On this day 138 years ago…
…Charles K. Hamilton was born!
Charles Keeney Hamilton (May 30, 1885 – January 22, 1914) was an American pioneer aviator and daredevil. Born in New Britain, he grew up on Seymour St. and was a “noted scamp” during his school days. He left New Britain at the age of 18 to become a hot-air balloonist and parachute jumper. He learned to fly in 1909 and joined the Curtiss Aviators where he developed the “Hamilton Dive” and became known for his daring. In 1910, fresh from winning $10,000 for flying from New York to Philadelphia in a day, Hamilton was approached by Mayor George M. Landers and Thomas W. O’Connor (chairman of the Business Men’s Fourth of July Committee) to bring his plane to New Britain and make the first public flight of a powered aircraft in Connecticut and New England from the top of Walnut Hill Park.
On July 2, 1910, after spending the day with engine problems and a couple of false starts (his first attempt landed him on Hart Street) and an attempt to fix the engine with a carburetor rushed from the Corbin Motor Vehicle Company the airplane was once again taken to the top of Walnut Hill and readied for take-off.
Hamilton sitting in his aircraft, date unknown. NBIM Digital Archive.
The New Britain Herald reported:
“Hamilton came down the stretch at 50 miles an hour, his engine skipping a bit, but not enough to prevent the take-off. He leaped from the ground opposite the Governor’s stand and swooped higher and higher into the air. There were cheers and cries of ecstasy from the crowds. Men pounded each other on the back and women looked on in awe and gratification. After 18 minutes of flight, with his eight-cylinder engine sometimes working on seven cylinders, sometimes only on six, he returned to the field for a wonderful glide to the ground. The flight had carried him and his crippled machine over factory chimneys and busy stores from which people rushed into the streets and roared their applause. During the flight, Hamilton circled the field for about five minutes, making a figure eight as he did so, then came down in one of the swoops akin to a hawk descending on a chicken yard that has made him the foremost and most fearless navigator of the air.”
Two years later, he faced off against another local pilot for “duel in the air”— Nels Nelson. They flew over the Berlin Fairgrounds in a barnstorming exhibition. Hamilton’s career earned him the nickname “the Crazy Man of the Air”, and according to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, was "known for his dangerous dives, spectacular crashes, extensive reconstructive surgeries, and ever present cigarette" and was "frequently drunk". He survived more than 60 crashes and died at home at the age of 29 due to complications of tuberculosis.
