— Percival E. Fansler (1883-1937) American engineer, businessman, entrepreneur, January 1, 1914
Wilbur, 1876
Orville, 1876
December 17, 1903. Outer Banks, North Carolina. Two bachelor brothers [1], face the ocean breeze, the skin of their faces tightening in response. It’s all good: The breeze would improve the performance of their muslin cloth airfoils.
The two, aged 31 and 35 years, had traveled from their hometown of Dayton, Ohio – where the family had had finally settled. Their father was a bishop, and the family had moved multiple times across the Midwest. Consequently, the brothers were a bit socially withdrawn. Neither formally completed high school.
And yet, they were naturally talented in the fields of mechanisms and power; and were rich in intellectual curiosity and energy.
They had worked together in a variety of their own businesses, all mechanically oriented: printing presses and printing (even publishing their own newspapers), repairing, manufacturing and selling several types of motors. And bicycles. Their bicycle company at first repaired bikes, but eventually they were manufacturing and selling their own, as the bicycle craze swept the nation. Call them self-taught mechanical wizards.
Kitty Hawk, December 17, 1903
Events over the following decades will connect dots that this day projected into the future – from first powered flights, to barnstorming, through two World Wars, and the transition to jet power. Air flight matured to what we consider most ordinary today: regularly scheduled commercial passenger flights connecting any thousands of municipalities throughout the world.
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10:00 AM, January 1, 1914, St Petersburg, Florida. The new year finds curious activities along the littoral waters of Tampa Bay. At what passes for a port for Saint Petersburg, a seaplane built by Thomas Benoist of St Louis, Missouri, is made ready to slide off a ramp and into wee waves of the briny bay.
The pilot is Tony Jannus, an experimental aircraft pilot and master of aerobatic demonstrations at air shows. The seaplane, a Benoist XIV christened “The Lark of Duluth”, will carry a single passenger: the mayor of St Petersburg: Abram Pheil. The pilot and passenger sit side-by-side on a wooden bench.
Before the flight there was quite a bit of hoopla and speechifying for the 3,000 spectators gathered to watch the event. A Florida businessman, Percival Elliott Fansler, was a prominent participant and speaker. And an anxious spectator.
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A longtime resident of St Louis, Thomas “Tom” Wesley Benoist, was born in nearby Irondale, Missouri, in 1874. Although small, the town had an iron furnace (hence its name) and lay in a shallow valley of creeks, surrounded by gentle hills and fertile farming country. Although some 75 miles SW of St Louis, it was well connected by the Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. By 1904 Benoist was a successful businessman in Saint Louis, thriving in the budding automobile manufacturing industry.
Always fascinated with manned-flight, Benoist put together an entry in the lighter-than-air demonstrations and competition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, commonly called the St Louis 1904 World’s Fair.
Thomas Benoist, ca 1914
Benoist’s dirigible entry didn’t fare well; only one entry was able to even leave the fairgrounds, let alone complete 3 laps of the 10-mile L-shaped course. [2] That “success” was piloted by Roy Knabenshue. (a bit more of the story here and here).
Not at all discouraged, Benoist was captivated by the Fair, especially flight displays like a high-altitude tethered balloon and glider demonstrations. Within a few years he’d founded his own manufacturing company in St Louis to make parts for powered flight. In a few more years this enterprise became the Benoist Aircraft Company. Among the many craft his company built was the Model XIV, and “The Lark of Duluth” in particular, which we find on the waters of Tampa Bay, January 1, 1914.
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Percival Elliot Fansler was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, January 12, 1881.
In 1898 he enrolled in Purdue University. The 1900 census shows him living with his mother, Ella, at 112 Littleton St, in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Percival Elliot Fansler, ca 1903
He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering, June 1901.[3] He remained at Purdue, earning a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering as well. During his final year there he was recruited by the LPE Company, which ran the 1904 World’s Fair. He accepted the position of Chief Clerk of Electricity at the Fair. [4]
In 1903 he took his Master’s final oral examination over the phone while in St Louis working for the Fair. Massive spring floods prohibited transportation even to the train station, making it impossible to travel back to West Lafayette. Masters Orals conducted by phone call: Probably a world’s first! [5]
With well over 1,500 electrically lit buildings at the Fair, many exorbitantly lit, scattered over 1,270 acres, and with electric motors and electric lighting in thousands of exhibits, it was a challenging role for young Percival. History suggests he was up to the task. [6]
Fansler had also become an expert in oil heating and the new technology of air conditioning: One of the world’s first HVAC experts. The move to oil and gas heat would eventually help spare cities of soot from coal heating. A/C was used to cool the Missouri Building at the Fair, a welcome relief in the Saint Louis summer, although it’s not known if Fansler had much to do with that, except electric power supply.
After the Fair, Fansler – a man of many interests – went through a series of entrepreneurial endeavors and jobs with engineering companies. By 1913 his career had taken him to Florida, where he was the sales manager of the Jacksonville office of Wisconsin-based Kahlenberg Brothers, which made diesel engines for boats.
A Business Opportunity. It was there that Fansler hit upon the idea of a commercial airline that provided regular passenger service. In 1912 he had come across an article describing a 1912 long-distance flight from Omaha to New Orleans. In the story, the airplane’s designer, Thomas W. Benoist, discussed the potential costs and benefits of carrying packages, mail, and passengers. [7]
At the time, a typical overland trip from St Petersburg to Tampa took 5 to 6 hours by train. Cars and roads were relatively new: by auto it was all day, up to 20 hours. By steamship, 2 hours. Separated by only about 25 miles (40 km) as the crow flies, across Tampa Bay, there was no reasonable direct terrestrial route. The trip required going all the way up Pinellas Peninsula, then over the top of Old Tampa Bay. But, it would be a short hop for a seaplane.
Transportation and geography around Tampa Bay, 1914
Fansler contacted Benoist. Some phone calls and visits … and Benoist agreed to get aboard the opportunity. The St Petersburg-Tampa-Airboat-Line was formed. [Known more commonly as SPT Airboat Line].
Benoit agreed to provide a seaplane for the endeavor, one of his newer models: the XIV. Fansler raised money. The city pitched in with a grant. The city authorized the business, but they required SPT to provide at least two regular flights, each way, 6 days a week. [There was no FAA back then, and the forerunner, the Bureau of Air Commerce wasn’t formed until 1934]. SPT also had to agree to charge no more the $5 for each one-way trip [about $160 in 2025 dollars].
There was great excitement in the area as January 1, 1914 approached – the scheduled date of the first flight.
If you think $5 one-way was expensive. Well … There was an auction held to determine just who would be the first commercial airline passenger ever. Bidding went up and up until ….Sold! … to the gentleman in the fancy hat … His Honor Abram Pheil, mayor of St Petersburg.
The winning bid? $400. [Almost $13,000 today. See image of check beneath footnotes].
The pilot recruited for the passenger business was Antony “Tony” Jannus. A famous pilot at the time, he was an artist at airshows, a test pilot, and the pilot of the flight mentioned above, down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, from Omaha to New Orleans, … and the pilot of the first flight with a parachute jump. [with no instruments and few landmarks, pilots followed known geographic features, such as these two mighty rivers].
By coincidence, Will Rogers — just now emerging as America’s most famous humorist — was in town for the event. Rogers had also been at the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis, performing rope tricks and displaying his aw shucks common-man humor. This New Year’s Day he met Fansler and Pheil; the latter formed an enduring friendship with Rogers.
Jannnus waves to crowd as he approaches Tampa, (State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.)
Pilot Tony Jannus and passenger Mayor Pheil completed the trip without incident, cruising over the water at a height of only 50 feet. 23 minutes after take-off the Lark of Duluth settled down on the Hillsborough River, alongside the Tampa Electric Company power plant, in downtown Tampa. Another large crowd had gathered to witness the float plane touch down. In this famous photo, we can see Jannus over the ripply waters, waving to the crowds, as the Benoist XIV is about to splash down. [7]
Downwash and the plane’s shadow are observable beneath the fuselage.
History was made. The first regularly scheduled commercial passenger flight was successfully completed, to great fanfare.
The SPT “airline” soon expanded to other nearby cities: Tarpon Springs, Sarasota and Bradenton.
The lifetime of SPT was not long. After about 3 months the charm wore off. The Snowbirds went back up north. It couldn’t generate enough cash flow to stay afloat (ha, see what I did there?). It folded.
Nonetheless, the legacy of that short flight, and what it spawned, live on.
– Barack Obama, on the occurrence of the 100th anniversary of the flight.
Jannus, Benoist and Fansler all went on in the aircraft industry after SPT. They are further linked by the tragedies that brought their eventful lives to early conclusions.
The story is over, but, like a Russian novel, we now follow the major characters to their demise.
Pilot Antony “Tony” Jannus became a test pilot and pilot instructor for Glenn-Curtis. He was killed on October 12, 1916, while training two Russian pilots on a Curtiss Model H, crashing into the Black Sea near Sevastopol. Age 27.
