- Robert George Fowler
Robert George Fowler (
August 10 ,1884 –June 15 ,1966 ) was an early aviation pioneer and was one of the first people to set thetranscontinental airspeed record . [ |accessdate=2007-06-21 ]Aero, America's Aviation Weekly wrote on September 16, 1911:
Ocean-to-Ocean Race Begins.
San Francisco, California ,September 11 ,1911 (by telegraph) Robert G. Fowler left the stadium inGolden Gate Park this afternoon on the initial stage of his journey from ocean to ocean for the $50,000Hearst prize . Word has been received late this evening that he finally came to a stop atAuburn, California , with 128 miles to his credit for his first day's flight, with a total flying time of 2 hours and 41 minutes. Fowler is driving aWright biplane equipped with a Cole automobile motor. He made his start from here, cheered by a large crowd at 1:35 this afternoon and headed his biplane northeast overOakland and theSacramento valley. He reached Sacramento at 3:33, making the trip of 75 miles in 1 hour and 58 minutes. There, after a brief meeting with the governor,Hiram W. Johnson , he mounted to his seat and drove off again toward the distant gap in the snow line of the Sierras through which he hopes to pass. He departed from Sacramento at 5:55, James Rolph, Jr., of theSan Francisco Merchants' Exchange ; C.C. Moore, president of thePacific International Exposition , and Frank L. Brown were the official starters atSan Francisco . As his provisional schedule reads tonight he will make stops atElko, Nevada ;Salt Lake City, Utah ; Granger andCheyenne, Wyoming ; North Platte andOmaha, Nebraska ; Rock Island,Chicago , Fort Wayne,Pittsburgh , Buffalo, Albany andNew York City . He will follow the tracks of theSouth and Northwestern Railroad into Chicago. He is accompanied by a special train, which carried a full staff of mechanics and extra parts for three machines. As Fowler came into Sacramento and alighted on the fair grounds he was cheered by a crowd larger than had ever gathered in the state capital before. His mechanicians had fairly to fight their way through it to reach the machine for the necessary grooming after the first stage of his journey. When the aviator met the governor he asked him if he had any message for the governor of New York. "You are the best message California can send," replied Johnson.External links
* [http://www.earlyaviators.com/efowler.htm Early Aviators: Robert Fowler]
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.