Forest Park Balloon Race Program 2018

54 The Great Forest Park Balloon Race • Presented by PNC Bank and 40 minutes and established a record that was to last 41 years of 826 miles in a straight line distance — 1,150 miles in all. Balloon ascensions continued in St. Louis and in the summer of 1875, another well-known 19th century aeronaut, Professor King, brought his balloon, the Buffalo, to the city for an exhibition flight. Many local reporters were assigned to cover the ascension and a young cub reporter named Louis Blankmeier, from Amerika, a German language newspaper, was chosen by his editor to accompany the flight. Blankmeier believed he had been chosen because he was the youngest in the office and had no family ties. His editor did, however, provide him with a bottle of whiskey to sustain him and ward off the chills. The Buffalo took off about 6 p.m. in a southeasterly direction, crossed the Mississippi River and landed in Cahokia, Illinois. Probably the most difficult part of the voyage was the long, hard trek back across the river. It was midnight when the reporters arrived at the east end of Eads Bridge. There were no vehicles to take them across and they had to walk back to their offices to write their stories. During the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a History of Ballooning Continued from page 50 Continued on page 56 young man named A. Roy Knabenshue demonstrated sustained controlled flight in the cigar-shaped California Arrow, built by Capt. Thomas Scott Baldwin. The theme of the 1904 Exposition was to be “Man in his full 20th-Century Development,” and aerial accomplishments were considered a most important part of this theme. A grand prize of $100,000 was to be awarded “for aeronautic achievement considerably beyond anything yet attained.” A panel of experts was selected to draft a preliminary set of rules. Among these experts was Alberto Santos-Dumont, the young, romantic Brazilian who had thrilled Paris with his airship flight around the Eiffel Tower in 1901 — then the most celebrated aeronaut in the world. Soon after this, Albert Bond Lambert and Lewis D. Dozier formed the Aero Club of St. Louis and ballooning became a St. Louis industry. Morris Heimann built the world’s largest balloon, Chicago, in 1908 for C.A. Coey of that city, and Harry Honeywell opened a balloon factory at 3958 Cottage Ave. In 1906, James Gordon Bennet, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, donated a trophy and a cash prize for an annual international long-distance balloon race to be conducted by the International Aeronautic Federation.