6 Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011                                             COMMUNITY                                             Smith County Pioneer
Cromwell                                                                                                                                     Continued from Page 5
Cromwell Dixon
                      WRECKAGE - This photo is of the wreckage of the aeroplane crash that killed Dixon

 
At nineteen, he was the youngest licensed aviator in the world. Dixon subsequently met Glenn Curtiss, who taught him to fly aeroplanes at a time when aviators were plain lucky to live through their experiments in flight. At age 17 he was the youngest licensed pilot and, arguably, the best exhibition pilot in the country.
     Two years later, few would have disputed that claim. Piloting the Curtiss-built biplane, Little Hummingbird, Dixon conquered the Continental Divide.
     By 1911, Dixon had switched to heavier-than-air craft, flying a Curtiss, and he received his air pilot license (#43) on August 6, 1911. Soon Cromwell perfected the "Dixon Corkscrew," an aerial maneuver in which he would spiral down from 8,000 feet and pull up and level off just before landing. This confident young man pushed the limits of his flying machine with a dangerous stunt like this, especially when early airplanes looked a bit like a wooden box and so much chicken wire... did not have anything close to the technology and safety standards of today's aircraft.
STUNTS
     Cromwell did a lot of "Stunt" flying. His specialty was the "Dixon Cork Screw Dive" he would go to 1000 ft. then descend in spirals which he originated his Cork Screw. Then he leveled off at little more than 500 ft.
     While in Billings, Montana he got permission to measure a small bridge to see if he could fly under it without touoching the sides or tap on water. He was given an okay. He spent several days at it and on the fourth day he announced his plans. It drew a great crowd. He went thru as slick as he hoped it would. He was always trying new and dangerous stunts. His mechanic, Bill Pratt told of many chances he took. Known for his daring aerial acrobatics, Dixon was an aviation pioneer of the early 1900's. His vivid imagination and intense fascination with flying and aircraft led to his first invention when he was just 14 years old. Cromwell designed and built a "sky bicycle," which was powered by pedals and a propeller and steered with a rudder connected to the handlebars. He made a balloon out of a huge silk bag and filled it with gas like contemporary hot air balloons and
fastened it to a wooden frame. he became famous throughout the world for his groundbreaking invention and peoople crowded around to see him bicycling in midair at county fairs.
THE DIVIDE
     On September 30, Cromwell set off on his famous flight over the divide, anxious to win the $10,000 offered by local businessmen and others for the first aviator to cross the Continental Divide. Normally he'd wear his black-and-gray checkered cap turned backwards when flying, but that day he wore a wool aviator's cap, flannel-lined-aviator's jacket, and fur gloves.
     Excited spectators gathered at the Montana State Fairgrounds to watch Cromwell take off, and seferal people had already built a fire on the other side of the divide to help guide Cromwell to his landing apot and anxiously awaited his arrival. It was a beautiful, clear, windlesss autumn day and the audience watched him spiral up to 7,000 feet and soar out of sight. He flew west of Helena and landed successfully on the west side of Mullan Pass in a field. He made history that day by being the first person to fly an airplane over the Rocky Mountains.
PERFORM IN
SMITH CENTER
     In August 1911, he performed at the South County Fair in Smith Center, Kans. He had performed in Grand Island, Neb. just before coming to Smith Center, When he was in Smith Center it was just two weeks before he crossed the Continental Divide.
MONTANA
     In September 1911, he performed in his Curtiss "Pusher" plane at the Helena, Montana fair. On September 30, he flew from Helena to Blossburg, some 15 miles to the west, through the Mullan pass. The flight took 26 minutes, and by completing it Dixon became the first aviator to cross the Continental Divide. At 6,324 feet, this is the lowest point on the entire Divide, which stretches from Mexico to Canada. It's also the place where, on September 30, 1911, Dixon, at age 19, became the first person to fly over the Rocky Mountains. That same day, he was awarded a $10,000 prize from Louis Hill, president of the Great Northern Railway.
      Dixon's flight was from the Helena Fairgrounds about eight miles east of the Divide. Gaining altitude above the gently rising Ten-Mile Valley, he would have faced a 1,600-foot wall of timbered slopes that thins out into tree-lined pasture at the top. What's harder to imagine is how this teenager had the pluck and competence to attempt what turned out to be his crowning achievement.      At St. Louis, carried away by increasing wind speed, 1,500 feet in the air, Dixon made an in-flight repair to a chain drive that had jumped a sprocket. He got blown 12 miles off course and forced a landing on the east side of the Mississippi.
     The same day, he flew back to Helena. The return flight proved to be more difficult. Dixon had problems reaching the necessary altitude, and the flight took 43 minutes. His achievement earned him $10,000, presented to him by Governor Edwin L. Norris. It was October 2, 1911, while flying in Spokane, Washington, that Dixon's plane was thrown out of control by a wind gust and, from a low altitide he was thrown into the ground. The nineteen year old pilot was seriously injured in the crash and dead within an hour. Cormwell Dixon, Columbus' first and youngest aviator, had a flying career that lasted just a little over four years and he was laid to rest in Columbus' Greenlawn Cemetery. Hundreds of people gathered at the Montana State Fairgrounds in Helena, Montana one tense autumn morning to see the famous "boy aviator," Cromwell Dixon, take off in his attempt to fly his fragile Curtiss bi-wing plane over the Continental Divide. Other aviators had tried to meet this challenge before and had failed, but Cromwell was determined to prove his talents as a pilot and make a name for himself by succeeding where so many others before him had failed.
HIS DEATH
     On October 2, 1911, while performing his usual aerial stunts at the Spokane Fair, Cromwell's bi-plane caught a strong, unexpected updraft. He plunged toward the ground and crashed and was crushed under the plane's heaavy engine. He died 2 hours later, on October 2, 1911, in Spokane, Washington, when his plane crashed at the Interstate Fair.

                Continued on page 7

 
PAGE 5Back Home NextPAGE 7