Israel Ludlow (1873-1955) was the son of Brig. Gen. Benjamin C. Ludlow of Cincinatti. The Ludlows were a prominent family in Ohio. Indeed, another ancestor and namesake, Israel Ludlow, founded and planned the city of Dayton (the Wright brothers' home town).

Ludlow's father was well known. This helped his son later in many ways. Gen. Ludlow had been a hero of the American Civil War, liberating an area of eastern Virginia where his son later directed an aeronautical exposition and convention. (In that context, Gen. Ludlow is best known today for his efforts to free slaves.) Young Ludlow's aviation experiments were facilitated by workshops supplied by the War Ministry, liaison officers, sailors and ships by the Navy and even cavalry horses by the Army.  

Israel Ludlow attended elementary school in Texas, studied law at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, graduated in the class of 1895 and took up legal practice in New York the same year. There, he was both active in local politics and as a social reformer. One of his most famous cases was against the NYPD where he represented blacks who'd been mishandled in police custody. He stood up to Police Commissioner York who tried to intimidate him and prevent him from cross-examining police witnesses.  When Ludlow later sustained an injury putting him in a wheelchair, he helped pioneer access to public buildings for handicapped persons, all the while pushed by a black nurse. He was also a vegetarian.  

It's reported, Ludlow's interest in aeronautics began in his college days in the early 1890s. It's not known exactly when he started planning and building aircraft. Various articles quote as having a collection of kites, having performed aerodynamic and equilibrium experiments on aircraft models, experimented with a powered model driven by a wind-up rubber band, and being forced to throw away 60 aircraft models when he ran out of space to store them. They also report him having experimented with "tetrahedral kites" and a man-carrying glider (with which he flew 25 yards at a height of 12 feet at Riverside Avenue in New York) in the first half of 1905.  

Ludlow's first steps towards powered flight were taken in 1905 by towing his manned gliders behind cars and boats, then attaching a motor to them. That same year, he also became associated with the newly-founded Aero Club of America.

For his experiments, Ludlow enlisted a pilot named Charles Hamilton. Financing was shared by his partners, Dr. Julian P. Thomas (a surgeon, balloonist, automobile fan and co-founder of the Aero Club) and Henry T. McIntyre of the Institute of Arts & Sciences in Brooklyn.

Charles K. Hamilton (1885-1914) was born and raised in Connecticut. At age 8, he tells of jumping off the barn roof holding his mother's parasol. Once he got a bit older, he first attached sails to a wagon and got it airborne, then built a manned kite and flew it up to 100ft.

As an adolescent, he finally took a ride on a real airship and decided to make flying his career. According to one source, in 1899 (at age 18), he started both ballooning and parachuting at shows. Soon thereafter, he married his first wife, Jennie Lugan, from Bridgeport, Connecticut. He then claimed to have lived in Texas for a while before moving back East.

The "who's who" of ballooning reports that Hamilton began working for Ludlow in 1903. Hamilton's obituary states it was 1904.

Hamilton and Ludlow flew both dirigable balloons and winged aircraft. On one occasion they borrowed the Cailifornia Arrow from Leo Stevens and planned to put on a show at Brighton Beach, New York. However, on that day they couldn't get it airborne because it needed both a new "carbonator" and new batteries. However, as a team they were better known for their winged aircraft flights. 

Hamilton performed many spectacular, manned flights along the New York beaches in a Ludlow glider towed first by an automobile, then by various boats. Numerous reports by New York newspapers, a Scientific American pictorial (November 4, 1905,  p. 356) and even international magazines documented the flights which were witnessed by tens of thousands of spectators:

Ludlow's aircraft were far from primitive. They had both vertical and horizontal control surfaces (elevator & rudder). He dislked the "tetrahedral" concept used by Alexander Graham Bell on his kites. Instead, Ludlow preferred a "dihedral" wing arrangement (which is what almost all aircraft still use).

Ludlow's success with towed gliders (which he called "aerostats") encouraged him to move on to powered flight. For this purpose, he'd built a larger aircraft he called the "Flying Machine". The first known picture of the "Flying machine" without the motor appeared on July 22, 1905.

Soon, things progressed from wires, canvass & bamboo to oil & grease when - after a delay of two months - Gustave Whitehead delivered and installed an 18hp motor.

It was equipped with a long drive shaft typical of contemporary dirigable airships. It had counter-rotating (torque-neutralizing) propellers (a similar arrangement to Whitehead's own 1901 airrcaft). The motor was mounted well above the ground to allow longer blades and increase propeller efficiency, but below the wings' pressure point to enhance balance.

A photo taken taken in New York on West 79th St. shows Hamilton (slouching in the cockpit), Whitehead (wearing stained overalls and a hat, standing at center) and Ludlow (wearing a tie, at right) with the aircraft and its newly-installed motor:

[For earlier photos of the unfinished aircraft, click here.]

