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NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE.
PROPERTY OF THE AVIATION HALL OF FAME

A. (AUGUSTUS) ROY KNABENSHUE
1876 - 1960

Among the early air pioneers, A. Roy Knabenshue is remembered best for his flight in the "California Arrow" at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.  This was the first public demonstration of a dirigible in America and the resulting interest in lighter-than-aircraft generated the basic acceptance of aviation by a generation of Americans who were to live to see man at the threshold of interstellar space travel.

Knabenshue was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on July 15, 1876.  One of five sons, his parents were both from Lancaster.  His mother was Salome Matlack and his father was Samuel S. Knabenshue.  Samuel, at one time, was the editor of the Ohio State Journal and later of the Toledo Weekly Blade.  Later in life he entered the Consular Service and served as Consul General in Tientsin, China, before he passed away in 1914.

Young Roy Knabenshue's interest in aeronautics began at the age of six, when a professional aeronaut performed in Columbus, where the family was living.  Little Roy went up in the aeronaut's captive balloon and this was the beginning of a life of adventure in the air for him.

At the turn of the century, while he was still in his early