The construction of the replica had not been easy. None of the original drawings could be found, so new plans were made from photographs, newspaper clippings and stories that appeared in articles in old issues of Aero & Hydro magazine. A Chevrolet straight 6-cylinder engine was substituted for the original Roberts power plant when none of the latter could be located.

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At 10 a.m. on New Year’s Day 1984, Hoffman took to the air to commemorate the Jannus flight of 70 years before. The replica was flown about seven times more at Tarpon Springs to make an Imax film that was then shown at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The replica’s total flying time was six hours, 40 minutes, and it never flew again. The Chevrolet engine was later replaced with a light wooden replica of the original Roberts for display purposes.

This replica of the historic Benoist No. 43, an original Benoist propeller, a pennant that had been tied to the plane and a 1914 newspaper carrying the area’s most exciting aviation story of the time are all on display in the Benoist Pavilion at the St. Petersburg Historical and Flight One Museum. The birthplace of scheduled air transportation is memorialized by a plaque that was dedicated on October 12, 1957, by Pinellas County authorities. It reads: ‘Here, in this county, Thomas W. Benoist, pioneer airplane builder, first proved to the world that the amazing new invention, the flying machine, could be put to work for the benefit of mankind.’

Although short-lived, the three-month scheduled service did indeed prove that aircraft with good maintenance and competent pilots could provide safe public transportation.

This article was written by C.V. Glines and originally published in the May 1997 issue of Aviation History.

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