Iowa's First Flight: Iowa Time Machine May 10, 1910

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On May 10, 1910, Iowan Arthur John Hartman made Iowa's first heavier-than-air aircraft fly. An important aviation innovator, Hartman’s legacy flies high in Iowa’s history.

Born and raised in Burlington, Iowa, Hartman ran away at fifteen years old and worked at the Illinois Steel Boiler Company in Chicago. Moonlighting as a volunteer at the Goddard Balloon Company, he soloed in a balloon three months before the Wright Brothers' first heavier-than-air flight in 1903.

In 1907, Hartman built a 67-foot-long airship that served as a forerunner to his 1910 Hartman Monoplane. A series of innovations saw Hartman form the Hartman-Sellers Airplane Company in 1919 and the later Burlington Airplane Company.

Later in life, Hartman founded the Burlington Municipal Airport and operated a flight school there starting in 1927. Even in his later years, he kept innovating, and in 1956, he debuted the Hartman Air-Brake in a demonstration featuring 50 hydrogen balloons attached to a pedal-powered propeller. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar