The images are etched in our minds through vintage black and white photos and video.
Wilbur and Orville Wright, in a clumsy-looking flying machine, propellers whirling as they cruised down a runway and into the air on a sparse airfield at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
That was 1903.
But it wasn't until a decade later that a flight here in Tampa Bay further changed the trajectory of aviation history and set the stage for what we now know as air travel.
On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Rui Farias, executive director of St. Petersburg Museum of History, talked about how the first commercial flight came together.
The first commercial flight
At 10 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line — the first commercial flight — operated successfully from St. Petersburg to Tampa.
Roughly 1,000 people came to St. Petersburg to watch it take off from the Central Yacht Basin — adjacent to what is now the St. Pete Pier — and another 1,000 gathered along the Hillsborough River to watch it land.
But it wasn't without just a little bit of drama.
"Disaster almost happened because the plane is powered by the engine that turns a sprocket like a bicycle sprocket," Farias said, "And the chain came off the sprocket. So he had to land in Tampa Bay, fix it — which they did — and they took off and successfully landed in Tampa."
The airline continued to serve the people in the next three months, carrying approximately 1,200 passengers.
"It was a major feat for that to happen," Farias said.
Being part of the first commercial flight route of the nation, St. Petersburg attracted people and journalists from all over the world.
"A crowd of 3,000 people being on the waterfront of St. Pete watching and another 3,000 people in Tampa watching it land," Farias said.
Farias added that this was more than the city's population at the time.
"So it kind of put St. Petersburg on the map for the first time ever," Farias continued.
By 1914, air travel and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not exist. Farias said it was the period when airplanes seemed like entertainment.
"A light bulb went off over his head. Like, 'Why can't we fly on a schedule from point A to point B on a set schedule like a train?'"Rui Farias, executive director, St. Petersburg Museum of History
"I don't know if you'd really want to fly in one of those planes when you actually see them," Farias said. "Back then, who taught these guys how to fly?"
There were air shows and air races, but planes were only able to fly a certain distance. It was when the term "airlines" was invented.
How the first airline was created
Thomas Benoist was the first airplane manufacturer in the world. He learned how to fly, then started selling kits to build the planes. Eventually, he established the Benoist Aircraft company.
Joining Benoist was Tony Jannus, a young pilot, and Percival Fansler, a businessman from Jacksonville. Fansler saw Benoist and his airboats at the air shows and invited him to start a travelling service.
"A light bulb went off over his head," Farias said. "Like, 'Why can't we fly on a schedule from point A to point B on a set schedule like a train?' "
Unfortunately, the idea of flying on a set schedule similar to travelling by train was not well received. People were still dependent on ground transportation.
Facing rejection, Fansler decided to go back to Florida — where he was from — to sell the idea.
"Tampa wanted nothing to do with it," Farias said. "It was too expensive for their blood."
So Fansler traveled to St. Petersburg. He took the six-hour train ride from Tampa to St. Petersburg to meet up with a group called Board of Trade (now the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce). He talked to Noel Mitchell, who later became the mayor of St. Petersburg.
Farias explained the city was trying everything to attract more tourists.
"There's no advertising or tourism gimmick that has ever come up that they haven't tried to bring people to that city," Farias said.
Mitchell, who attended an air show commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight, was said to be interested in the flight service idea. He started fundraising and helped to lift the idea off the ground.
Farias said it was the key individuals and the right timing that contributed to the success of the airline.
"It's almost like the stars and the moon all aligned at the right time," Farias said.
Why it didn't last
But it wasn't meant to be.
After the three-month period, the city of St. Petersburg withdrew all funding for the airboat service.
Benoist sold all the planes right after. He was going to sign a contract with the U.S. military to provide airplanes ahead of World War I when he passed away suddenly. Benoist stepped out of a moving streetcar and ran headfirst into a telephone pole.
Following the end of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line service, Jannus left Benoist Aircraft Co. to join Curtiss Aeroplane Co.
Jannus became a pilot instructor in Russia during World War I. In October 1916, he died in a plane crash near the Black Sea, and his body was never recovered.
And his brother Roger, who was also a pilot, was killed while teaching pilots in France when his plane exploded in mid-air in 1918.
"That's why when you're studying American history, you don't learn a whole lot about the Jannus brothers and this Benoist flight, the first flight, because everybody was gone," Farias said. "The whole company just disappeared."
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
