Biographical Sketches

THOMAS SCOTT BALDWIN

Born: June 30, 1854    In: Missouri
Died: May 17, 1923    In: Buffalo, NY

Baldwin’s was the Horatio Alger story of success through hard work and good deeds. Orphaned at an early age, he became an acrobat at 14 with a traveling circus and then progressed, step-by-step, to prominence in aviation. He made his first balloon ascent in 1875 and soon became a star attraction at county fairs, but after 10 years and thousands of shows the novelty began to fade. Searching for a daring new exhibition specialty, he rediscovered the rigid parachute invented a century before, redesigning it and making it flexible so it could be packed. With this he offered to parachute from his balloon, at the rate of a dollar a foot, and his services were eagerly bought, a thousand feet worth, at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. On Jan 30, 1885, it one of the first times in history that a man descended from a balloon in a parachute.

Again the luster faded and he set out in 1900 to devise an act of even greater daring, with a motor-driven balloon. On finding a lightweight engine to power his elongated airship, he set in motion one of the greatest forces aviation was ever to know, Glenn Curtiss -- it was Curtiss’ motorcycle engine that powered his new dirigible, California Arrow, on Aug 3, 1904, in the first circuitous flight in America. The Army was impressed and offered to pay $10,000 for a practical means of aerial navigation. His creation was 90’ long, powered by a novel Curtiss engine, and was accepted and designated SC-I, the Signal Corps’ first such craft, which set the design for all the dirigibles of the time.

By then another craft had staked the promise for the future, and interest faded in all but the Wright brothers’ flying machine. In 1911 Baldwin built the first plane with a steel framework and christened it Red Devil. Showman that he was, he knew that people around the world wanted to see an airplane fly, and formed a troupe of performers in 1913 to tour the Philippines and the Orient, where in most cases an airplane had never flown.

Just before WW1 his interest turned to dirigibles again and he designed the Navy’s first successful dirigible,the DN-I. Training fliers was also the need, so he managed the Curtiss Flying School at Newport News, where one of his students would later become the unsung champion of the air service, General William E "Billy" Mitchell. When the U.S. went to war, although 62 years old, Baldwin volunteered his services to become Chief of Army Balloon Inspection and Production, personally inspecting every balloon and airship used by the Army in the war. His final employment was with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co, continuing the design and manufacture of airships.

Few in the aviation community were better loved than "Captain Tom." Inventor of the flexible parachute, builder of the first practical dirigible in America, pioneer designer, builder, and flyer of airplanes, his life was unrivaled as a showman, as an innovator and inventor in nearly 50 years in aeronautics. ( -- Jean Lail, NAHF)

Enshrined in National Aviation Hall of Fame 1964.

Denotes an individual known to have soloed an aircraft prior to December 16, 1917, whether they were members of the "Early Birds of Aviation" Organization or not.