Cromwell Dixon: A Boy & His Plane 1892-1911

Illustrated with 40 historical photographs, this is the remarkable story of the boy wonder of turn-of-the-century Columbus, Ohio, Cromwell Dixon, who became the first pilot to cross the Continental Divide in Helena, Montana, on September 30, 1911 in a Curtiss pusher. Jeff Berry, in a richly detailed foreword, also reveals the family stories about Cromwell Dixon: how he built his own roller coaster, two motor-driven bicycles, and, at the age of fifteen, a pedal-powered airship known as the Skycycle.

Driven by dreams, Kidston tells the dramatic story of how Cromwell Dixon grew from a child prodigy into a national aviation hero at the turn of the twentieth century. From his childhood in Columbus, Ohio, Dixon was driven by dreams of flying. He became youngest licensed pilot in the country and, one fine September day in Montana, he was the first pilot to fly across the Continental Divide in his plane, the Little Hummingbird, only to meet with a fiery death two days later.

Like the tale of Icarus, Dixon s story is one of great daring, accomplishment, and tragedy.

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