Antony “Tony” Jannus, 1914
It was an era of many small airplane manufacturers. Benoist, facing ever more competition, moved his business twice, to be nearer vendors and seeking lower overhead. His company’s first move was to Chicago, and then to Sandusky, Ohio, on the southwestern shores of Lake Erie, between Cleveland and Toledo. His preferred motor manufacturer, Rogers Motors, was located there.
Tom Benoist used the Sandusky trolleys to commute. While riding to Rogers Motors on June 14, 1917 he carelessly struck his head on a streetlight pole when he stepped out of a trolley. It was fatal. Age 42. His business folded. He had never married.
Fansler was living in Samford, CT in 1910 as an independent electrical engineering contractor. When the United States entered World War I, in April, 1917, Fansler registered for the draft. At 36 years old, he was not fit for battle. But the War Department did need him. He served as the production and inspection chief of all aircraft engine manufacturing operations in the east during the Great War.
Fansler worked as an engineer for several companies and ended up as editor of a technical journal in New York. On November 7th, 1937 he suffered a sudden massive heart attack. He was 56, leaving 6 children at home (he had married late).
In another weird coincidence of history, Mayor Pheil succumbed to cancer, at age 55, in 1922. In August, 1935, Will Rogers, the man with whom he formed a close friendship, perished in a plane crash riding with famed aviator Wiley Post, in northern Alaska, in August, also age 55.
The 1904 World’s Fair was a sort of three-way coincidence, Rogers, Benoist and Fansler all prominently there. But, there’s no evidence to suggest that they ever met there, and didn’t fulfill that line from 1904 hit, Meet me in Saint Louis, Louis: “Meet me at the Fair.”
Wilbur Wright succumbed to Typhoid Fever, May 30, 1912. Age only 45. Orville had the most longevity of the group, passing at age 76, in 1948, from his cardiac condition. Neither ever married or had children.
– Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, #1 US Ace in WWI (27 confirmed kills)
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This essay’s opening quote, from Percival Fansler’s address on that New Year’s Day morning, were certainly foresightful. Indeed, in the decades ahead many, many things, including the progress of powered flight, proved to be “unbelievable.”
Joe Girard © 2025
Thank you for reading. As always, you can add yourself to the notification list for newly published material by clicking here . Or emailing joe@girardmeister.com
Footnotes and other sources:
[1] Neither Orville nor Wilbur Wright ever married.
[2] 1904 dirigible competition. https://www.blimpinfo.com/airships/the-little-dirigible-that-could-and-did/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/kings-of-the-air-3437428/
Some sources say 15 miles.
[3] The Indianapolis Journal, June 11, 1901, Page 5, Image 5
[4] The Washington Times, June 14, 1903, Page 12
Also from Plaque at the St Petersburg (FL) History Museum
Edison had won the contract to supply electricity; hence all electricity was DC
LPE Company = Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company; https://mohistory.org/legacy-exhibits/Fair/WF/HTML/Overview/
[5] Washington Times, June 14, 1903
Fansler’s Senior Thesis (1901) was titled: “An Investigation of the Factors affecting the Operating Efficiency of the Lafayette Railway System”, 1901 Purdue University Yearbook
[6] Electricity at the St Louis 1904 World’s Fair; https://lpe.slpl.org/col/6_1.html
[7] https://uselessinformation.org/worlds-first-commercial-airline/
Of course the “flight” was not non-stop.
[8] Downwash and the plane’s shadow are observable beneath the fuselage.
Also:
Fansler. Census data after 1880 shows both parents as “widowed”, and not living together. I suppose that being divorced led to social shunning. They were married in Juneau, Wisconsin, 13 Dec 1874.
On 20 Dec 1921 he arrived at Key West harbor from Havana on the ship Miami. Note: His father (Newton Oliver Fansler) was in the cigar business. So Havana is perhaps not a coincidence. Newton passed on in 1923, age 79.
Benoist. Lifelong bachelor, he did spend several months in England (manifests say to/from Liverpool) in 1915-16. I assume he was on business scouting vendors, or perhaps to re-locate the business.
Tons of great pictures here, with some historical notes too: https://twinportspast.wordpress.com/2021/05/18/one-of-zeniths-most-unique-citizens-julius-h-barnes/
Nice video: https://twinportspast.wordpress.com/2021/05/18/one-of-zeniths-most-unique-citizens-julius-h-barnes/
Abram Pheil, a wiki info site: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pheil-4
Just before boarding, L/R, Fansler, Jannus, Pheil, Benoist Model XIV flying boat, 1 January 1914 (State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory)
Purdue Graduation program, makes him a likely contemporary of Ray Ewry
$400 check for 1st passenger airplane flight
Memorial plaque where the Lark of Duluth put into the water, St Petersburg, FL
Promo poster