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DIRIBIBLE DAREDEVIL-This photo, taken in 1910, shows Ray Knabenshue in dirigible, above plan flown by Paul Han, when aircraft pioneers thrilled Los Angeles "air circus" crowds with feats of daring in early days of flight.

Roy Knabenshue, 83, Pioneer Balloonist, Dies
Career Began at St. Louis Exposition in 1904; Funeral Services on Wednesday

[[image: POINEER PILOT - Roy Knabenshue, on 50th anniversary of first air show.]]

 Roy Knabenshue, 83, the first man to fly a powered lighter- than - air craft in America at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904, died yesterday in Evergreen Sanitarium, Temple City.
 He was one of the last of a group of noted aviation pioneers known as the Early Birds. 
 Mr. Knabenshue, in ill health for more than 10 years, entered the sanitarium after suffering a stroke Feb. 21 in his trailer park home at 4241 E Live Oak Ave., Arcadia.
 The veteran airman also flew the first crude blimp in California at Los Angeles old Chutes Park in 1904, raced his dirigible at America's first air show at Dominguez Field here in 1910 and started a dirigible passenger flight service in Pasadena in 1912.
 Manager for Wrights
 He served as general manager to the Wright brothers and Glenn L. Martin and once took Theodore Roosevelt up in an early-day dirigible. 
 It was Mr. Knabenshue who talked Martin into flying a home-made airplane from Balboa to Santa Catalina Island and back again "to gain a reputation" several years after the Dominguez Field meet.
 The son of an editor of the Ohio State Journal, Mr. Knabenshue was inspired to learn to fly at the age of 6 when a professional aeronaut came to his home town of Columbus and went up in a captive balloon.
 He bought his first balloon at the turn of the century with a $25 down payment and began to tour country fairs, taking up passengers for "a dollar a head."
 It was an accident that resulted in his becoming the first man to fly a crude dirigible in this country at the St. Louis Exposition on Oct. 25, 1904.
 Mr. Knabenshue agreed to take the dirigible up when it was found the craft could
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