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St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line: The World’s First Airline, Part 2

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

The Airplane

A Benoist Model 14 was chosen for transporting passengers on the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line. The Benoist was built by St. Louis manufacturer Thomas Benoist. This flying boat was made of three layers of spruce wood with fabric between each of the layers. The powerplant was a Roberts 6-cylinder, in-line, liquid-cooled engine - common to several models of Benoist aircraft. The wings were constructed of spruce framing and covered with linen. The craft had a maximum speed of 64 mph and had accommodations for the pilot and one passenger. The plane retailed for $4,250.

The aircraft, by design, presented some challenges. The placement of the engine brought a maintenance headache. The propeller had to be elevated enough to clear the water and water spray. The Model 14 used a chain drive to make a connection between the propeller and the engine (located within the hull of the airboat). This drive was notorious for slipping off (as happened in that first flight across Tampa Bay). It was not uncommon for Airboat Line pilots to set down on Tampa Bay to realign the chain on the drive and then take off again to complete the trip. (Later Benoist models would have engines mounted beneath the wing and utilize a direct-drive for the props.)

Travel in that first passenger airplane made of wood, fabric, and wire was much different than in today's comfortable, air-conditioned airliner. But from contemporary accounts those first airline flights were not so bad, provided you did not mind sitting out in the breeze with water spraying in your face. Passengers sat on a wooden seat in the hull of a two-place seaplane that did not have a windshield and rarely flew more than five feet above the water. That is the way it was only a decade after Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic first flights at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Remember, this was seen as modern progress.

The manufacturer Thomas W. Benoist was best known for the sparking batteries and automobile self-starters he manufactured. Benoist also built 17 different models of landplanes and seaplanes between 1910 and 1917. He claimed of his aircraft: "My plane is figured down to the last equation, and improved up to the second. Every nut, bolt, wire, wood member, and piece of cloth is examined, tried and tested before it goes into our machines. Some others may be built as good, but none are built better, because we use the best of everything."

The copyright of the article St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line: The World’s First Airline, Part 2 in Airlines is owned by John L. Hoh, Jr.. Permission to republish St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line: The World’s First Airline, Part 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.