Despite his paralysis, Ludlow contiinued his involvement in aviation. As a member of the Board of Directors of the American Aero Club, he edited and co-authored their 1907 aviation progress summary entitled "Navigating the Air" The book includes articles by himself, Chanute, Herring and many others. In his own article entitled "Experimental flights with a Man-Carrying Aeroplane", he described both his experiments with kites and his attempts to achieve powered flight.

While working for Ludlow, Hamilton had survived a total of 63 crashes (some reports claim is was as many as 150 crashes). After Ludlow's crash and serious injury, it was apparently time for Hamilton to move on.

Hamilton first concentrated on flying dirigable airships (1906-1907). He then switched back to heavier-than-air machines in 1908. On June 13, 1910, he became instantly famous when he won a race along the railroad line from New York to Philadelphia and back. (His old boss, Ludlow, now confined to a wheelchair) watched the entire race out a window on a special train which followed the race.

Hamilton became a daredevil pilot for the Curtiss Show Team (1908-9). Glenn Curtiss once described him as "the most daring pilot in the world". After an altercation with Curtiss, he started performing on his own at air shows around the world (1910 onward). But he stayed in touch with Ludlow: When Curtiss tried to prevent Hamilton's appearance at a show he was organizing, Hamilton hired Ludlow to be his lawyer.

After he'd convalesced and started adjusting to life in a wheelchair, the Aero Club of America elected Ludlow to be Director of the Aeronautical Exhibition in Jamestown, Virginia, at the Tricentennial World Exposition to be held from April 15 to December 1, 1907. The exposition was to include

- a static aeronautical display,

- a congress of aeronauts,

- live demonstrations of airships and

- a Scientific American Cup for the best heavier-than-air aircraft.

A budget of $15,000 was provided to erect the first ever building devoted solely to an aeronautical display. 

At the time, the US War Department was starting to get interested in aerial capabilities. It approached Ludlow about participating in his experiments.

The US Navy assigned Capt. Thomas T. Lovelace, a hero of the war in Panama, as a liaison to Ludlow, appropriated ten enlisted men to assist building a new airplane and even placed a tug-boat, a torpedo cruiser and a battleship at his disposal. The US Army Signal Corps. also assigned a liason officer, Capt. Chandler, to the project. The new aircraft was to be a hydroplane which could either be towed by a ship or use its own onboard motor. (As such, it was the first Navy aeroplane.)

Ludlow's new staff pilot was J.C. ("Bud") Mars. The new machine was demonstrated in September 1907 at the Jamestown Exposition. During the first trial, it was pulled by the Navy tug, "Potomac". On the second trial, it was towed by the torpedo cruiser "Gwinn". Operations were directed from the deck of the Battleship "Missouri". On some of the flights, Mars was at the controls; On others, it was Lovelace. However, unlike the flights in New York, the Flying Machine failed to get airborne at the expo.

Part of the expo was the Gordon Bennett Air Races & accompanying Scientific American Cup (for heavier-than-air aircraft) held in St. Louis, Missouri (Oct. 21-23, 1907). Ludlow shipped his plane there to take part. It too, was equipped with a Whitehead motor (Ludlow entry, aerofiles.com).

Unfortunately, the machine was damaged by apparatus designed to heat one of the balloons and was unable to compete. However, Ludlow  was invited to officiate as starter of the balloon race. A photo of Ludlow's flying machine in St. Louis (with Ludlow in front of it) was shown on the front page of the Washington Times:

Ludlow immediately returned to Jamestown to run the Congress of Aeronauts.

Famous aviation pioneers like Prof. John J. Montgommery and Augustus M. Herring (both of whom lay claim to powered flights in the 1800s), gave presentations, as did the Aeronautical Director of the exhibition, Ludlow, himself.

After the Congress, one last attempt was made to get the Ludlow aeroplane flying. This time, the plane was roped behind six Cavalry horses who set off at a fast gallop. It, too, was unsuccessful.

On Dec. 1, 1907, the Jamestown Expo closed. As a whole, it was a financial failure, although the aeronautics exhibitions did well and were one of its few highlights.



After Ludlow spent a few days in summer 1910 with John J. Frisbie, advising him on his aircraft, the two decided to form what they called an "Aviation Trust". A company, the "Aviation Co.", was formed. The idea was to pool all the show pilots in the country and foster peaceful co-existence as an alternative to the bitter litigation which was consuming the flying community. Well-known pilots such as Charles Hamilton, Thomas Baldwin and four of the Wright Flying Team were enlisted in the venture. Sadly,  Frisbie was killed the following year in a plane crash and the venture ceased.