Existing comment:
The Rex Smith Aeroplane Company 1910-1917:
In early 1910, several civilian aviation companies came to College Park, bringing commercial enterprise and new technology to the airfield. The first of these companies was the Rex Smith Aeroplane Company, established by well-known inventor and patent attorney Rexford Smith.
When the Army returned to the airfield in 1911 to establish the first Army Aviation School, Smith was requested to move his hanger to be in line with the new Army hangars that were parallel to the railroad tracks.
Others soon followed Smith in establishing companies on the field, including the National Aviation Company, the sole area dealer of Curtiss, Bleriot, and Wright aeroplanes, and the Washington Aeroplane Company, designer of the Columbia monoplane and other successful aircraft. The Rex Smith Aeroplane Company worked with the fields' other civilian aviation companies on several collaborative ventures. As a result, the Rex Smith Aeroplane Company hangar grew from one to two large buildings and several smaller sheds by late 1911.
The Rex Smith Aeroplane Company became the center of media activity and the focus of the Washington social elite with their well-publicized flights around the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol. They were frequently in the news for entertaining and flying politicians other well-connected individuals, garnering them much support and publicity.
Two of Smith's most popular test pilots later became famous in their own right -- Paul Peck, who became a well-known exhibition flyer, and Tony Jannus. Jannus made history in 1914 as the pilot for the world's first commercial airline after being hired by the Benoist Company in 1912. |