1960: An Aviation Pioneer Completes His Life’s Journey in New York City

April 14, 1960

Aviation pioneer Dr. William Whitney Christmas died at Bellevue Hospital in New York City at the age of 94. He was born on September 1, 1865, in the town of Warrenton, North Carolina. After earning his M.D. from George Washington University in 1905, Christmas practiced medicine for just a few years before devoting his life to the pursuit of human flight instead. 

Christmas was among the first to take to the skies in a plane, piloting a powered heavier-than-air machine in Fairfax County, Virginia, in March 1908 — about four-and-a-half years after the Wright Brothers made their historic flight near Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina.  

While lacking any formal experience in aircraft design or other aeronautical work, Christmas established himself as a notable stakeholder in the burgeoning industry of planes. In 1910, he founded the Christmas Aeroplane Company in Washington, D.C. (This enterprise subsequently became the Durham Christmas Aeroplane Sales & Exhibition Company and then the Cantilever Aero Company.) Christmas has also been credited with inventing numerous aviation devices.

His stature in the aviation community was so prominent that, at the outbreak of World War I, the German government reportedly offered to pay him $1,000 a day plus expenses for his services as a consultant for that country’s airborne plans in the global military conflict. Christmas declined the offer, sensing that the United States would eventually enter that war against Germany.

After the United States did indeed the war on the side of the Allied Powers, Christmas developed what is widely considered to be among the worst aircraft ever built: a single-seat cantilever wing biplane known as the Christmas Bullet, which contained such questionable and unsafe features as the all-wood construction as well as wings that lacked any type of strut or brace. Despite this dismal failure, Christmas was still held in high enough regard to become one of 598 individuals inducted into the organization known as the Early Birds of Aviation.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Additional information on William Whitney Christmas is available at https://earlyaviators.com/echristm.htm