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Wiseman--2

Seated in air-conditioned solitude with the motor and propeller behind him, the pilot manipulated controls leading to what looked like rudders or box kites fore and aft. He used his shoulders on the apparatus in balancing on a turn or in a current of air. Wooden "ski" skids were between bicycle wheels.

The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., says the ^[[aeroplane]] flight was the first in the world authorized by a local post office and available to the public.

Remnants of the plane are preserved at the Smithsonian awaiting restoration.

Although not given credit in books on early aviation, Wiseman invented the apparatus used on the Battleship Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay to stop the machine in which Eugene Ely made the first shore to ship landing in 1911.

Bill Soberanes, Petaluma Argus-Courier columnist and chairman of the plaque dedication committee, says [[strikethrough]] that [[/strikethrough]] the Petaluma-Santa Rosa air trek "is of singular importance to California history and will be celebrated accordingly".

Wiseman died October 4, 1961 in Oakland at the age of 85. He said in his later years that he gave up flying because a number of records were set quickly, stunt men took over "and they didn't live very long". 

There were only a dozen of so Americans qualified to fly when the famous air mail flight took place. ^[[This was true about 1909 but by the time of the airmail flight there were approximately 85 American aviators.]]