Early life Thomas Wesley Benoist was born on December 29, 1874, in
Irondale, Missouri, the son of Pierre E. Benoist and the former Anna S. Gregory. One of the first industrialists in
St. Louis, Missouri, he was a successful businessman in the automobile industry by 1904. He gave flying exhibitions in the
Midwestern and
Southern United States, but an injury he suffered in a flying mishap during one of them prevented him from taking part in an international aviation meet in mid-October 1910.
Aerosco Flying School and Benoist Aircraft Company In March 1911, Benoist established the Aerosco Flying School at
Kinloch Field, and it soon drew students from throughout the United States; it later was renamed the Benoist Flying School. At around the same time, he bought out his partner and moved the original Aerosco company to a larger facility in a suburb of St. Louis, renaming it the
Benoist Aircraft Company. With the name change, he reoriented the company from dealing in aviation parts and kits for aircraft by other manufacturers to building airplanes of original design. As an intermediate step, he designed and manufactured a version of the Curtiss-Gill airplane he had purchased in 1910. The flying school and manufacturing concern were both so successful that Benoist airplanes and pilots soon were appearing all over the United States. On October 20, 1911, the Benoist Aircraft factory burned to the ground, destroying five complete airplanes, many tools, machinery, and all of the company's files. Although the loss was not insured, Benoist bounced back quickly, opening a new factory nearby, bringing aviator
Tony Jannus – who would soon become its chief pilot – into the company in November 1911, and designing and building the first Benoist airplane of completely original design, the
Type XII Headless, before the end of 1911. The Type XII Headless made history when, piloted by Jannus, it carried
Albert Berry over Kinloch Field on March 1, 1912, and Berry made the world's first successful
parachute jump from an airplane. Improvements in the Type XII led to the development of the
Land Tractor Type XII later in the year, which, configured as a
floatplane, set a distance record for overwater flight in a journey of down the
Missouri and
Mississippi rivers from
Omaha, Nebraska, to
New Orleans, Louisiana, between November 6 and December 16, 1912. Jannus performed 42 aerial exhibitions during the trip, exposing thousands of people in the central and southern United States to aviation. Throughout the spring and summer,
Aero and Hydro, a
newsletter published by Benoist's partner E. Percy Noel, promoted the Reliability Cruise, listing Benoist aircraft as the first three entrants.
First scheduled airline In 1913,
Percival E. Fansler brought in Benoist to start an air passenger service using Benoist Aircraft's new
flying boats to connect
St. Petersburg and
Tampa, Florida, two cities that otherwise were a day's travel apart at the time. Benoist signed a three-month contract to provide the service with the St. Petersburg Board of Trade on December 17, 1913, subsidizing 50% of the costs for starting the airline. Benoist initiated the service, the
St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, using a
Benoist XIV flying boat, on January 1, 1914. It was the first scheduled airline service in the world. Two Benoist XIVs provided twice-daily service across
Tampa Bay and by the time the initial contract expired on March 31, 1914, had transported 1,204 passengers without injury, losing only four days to mechanical problems. A decline in business led the airline to shut down in late April 1914 and sell its two flying boats. With him gone and facing continued financial problems, the Benoist Aircraft Company and the
Roberts Motor Company both went out of business in early 1918. Benoist Aircraft had built just over 100 airplanes in its history by the time it ceased operations. Benoist is buried at
Hopewell Cemetery in
Hopewell in
Washington County, Missouri. ==Gallery==