He was also a founding member of the Automobile Club of America.

He learned to pilot a balloon from 1905 to 1906. He held the Aero Club of America's pilot's certificate No. 7, issued in 1907.

On January 1, 1907 he ascended with Major James C. McCoy in a 35,000 cubic foot balloon Orient in St. Louis, Missouri.^[2]

On April 22, 1907 he ascended over a mile in his balloon with Arthur T. Atherolt.^[3]

He entered the 1910 Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race with Augustus Post and they left the grounds of the Aero Club of St. Louis at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, October 17, 1910 in their balloon America II. The balloon had been specially constructed in France for this race and was owned by Major James C. McCoy. During the flight they took watches of three hours each, "one sleeping and one watching the statiscopes, aneroid, and other instruments" (sic). A recording barograph (altimeter) kept a precise log of their altitude during the flight. They reached altitudes of 5,000 meters (16400 ft) above the altitude of St. Louis, their 0 altitude reference point. St. Louis is at 140 meters (465 ft) above sea level. 46 hours later, at 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, 19 October they landed in the middle of the wilderness in Quebec, Canada, about 58 miles (93 km) north of Chicoutimi. They had been forced to land because of a storm. They were on a hillside at some 1,500 feet (460 m) altitude and had traveled 2,180 kilometers (1,350 mi) from St. Louis. They had traveled at an average of 50 kilometres per hour (30 miles per hour). The next day they traveled south towards civilization. For the next three days they walked, sleeping under their blankets at night and eating a bare minimum of food. They eventually came upon a trapper's hut, which was not occupied at the moment. They rested there for a day, after which four French Canadian trappers turned up. The trappers graciously accompanied them to Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare, Quebec. Once there, they sent two telegrams, one to Alan's brother William, and the other to the pilot of another balloon in the race. The message to his brother read: "Landed in wilderness week ago, fifty miles north of Chicoutimi. Both well - Alan". Their telegrams ended searches which had various parties had started, looking for them around the Great Lakes. Clifford B. Harman, a wealthy amateur aeronaut and aviator, had offered $1,000 to anyone who found Alan and Augustus, dead or alive. On the evening before their telegrams the amount had even increased to $7,000.^[4]

He was the first passenger to fly in an airplane from New York City to Washington, D.C. in May of 1916. The flight was in a battle plane and delivered petitions to the United States Congress and Woodrow Wilson urging the training of 2,000 aviators. At that time the number of aviators was limited to sixty, by law, which was considered sufficient for the US Army. As a result, President Woodrow Wilson authorized the creation of the Aerial Reserve on July 13, 1916.

He died of coronary thrombosis on February 16, 1938 at age 73.^[5]

Legacy

In 1916 he flew to Washington, D.C. from New York City to demonstrate the feasibility of carrying mail by air. Earlier experiments in carrying mail by air had been done, but no regular air mail service existed in the U.S. yet. The trip took 187 minutes, and they flew at an average speed of 78 miles per hour. Alan Hawley was a passenger in the plane flown by Victor Carlstrom. They carried a heavy load of newspapers which represented the "mail". Two years later a regular mail service was established between New York and Washington, D.C., the first in the U.S. The first official mail flight left on May 15, 1918 from New York to Washington, D.C., with a stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

References

Further reading

• Flying, volume VII, number 11. December 1918. Published by Flying Association, New York.
• A Record Voyage in the Air by August Post. In Robert U. Johnson editor, The Century Magazine. Vol ??. Pages 451 to 470. Published by The Century Company, New York.

External links

• History of air mail in the United States
• wdhawley.org - Website detailing the life and art of Alan's sister, Wilhelmina Douglas Hawley.

Further reading

• City Of Flight: The History of Aviation in St. Louis by James J. Horgan. The Patrice Press. ISBN 0-935284-35-4
• Blue Ribbon Of The Air, The Gordon Bennett Races by Henry Serrano Villard. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 0-87474-942-5