Hugh Armstrong Robinson

Hugh Armstrong Robinson (May 13, 1881 – 1963) was a pioneer in the earliest days of aviation, combining his skills of inventor, pilot, and daredevil. Among other things, he is said to have been the third person to successfully fly an aircraft after the Wright Brothers in a plane of his own design and construction and the first person to make an air-sea rescue. His many firsts also include the first medical flight transporting a doctor to patient in Hammond, N.Y. in June 1912 and first U.S. airmail flight in 1911. Robinson also devised the term and art of dive-bombing.

He was born on May 13, 1881 in Neosho, Missouri.

In late 1910, Hugh Robinson became a pilot and chief engineer for Glenn Curtiss at Curtiss Aviation, North Island, California. There he coined the term and invented the tailhook system that helped make possible Eugene Ely's first ever flight, on January 18, 1911, to the deck of a ship, the USS Pennsylvania, by allowing the airplane to stop quickly and safely. This system is used by Navies world-wide to the present day. Robinson took part in Curtiss' development of hydroplanes. In 1911 he took a hydroplane on the exhibition circuit, flying at demonstrations and fairs across North America and Europe.

At Kinloch Field in St. Louis, Missouri on March 1, 1912, Albert Berry made the first successful parachute jump, from a Benoist Airplane, designed and built by Hugh Robinson and Tom Benoist. He landed safely on the Jefferson Barracks parade grounds. The parachute and the apparatus used to support and release it were also designed and built by Robinson. Also in 1912, Robinson took a Curtiss Hydroplane to Europe at Monaco and flew impressively in an aviation meet there.

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