A. Roy Knabenshue

Roy Augustus Knabenshue ( born July 15, 1876 in Lancaster, Ohio; † March 6, 1960 in Temple City ) was an American engineer, balloonist and aviation pioneer.

Life

He was born in 1876 as son of Samuel Knabenshue and his wife Salome Matlack. His father was from 1905 to 1914 Consul General in Tianjin, China.

Roy Knabenshue steered the first dirigible in the USA sightseeing flights as part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair, which was built by Thomas Scott Baldwin 1904. He was also the first who performed a controlled flight of an airship over New York City in 1905. In 1913 he built the first passenger airship in America. In World War I he built man wearing observation balloons for the government.

From 1933 to 1944 he was actuated as a balloonist and pilot for the National Park Service. In 1958 he had his first stroke, after his second stroke died on March 6, 1960 at Evergreen Sanitarium in Temple City, California. The funeral took place on 9 March 1960 at the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation instead.