Earle Ovington: Difference between revisions

[[File:Earle Ovington ef53450508 o.jpg|thumb|Earle Ovington and wife circa 1913]]
[[File:Earle Lewis Ovington 4a38676a01 o.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Edward M. Morgan]], [[Frank Harris Hitchcock]], and Earle Lewis Ovington and the [[Blériot XI]]]]

[[File:Ovington 2162926957 48f8225fce o.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Edward M. Morgan]], [[Frank Harris Hitchcock]], and Earle Lewis Ovington]]

'''Earle Lewis Ovington''' (December 20, 1879 &ndash; July 21, 1936) was an [[United States of America|American]] aeronautical engineer, aviator and inventor, and served as a lab assistant to [[Thomas Edison]]. Ovington piloted the first official [[airmail]] flight in the United States in a [[Blériot XI]] inon September 23, 1911.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/america-by-air/online/early_years/early_years02.cfm|title=America by Air}}</ref> He carried a sack of mail from [[Nassau Boulevard Airfield|Nassau Boulevard aerodrome]], [[Garden City, New York]], to [[Mineola, New York]]. He circled at 500 feet and tossed the bag over the side of the cockpit and the sack burst on impact, scattering letters and postcards.<ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=E. L. Ovington Dies. First Mail Pilot. Flew the Initial Consignment From Garden City Estates to Mineola, L. I., in 1911. |url=httphttps://selectwww.nytimes.com/gst1936/abstract07/23/archives/e-l-ovington-dies-first-mail-pilot-flew-the-initial-consgnment-from.html?res=F7081EFF355B1B7B93C1AB178CD85F428385F9 |quote=From Garden City Estates to Mineola, L. I., in 1911. Covered Ten-mile Route. Studied at Bleriot School at Pau, France. Owned Air Terminal at Santa [Barbara]|work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 23, 1936 |accessdateaccess-date=2008-12-23 }}</ref> He delivered 640 letters and 1,280 postcards, including a letter to himself from the [[United States PostalPost Office ServiceDepartment]] designating him as "Official Air Mail Pilot #1."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.airmailpioneers.org/history/milestone3.html |title=Earle Ovington |accessdateaccess-date=2008-12-23 |quote=<!--Ovington was duly sworn in as the first U.S. airmail pilot, then handed a load of 640 letters and 1,280 postcards in a mail bag. With hardly enough room in his little cockpit to hold the bundle, he tucked it between his legs and at 5:26 p.m. took off. In flight he balanced it on his knees so he could steer with his feet. Five and a half miles later, a distance he covered in six minutes, he arrived over Mineola. His wife remembered that he had sworn to "guard and protect" the mail, and so he did to the best of his ability. He circled at 500 feet, took aim, tossed the bag over the side and hit the mark dead center, but the sack burst on impact, scattering letters and postcards thither and yon. Rapidly retrieved, they were sent on their way by regular post. -->|publisher=Airmail Pioneers |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090724085241/http://www.airmailpioneers.org/history/milestone3.html |archive-date=2009-07-24 }}</ref><ref name=EarlyAviators/>

He was born on December 20, 1879, in Chicago, Illinois.<ref>[[1880 US Census]]</ref><ref>Passenger list traveling from Ensenada, Mexico

on 17 Jun 1931 to Los Angeles, California</ref> He married Adelaide in 19071911 and they had two children: Earle Kester Ovington (1912–2006) and Audrey Ovington (1914-?2005)<ref>[[1930 US Census]]</ref><ref name=ash/> He built a house in the Samarkand area of [[Santa Barbara, California]], which included an airstrip. While this airstrip wasn't the ultimate site of the Santa Barbara Municipal Airfield, it did serve in that capacity until Ovington's death. He died on July 21, 1936.<ref name=EarlyAviators>{{cite web |url=http://www.earlyaviators.com/eovingto.htm |title=Earle Lewis Ovington |accessdateaccess-date=2008-12-23 |quote=Ovington took off on September 23, 1911 with a load of 640 letters and 1,280 postcards in a mail bag tucked between his legs - the first airplane carry of United States mail authorized by postal authorities. Ovington flew to Mineola, about three miles away, where, as agreed, he dropped the bag in a prearranged spot to waiting postal officials. The drop landed on time and on target, but unfortunately the bag broke on impact with the ground, scattering the mail hither and yon. After a scramble, all the letters and cards were retrieved and sent on the way via regular postal channels, all of them bearing the cancellation "Aeroplane Station No.1 - Garden City Estates, N.Y." For this feat Ovington was awarded the title "Air MAil Pilot No.1." ... Earle Ovington died in 1936. |publisher=Early Aviators }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Ovington, First Air-Mail Pilot, Called By Death.|url=httphttps://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/402135171.html?dids=402135171:402135171&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jul+22%2C+1936&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=OVINGTON%2C+FIRST+AIR-MAIL+PILOT%2C+CALLED+BY+DEATH&pqatl=google |quote=Earle L. Ovington, 56 years of age, pioneer aviator and first airmail pilot in America, died at 4 p.m. yesterday at the [[Good Samaritan Hospital (Los Angeles)|Good Samaritan Hospital]]. For seven weeks he had made a vain effort to cheat death as he had many times before in his eventful career as naval of-... |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date= July 22, 1936|accessdateaccess-date=2008-12-23 }}</ref> He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.<ref name=ash>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=To Cast Ovington Ashes Into Sea |url=httphttps://selectwww.nytimes.com/gst1936/07/24/abstractarchives/to-cast-ovington-ashes-into-seai.html?res=F30D15FC355B1B7B93C6AB178CD85F428385F9 |quote=His widow, Mrs. Adelaide Ovington, said she would take the ashes East at a future date in compliance with the pioneer aviator's request. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 24, 1936 |accessdateaccess-date=2008-12-24 }}</ref>

*[httphttps://archive.org/details/anaviatorswife00ovingoog Ovington, Mrs. Adelaide Alexander, ''An Aviator's Wife'', Dodd, Mead and company, 1920.] Full text at archive.org.

*Campbell, Robert D., ''Reminiscences orof a Birdman'', Living History Press, 2009. {{ISBN |0615281885}}

*[httphttps://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/tags/ovington/ Earle Lewis Ovington] at [[Flickr]]

[[Category:20th-century American inventors]]

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