Robert G. Fowler
| Robert G. Fowler | |
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_piloting_his_airplane_on_September_5,_1911.jpg)
Fowler with the Wright Model B Flyer called the "Cole Flyer" 1911
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| Born |
August 10, 1884 San Francisco, California |
| Died | June 15, 1966 (aged 81) San Jose, California |
Robert George Fowler (August 10, 1884 – June 15, 1966) was an early aviation pioneer and was the first person to make a west-to-east transcontinental flight in stages.
He was born on August 10, 1884 in San Francisco, California. He married Leonore in 1913. She had been previously married.
He left San Francisco, California on September 11, 1911 in an attempt to win the $50,000 (approximately $1,285,000 today) Hearst prize in a Wright biplane equipped with a Cole Motor Car Company engine. After his first day he crashed in Alta, California. His cross-country flight was completed February 8, 1912, in Jacksonville, Florida after the deadline, and the prize expired without a winner.
After becoming the first person to traverse the United States from the West Coast to the East Coast, Fowler became the first person to make a nonstop transcontinental flight by traversing the Isthmus of Panama in 57 minutes on 27 April 1913. Flying from the Pacific to the Atlantic along the route of the Panama Canal construction in a single-engine hydroplane, his passenger and cameraman Ray Duhem filmed parts of the canal during the flight.
That same month, pictures taken by Duhem of fortifications in the Panama Canal Zone, as well as photos of the Presidio of San Francisco (then an active military installation), were published in Sunset magazine under the title "Can the Panama Canal Be Destroyed from the Air?" After publication, the Department of War asked the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco, John W. Preston, to investigate the matter. On July 10, 1914, warrants were issued for the arrest of Fowler, Duhem, writer Riley A. Scott, and Sunset editor Charles K. Field, with Preston stating that new regulations passed by US Congress made it illegal "for a civilian to take or publish photographs of any fortification, whether complete or in process of construction.
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