Transcontinental Trip Was a First in Flight

They were Southern California’s first rock stars, in effect, the young, daring turn-of-the-century aviators who transfixed the populace with their flimsy, pipe-and-canvas machines that made young boys dream and old men wish they were young again.

One of the first was Calbraith P. Rodgers, who on this date in 1911 reportedly became the first man to cross a continent in a “flying machine.”

He landed on the polo grounds of Pasadena’s Tournament Park. The site today is at the corner of California Boulevard and Wilson Avenue across the street from Caltech. It was also the site of the first Tournament of Roses football games on New Year’s Day.

Rodgers left Sheepshead, N.Y., on Sept. 17 and covered up to 50 miles a day, landing at small-town airstrips each afternoon for repairs and fuel. He crashed, he told greeters at Pasadena, seven times along the way.

The L.A. Times reported the next day that 10,000 were on hand to greet Rodgers when he touched down at 4:04 p.m. He had flown in from Banning, his next-to-last stop.

It was clear in The Times’ story that the mere sight of an airplane in 1911 was a stunner. “Another chapter in world history has been written,” the reporter wrote. Headline: “Massed Thousands Hail End of Rodgers’ Flight.”

Another early Southland aviator who regularly drew thousands to airstrips in the Santa Ana area was Glenn Martin. On May 10, 1912, he made the world’s first flight over open water, from Balboa to Catalina Island. His flight time, at 3,500 feet, was 37 minutes. He landed, ate a sandwich, patched a hole in his wing and flew back to Balboa.

Also on this date: In 1970, Charlie Root, the Chicago Cub pitcher best known for serving up the so-called “called shot” home run pitch to Babe Ruth in the 1932 World Series, died at 71. Throughout his life, Root adamantly denied Ruth gestured to center field before he hit the home run. “If he had, I’d have knocked him on his [rear],” he often said. Root won 201 games, but after his major league career pitched in the minor leagues until he was 49.