Alan Ramsay Hawley

Alan Ramsay Hawley (July 29 1869 – February 16, 1938) was one of the early aviators in the United States. In 1910 he won the Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race with his balloon "America II", aided by his friend and fellow aviator Augustus Post. After landing in the wilderness in Quebec, Canada they spent a week travelling back to civilization before they were able to send a telegram. He was also the President of the Aero Club of America during a five year period.

Early life

Alan R. Hawley was born on 29 July 1869 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey to Peter William Radcliffe Hawley (1829-1884) and Isabella Meritt (1838-1904). He went to school at the Trinity School and became a stock broker with his brother, William Hawley, until he retired in 1912. Before becoming interested in aeronautics, Alan 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 in 1905 to 1906. He held Pilot's Certificate No. 7, issued in 1907, and was the first passenger to fly in an airplane from New York to Washington, D.C. in May of 1916. The flight was in a battleplane and delivered petitions to Congress and President Wilson urging the training of 2000 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 Wilson authorized the creation of the Aerial Reserve on July 13 1916.

Gordon Bennett Race

Alan R. Hawley and Augustus Post left the Grounds of the Aero Club of St. Louis at 5:45 PM on Monday, 17 October, in their balloon "America II". The balloon had been specially constructed in France for this race and was owned by J.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 5000 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 convert|58|mi|km north of Chicoutimi. They had been forced to land because of a storm. They were on a hillside at some convert|1500|ft|m altitude and had travelled 2180 kilometers (1355 miles) from St. Louis. They had travelled at an average of 50 kilometres per hour (30 miles per hour).

The next day they travelled 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 St. Ambroise. 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 $1000 to anyone who found Alan and Augustus, dead or alive. On the evening before their telegrams the amount had even increased to $7000.

Their balloon was a rubber balloon filled with hydrogen gas.

Other accomplishments

In addition to being a Founding Member of the Aero Club of America, Alan R Hawley was also the President of the Aero Club from 1913 to 1918.

In 1916 he flew to Washington, D.C. from New York 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 US 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 US. The first official mail flight left on May 15 1918 from New York to Washington, D.C., with a stop in Philadelphia.

ee also

*Augustus Post
*Air mail
*Balloon (aircraft)

External links

* [http://www.earlyaviators.com/ehawley.htm Early Aviators page on Alan R Hawley]
* [http://www.airmailpioneers.org/history/Sagahistory.htm History of air mail in the United States]
* [http://wdhawley.org/home.php?lang=en 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

References

* "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.