The first recipient was U.S. Senator A.S. “Mike” Monroney (D-Okla.), who sponsored progressive federal aviation legislation. Other recipients include Jimmy Doolittle, Juan Trippe, Eddie Rickenbacker, C.R. Smith and Donald W. Douglas. Recent winners were Herbert D. Kelleher of Southwest Airlines; Alan Boyd, former secretary of transportation; and Martin Schroder, founder of MartinAir.

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A flying replica of the 1914 Model 14, No. 43, was constructed by George Hayes, Russell St. Arnold and 28 other members of the Florida Aviation Historical Society. The replica was piloted on its first and all subsequent flights by Edward C. Hoffman. The initial flight was made on October 9, 1983. About 30 to 40 more short flights were made to “work out engine and chain problems, as well as weight and balance questions,” according to Hoffman. A flight from Lake Tarpon to St. Petersburg was made just before Christmas 1983.

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.

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. *

Contributing editor C.V. Glines is an award-winning aviation writer and a frequent contributor to Aviation History Magazine. Further reading: The World’s First Airline, by Gay Blair White; and World Encyclopedia of Civil Aircraft, by Enzo Angelucci.

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