by jacquelyn horkan, editor
But down the entire street there was whiskey and beer, and
nothing else... This was Last Chance Street - last chance for a drink or a girl before
Cuba.
Charles Johnson Post, The Little War of Private
Post
We have
not made much money, but I believe we have proven that the airplane can be successfully
used as a regular means of transportation."
Thomas W. Benoist
At 5 a.m. on the morning of Dec. 31, 1913, the freight car
carrying Benoist airboat #43 arrived in St. Petersburg. In just over 24 hours ace pilot
Tony Jannus would fly the plane across Tampa Bay in the inaugural flight of the Tampa-St.
Petersburg Air Boat Line, the world’s first passenger airline with regularly
scheduled service.
As Jan. 1, 1914, dawned, 3,000 onlookers gathered at the St.
Petersburg yacht basin. The first ticket was auctioned off within 10 minutes when Abe
Pheil shouted his winning bid, "Four hundred dollars."An Italian band played
Dixie as Pheil donned an overcoat and joined the dashing 25-year old Jannus in the open
cockpit of the two-seater airboat and off they took across the bay.
Watchers dashed off to the telegraph office toawait word of the
plane’s safe arrival in Tampa.
The big moment was delayed as the tiny craft raninto headwinds and then developed engine
trouble.
Jannus landed the plane in the bay, fixed the trouble, and took off again. After a
23-minute flight, he and
his passenger safely landed in Tampa to the cheersof the impatient crowd.
The fledgling airline would only fly for three months before
folding. But, as Thomas W. Benoist,
the pioneer plane manufacturer and part-owner of the airline, observed, the setback for
air travel was only temporary. For once mankind touched the skies, the lure of flight
would prove irrestible.
Jan/Feb 1998 -- Florida Business Insight, PO Box 784,
Tallahassee, Fla. 32302
(850)224-7173, insight@aif.com |
