Aero Club of St. Louis
Organized by the Business Men's League of St. Louis in January 1907, the Aero Club of St. Louis was the direct outgrowth of a Nov. 1906 decision of the Aero Club of America (ACA) to hold the 2nd Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race in St. Louis in 1907 and a visit to that city at end of December 1906 by an ACA delegation that included a party of ballonists and the Wright brothers. By 5 Jan. 1907, 30 charter members had been identified and Louis D. "Bud" Dozier headed a 5-person organizing committee. Officers elected 16 Jan. included Dozier, pres.; David H. Francis, Dan C. Nugent, and G H. Walker, VPs; Francis D. Hirschberg, treas., and John W. Kearney, sec. By March 1907, 300 members were reported. Nearly 100,000 packed an area around the club's grounds on 21 Oct. 1907 to watch the start of the Gordon Bennett race (won by the German balloon "Pomern.") The club's incorporation was said to be 27 May 1908. At a reorganization on 11 June 1908, the original officers were reelected.
As Kearney described the club in the American Magazine of Aeronautics (July 1907):[1]
- More than one hundred of the four hundred members of the Club are millionaires, and in the organization are to be found the representative men of St. Louis in all lines and professions. There are railroad presidents, bank and trust company presidents, merchant princes, the leading physicians, surgeons, and lawyers of the city and one Roman Catholic Archbishop.
In 1908, it was reported to be one of the first four affiliates of the ACA. On 23 Apr. 1910, the Aero Club of St. Louis renounced its affiliation with the Aero Club of America (ACA) because the ACA made agreements with the Wright brothers to not exhibit machines that the Wrights alleged infringed on their patents. The agreements made it impossible for any city to hold an aviation meet under sanction of the Aero Club of America without a license from the Wrights. The St. Louis club was represented at a meeting 23 May 1910 at the headquarters of the ACA of other aero clubs who, opposed to this policy, organized the American Aeronautical Association (AAA), which see; Albert Bond Lambert of the St. Louis club became its temporary 1st VP. The AAA, however, lasted until only 22 June 1910 when the American Aeronautical Federation (AAF), which see, was formed. The St. Louis club did not join the AAF and instead joined in forming the National Council of Affiliated Clubs of the ACA on 23 June, which see, for which Lambert was elected a temporary vice chairman.
Three women accompanied pilot H. Eugene Honeywell in the first ascent of the St. Louis Aero Club's new balloon, "Missouri," on 17 July 1909. The flight of the three women, who were the first to ascend in St. Louis, was hurriedly arranged after it was learned that a woman, Miss Julia Hoerner, was to go up on 18 June in the balloon of the rival South St. Louis Aero Club. Hoerner, however, was made a member of the South St. Louis Aero Club on 17 July 1909. The first balloon ascensions from new grounds at Choteau and Taylor Avenues occurred on 1 Aug. 1909. On 3 Feb. 1910, Dozier (who had still never been up in a balloon) was elected president again and Albert Bond Lamber was elected first vice president. The club organized the St. Louis National Aero Show, 8-13 Oct. 1910, which included aeroplane and balloon events and an aeroplane exhibition, 5-15 Oct. 1910; ex-U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt was among the attendees. The Aero Club of St. Louis entered a balloon in the August 1910 Harvard-Boston Aero Meet.
Affiliated with ACA in 1908.
Locations included balloon ascension grounds at Chouteau and Taylor and Chouteau and Newstead Avenues, St. Louis (1909-at least 1911)
References
Sources
- 1906 Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, 3 Nov. & 29 Dec.; 1906 NYT, 10 Nov., 29 Dec.; 1907 Baltimore Sun, 1 & 2 Jan., 1907 NYT, 2 & 14 Jan., 9 & 31 Mar; 1907 SLPD, 6, 10, & 15 Jan., 7 Feb.; 1907 SL Republic, 27 Jan.; 1907 LA Times, 22 Oct.; 87:18 Scientific American (2 Nov. 1907); 1908 SLPD, 1 Apr., 6 & 12 June; ACA, Navigating The Air xii (1907); 1:5 Aeronautics (NYC) 44 (1907); 1:6 Aeronautics (NYC) 38 (1907); 1908 NYT 10 & 24 Apr., 5 Aeronautics (NYC) 11 (1909); 1909 Jane's All the World's Aircraft 251; 1909 SLPD, 17 and 28 July, and 1 Aug.; 1910 SLPD, 23 Jan., 3 Feb.; 7 Aeronautics (NYC) 19 & 24 May (1910); 1910 Boston Daily Globe, 13, 14, & 16 Aug.; 8 Aeronautics (NYC) 18 (1911); 2:11 Flying 34 (1913); 5 Flying 250 (1916); 6 Flying 498 (1917); 8 Flying 549 (1919); 9 Flying 50 (1920); ACA annuals (1908-1917, 1919)
- Goodyear (1919), p. 11
- WorldCat.org and WorldCat-OCLC; Dir1920
- ↑ J. W. Kearney, "The Aero Club of St. Louis", American Magazine of Aeronautics Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1907.
| Organization names | Aero Club of St. Louis |
|---|---|
| Entity type | |
| Country | US |
| City | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Affiliated with | ACA |
| Scope | Local |
| Started aero | 1907 |
| Ended aero | 1920 or later |
| Keywords | |
| Key people | |
| Wikidata id |
- Address: Mercantile Club Building, 704 Locust Street, St. Louis (at least 1907-1909); 304 North Fourth Street, St. Louis (1910-1911); 318 North Eighth Street, St. Louis (1912); 1429 Pine Street St. (15th and Pine Streets) St. Louis (1913-1920).
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