That First Flight Included A Stop In To Repair A Drive Chain, Which Would Be A Recurring Problem With The Benoist. Its Ironic That The First Commercial Flight Also Had The World's First Airline Delay.The Pilot On That Historic Flight Was Antony H. Jannus, A Benoist Test Pilot And Instructor Who Was An Aviation Pioneer Long Before The St. Pete-to-Tampa Flight.He Had Taken Captain Albert Berry To Make The First Parachute Jump From An Airplane On March 1, 1912. Jannus Did Flying Demonstrations For Benoist Planes Throughout The Midwest And Was A Contestant At A Air Show In September 1912. Later That Month, He Established An American Passenger-carrying Record By Taking Three Men With Him On A 10-minute Flight.On November 6, 1912, Jannus And J.D. Smith, Who Was His Mechanic Left For In An Attempt To Set A Distance Record For Winged Aircraft. The Flight Of 1,973 Miles Took Six Weeks Because Of Stops For Exhibitions, A Near-disastrous Fire, Various Repairs, And A Appendicitis Attack. But Jannus Was Still Hailed In The Newspapers As "the Pioneer Flying-boat Pilot Of The World."Soon After The Flight, He Set A "continuous Flight With Passenger" Record By Flying 251 Miles From , , To In Four Hours And 15 Minutes. Jannus Also Made Air-to-ground Radio Tests For The Signal Corps During That Flight.Tony Jannus Was A Native Of Washington D.C. Born In 1889; He Was Employed By The Emerson Marine Engine Co. In . By Chance In November Of 1910. Emerson Marine Sent Tony To Install A Marine Engine In A Modified Curtiss-type Airplane In . It Was At This Time Tony Fell In Love With Flying. He Had Received Only Basic Instructions (which Was Standard Procedure In Those Early Days) And Soon Became Very Active In Aviation. Benoist Hired Him As A Flying Instructor In In 1911. Tony Came To With The Airboat And Once The Plane Was Reassembled From The Rail Trip, He Flew Test Flights In Preparation For The Newly Formed Passenger Service. Tony Jannus Was The Pilot Of That First Scheduled Passenger Airline Flight On January 1, 1914, For A Very Simple Reason. He Knew The Plane And Also How To Fly It!
