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MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS


At Beloit, a State Historic Marker (left) and a plaque from the Early Birds of Aviation (right) indicate the spot where A.P. Warner became the fi rst to fl y in the state of Wisconsin on Nov. 4, 1909. Photos Courtesy: Ben Schoepski


Caution: It would be a easy to confuse A.P. Warner with William O. Warner, who once worked for Glenn Curtiss before he formed his own company and patented his invention of the Warner aircraft engine. The Warner Aircraft Company operated during the 1920s out of a factory in Detroit. The two Warners were not related. [With thanks to Kim McCutcheon of the Antique Aircraft Engine Society]


owner of the Northern Electric Company (NEC). Fox grew to depend upon Warner’s inherent skills to improve production and the two men became long-term friends. Warner worked for NEC several years until he was promoted to sales manager, requiring a move to Milwaukee, WI. While working for NEC, Warner continued to tinker and fi le patents on various inventions. By 1900, Warner was married and had his fi rst son. NEC changed hands until it became part of the General Electric Company (GE), based in New York City. It was in New York where Warner met the famous mathematician Charles Steinmetz [1865-1923], whom he greatly admired. Working for GE was both gratifying and lucrative, and by


1904, Warner’s job required a brief move to Chicago, where his second son was born. Somehow, he and his brother Charles had found time to invent what would eventually be adapted as a speedometer for automobiles. Warner, now 34, wanted to return to Wisconsin and be his own boss. The brothers formed Warner Instrument Company in Beloit, and it expanded to produce more of Warner’s many inventions to improve automobile safety.


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JOINING THE AIR MINDED On a sales trip to New York City, Warner was introduced to Augustus Herring [1867-1926], who was then affi liated with aviator and aircraft designer Glenn Curtiss [1878- 1930]. Warner’s memoires revealed that, as a child, he had designed many kites and had always been fascinated with fl ight. When Herring asked Warner to help him develop an aircraft engine (promised to Curtiss), he jumped at the opportunity. He later wrote that although the engine was powerful for its weight, it continually failed due to overheating. His relationship with Herring was short lived but he had made his fi rst contact with the movers and shakers in aviation at the time. By 1906, Warner had joined the fl edgling Aeronautical Society of New York, mingling with men and women with a passion for fl ight and new inventions. Among these new associates were the marketing team of Wyckoff , Church and Partridge, which sold automobiles. By 1909 it also represented Herring- Curtiss Aeroplanes. Curtiss was selling replicas of the plane in which he won the famous Gordon Bennett Race for


America at the Rheims Air Meet in France just months before. No one in America had yet manufactured an aeroplane solely to sell to the general public. This was a benchmark in American aviation history not lost on Warner. Theorizing that aviators were newsworthy, Warner expected free advertising for his business by becoming the fi rst individual in the U.S. to purchase an aeroplane. Warner left a check with Wyckoff , Church and Partridge for $6,000 and returned to Beloit. His Curtiss Pusher arrived as a crate of parts without assembly instructions. In typical fashion, Warner built the aircraft without a manual and taught himself to fl y.


WISCONSIN’S BIG CHEESE AND THE AHA! On Nov. 4, 1909, at a height of 50 feet, Warner soloed for a quarter of a mile. The fl ight guaranteed Warner’s legacy as the fi rst person to fl y an aeroplane in Wisconsin and placed him among the earliest aviators in the world. Warner took his Curtiss Pusher to the 1910 Dominguez Air Meet at Los Angeles, but there is no record of a fl ight. His memoires disclose that he worked as a “timer” among the offi cials, including meet organizer A. Roy Knabenshue.


AHA! Warner was now shoulder to shoulder with the most famous aviators in the world, but his own public fl ying was minimal. He never competed in exhibition fl ying. Within the year, Warner sold his Curtiss to another fl ier. The Warner brothers sold their company in 1912, making them millionaires. Five years later, Warner started another company in Chicago, producing automobile and truck parts. He is well recognized as the inventor of an electric braking system and a power clutch. Warner retired at the age of 64 and lived the rest of his life in Beloit. Finding the historic markers for A.P. Warner at Beloit


is a fi tting end to this past year’s quest for our “aviation ancestry.” I now know how Warner and Knabenshue met, but not precisely where, or when they posed for their group picture. It remains to be discovered. Next year’s articles will include America’s oddest early


aircraft that didn’t fl y. Happy New Year 2015!


Giacinta Bradley Koontz is an aviation historian, magazine columnist and author who has received the DAR History Medal and honorable mention from the New York Book Festival. She has appeared on the History Channel and in PBS documentaries. For more information, visit www.GiaBKoontz.com.


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