Theodore Roosevelt's First Flight
October 11, 1910
Theodore Roosevelt loved new experiences, and in October 1910 he tried one that no American president had tried before. At an aviation meet near St. Louis, the former president climbed into the open seat of a Wright biplane beside a young pilot named Arch Hoxsey and went up into the air.
A former president on the campaign trail
Roosevelt had left the White House in March 1909. By the autumn of 1910 he was back in politics, touring the country to support Republican candidates. According to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and the Library of Congress, he was in Missouri on 11 October 1910 campaigning for the state Republican Party. A Library of Congress film record shows him arriving at Kinloch Field in a motorcade that included Missouri's governor, Herbert S. Hadley.
The invitation
An international aviation meet was being held at Kinloch Field, and the Wright brothers' exhibition team was flying there. One of its pilots, Arch Hoxsey, invited Roosevelt to go up with him. The Library of Congress catalogues the film of the day under the title 'Colonel Roosevelt is invited to fly in Arch Hoxsey's plane'. The Air and Space Museum says that at first Roosevelt refused, but eventually accepted.
The flight
The aircraft was a Wright biplane, which the Smithsonian identifies as a Wright Co. Type AB. Passengers sat out in the open beside the pilot, with nothing around them. The Federal Aviation Administration says Hoxsey flew Roosevelt above the field at a low altitude in front of a crowd of about 10,000 people, and that Roosevelt waved enthusiastically to the crowd. The Air and Space Museum adds that Hoxsey put the aircraft into three steep dives.
The flight was short, lasting only a few minutes. Exact figures for its length and height vary between later retellings, so they are left out here. According to the FAA, when he landed Roosevelt told Hoxsey it was 'the bulliest experience I ever had'.
First, with an asterisk
Roosevelt is rightly called the first American president to fly, but he was not in office at the time. The FAA and the Smithsonian both describe it as the first flight of an American president, while noting he was a former president. The first sitting president to fly was Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to both the FAA and the Smithsonian. Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, had watched the Wright brothers' military trials in 1909, according to the Smithsonian, but he did not fly.
A short life in the air
Arch Hoxsey did not have long to enjoy his fame. Born in 1884, he had become a member of the Wright brothers' exhibition team, and he was known for chasing altitude records. Less than three months after the Roosevelt flight, on 31 December 1910, Hoxsey was killed in a crash in Los Angeles. The Library of Congress gives his life dates as 1884–1910, and Wikipedia's account says he crashed while trying to set a new altitude record.
Legacy
Photographs and film of Roosevelt sitting in the open biplane survive in the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, and they are still among the most striking images of early aviation. Within a few decades, flying would become a normal part of the presidency. In 1910, it was still a stunt, and Roosevelt, who seldom turned down a chance to do something daring, made the most of it.
Further reading
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Presidents in Flight
- FAA: U.S. Presidents in the Aviation Age
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