First Airline Centennial Flight – January 1, 2014.

On January 1, 1914, the first commercial airline passenger was flown from St. Petersburg, FL across the bay to Tampa.  The aircraft used was a Benoist XIV flown by Tony Jannus.  A reenactment of this flight was to take place on New Year's Day, the 100^th anniversary, using a reproduction of that aircraft.  Kermit Week of Fantasy of Flight (near Orlando) spent the last couple of years building the reproduction.  This included doing something never done before-- building a reverse-engineered “Roberts 6” engine.  Unfortunately, more research is needed on the hydrodynamics of the hull, as in performance testing, the aircraft was unable to break the suction with the water.  A replacement aircraft was then used for the reenactment.  This was a Hoffman X-4 “Mullet Skiff” flown by Eddie Hoffman, Jr.

I bring this up because we were given the opportunity to use C.A.R.I.B. II to provide security/safety for the departure area (the Vinoy Basin in downtown St.Pete).  This gave us a front row seat.  Too bad Mother Nature didn’t cooperate.  I’ve attached a video that Pat took of the take-off.