As was sadly the case for many aviation pioneers, Tony Jannus had a brief but illustrious career in the early years of flight. Soon after attending an airshow in Baltimore, Maryland, Jannus began pilot training at College Park Airport. By the end of 1911, both Tony Jannus and his brother, Roger, had become test pilots for Benoist Aircraft, a leading aircraft manufacturer.
Over the next few years, Jannus would record numerous achievements. He was the pilot when Albert Berry completed the world’s first parachute jump from a moving airplane in 1912.
The best-known period of Jannus’ aviation career came after he moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, in late 1913 and began demonstrating that airplanes could serve a practical purpose, rather than just setting records or wowing spectators at air shows.
A group of St. Petersburg community and business leaders had gotten together to create the world’s first scheduled airline using fixed-wing aircraft, the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line, which connected Tampa and St. Petersburg. In a Benoist flying boat, the 23-mile (37-km) journey across Tampa Bay lasted just 23 minutes, an incredible improvement over the existing transportation options. At the time, travel between the two cities took two hours by steamboat, between 4 and 12 hours by train, and up to 20 hours by horse-drawn buggy or car.
After a parade and band at the departure point, Jannus piloted the inaugural flight on January 1, 1914, in a Benoist XIV flying boat biplane, departing from the St. Petersburg pier with former St. Petersburg mayor Abram C. Pheil as the very first airline passenger (earlier in the day, Pheil had won an auction for that honor with a $400 bid, equivalent to $8,500 in today’s money). Flying low over the bay, the plane touched down in Tampa at 10:23 am in front of another jubilant crowd of spectators.
The route would be covered twice daily by Jannus and his fellow pilots until May 5, 1914. In just four months of operation, the airline transported 1,205 passengers during 172 flights. The standard rate for a one-way ticket was $5 (approximately $157 in 2024 dollars), or $5 per 100 pounds of freight.
After the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line ceased operation, Jannus became a test pilot for the Curtiss Aeroplane Company. Tragically, Tony Jannus died on October 12, 1916, when his Curtiss H-7 crashed into the Black Sea near Sevastopol. The 27-year-old American was training Russian pilots to fly Curtiss planes during World War I.
The world’s first airline pilot:
- College Park Airport in Maryland, where Tony Jannus learned to fly, is the world’s oldest continuously operating airport, having opened in 1909. Its original purpose was to serve as a training site for Wilbur Wright to teach military officers to fly the Wright Type A biplane. Civilian aircraft began flying at College Park Airport in 1911.
- The first cargo transported by the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line was a bundle of St. Petersburg Times newspapers.
- On January 1, 1989, the 75th anniversary of Jannus’ most famous flight, a replica Benoist XIV was flown across Tampa Bay. It is now displayed at the St. Petersburg Museum of History, around 100 yards from where Jannus took off from the St. Petersburg Pier in 1914.
- Since 1963, the legacy of Tony Jannus has been commemorated with the Tony Jannus Award, conferred annually for outstanding achievement by commercial airline pilots.
