Aviation
Click on images to view larger sized photos and to purchase prints.
Benoist approaching its ramp, c. 1914. Identified are pilot J. Dee Smith, owner P.E. Fansler, pilot Tony Jannus, and Miss May Peabody, the first female passenger.
National Airlines graduating stewardesses, 19 Aug 1955. Carolyn (Jones) McCarthy is identified as 3rd from the left. On the back, several of them offered well-wishes to Janet.
Crowd gathered beside a plane at Johnny Green Airboat Line Hangar, c. 1918.
Albert Whitted in his seaplane the Blue Bird with three customers, c. 1920s. No location given, but it is likely either St. Petersburg or Pensacola, FL.
Passengers stand near an Eastern Airlines DC-3 aircraft at Albert Whitted Airport, c. 1930s. Workers for the Eastern Air Lines place their baggage in the plane NC 13737. The ladies are dressed in furs and small hats. The men wear trench coats and fedoras. A building in the background says "Mail" on the front, but it being dark, the rest of the sign is hard to read.
Benoist airplane as it reaches the ramp, c. 1914. The ice plant and electric plant smokestacks are in the background.
Johnny Green and Jimmy Farmer in front of a Curtiss S-boat, c. 1921.
Benoist taxiing on water close to shore, c. 1914.
Benoist No. 53 flying toward the camera close to water, c. 1914.
A.C. Pheil's cancelled check for his $400 fare on the world's first commercial flight, from St. Petersburg to Tampa, c. 1913.
9:55am, New Years Day. 1914. P.E. Fansler, general manager of the airline, holds up his hand and Tony Jannus steps into the plane and cranks the motor for the first flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line.
Benoist No. 45, the FLORIDA, crashed by Tony Jannus in Feb 1915, later rebuilt, on water approaching ramp on the north mole. Prominent buildings in background are the power plant (four stacks), ice plant, Tomlinson tower, and West Coast Inn.
Tony Jannus at the controls of Benoist AirBoat No. 43, c. 1914.
The Benoist first flight, shown flying close to water with pilot Tony Jannus as he lands in Tampa, on 1 Jan 1914, heralding the start of the world's first regularly scheduled airline.
Designer and pilots with the Benoist airboat, 20 Feb 1914. From left to right: T.W. Benoist, Roger Jannus, Tony Jannus, Heinrich Evers, J. Dee Smith.
View of the St. Petersburg skyline from Albert Whitted Airport, c. 1940. The Snell Building is at the center of the skyline.
Replica of the Benoist in flight, c. 1964.
Roger Jannus and passenger in Benoist No. 103, c. 1914.
Emily Ann Rutherford, Miss Aviation, c. 1947.
Goodyear blimp VIGILANT landing at Albert Whitted Airport, c. 1935.
Tony Jannus (c) and Harry Rau, Sr. (l), with airboat FLORIDA, Benoist No. 45, c. 1915. Heinrich Evers at right? (but compare to photo 00056).
Horse-drawn carriage carrying aircraft parts from the Johnny Green Airboat Line Hangar, c. 1918.
Goodyear blimp MAYFLOWER at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport, c. 1970.
Tony Jannus and Clarence S. Crook returning from Tampa, c. 1914.
Pilot Albert Whitted (third from left, in the back row) with unidentified passengers aboard the Falcon seaplane, c. 1920 to 1923.
Owner F.E. Fansler, passenger/mayor A.C. Pheil, and pilot Tony Jannus by Benoist before first flight, 1 Jan 1914.