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twenties, young Knabenshue bought his first captive balloon with a $25.00 down payment. After he mastered all of the necessary functions for operating the captive balloon, he began to take up passengers for "a dollar a head" in the Toledo area, where the family had moved. 
   In describing these early days, Knabenshue said: "I started ballooning in 1900 after I saw one pilot get $100 for going up in the air. I was a telephone man in Toledo then. I had a big family and I needed the money."
   After he graduated to piloting steerable balloons, during his early flying days in the Toledo area, he used the name "Don Carlos" to avoid embarrassment for his family. These were the days when balloon flying was not regarded as exactly a highly respected occupation.
   Knabenshue later recalled: "Most of the people used to come out to see me get killed, because they thought going up in a balloon couldn't be done. But there's no trick to it, if you keep your head."
   While Knabenshue was among the first persons in America to pilot a steerable balloon, he followed all the other aeronautical activities throughout the nation with avid interest. At that time, the most famous American aeronautical pioneer associated with lighter-than-air flights was Captain Thomas Scott Baldwin. He was an acrobat, tight-rope walker, inventor, balloonist, parachute jumper, and successful exhibition manager. His claim to aeronautical fame results from his designing, building and flying the first successful dirigible


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