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Biographical Sketches

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early aviator logo HENRY W. WALDEN

Born: November 10, 1883    In: MA
Died: September 13, 1964    

Studied dentistry at Columbia University and, on graduation in 1906, opened a dental office in Manhattan.

In 1908 Walden joined the Aeronautical Society of New York, at the time based at the Morris Park racetrack in the Bronx. There he became interested in designing and building his own planes, the first two of which -- both biplanes -- were failures. For his third, he decided to try a different tack. To avoid long trips to Morris Park, he rented a loft near his dental office and, with the help of a cousin and a mechanic, began work on a monoplane.

During a test run on Dec 9, 1909, Walden’s fragile wood-and-fabric craft rose a few feet off the ground and traveled just over 10 yards before the plane’s one-gallon gas tank ran dry, becoming the first American monoplane to fly. However, this flight was discounted because of its brevity. So, on Aug 3, 1910, with a 10-gallon tank installed, he tried again and became airborne for a longer, albeit still brief, flight that ended in a crash, breaking several ribs and fracturing his collarbone. This epic flight made headlines in a NYC newspaper and the record book.

In late 1910, he teamed up with English flier George Dyott to established the Walden-Dyott Aeronautic Co at Hempstead Plains field to build monoplanes, but business was slow and, early in 1911, the two disbanded their company. Dyott received two of the monoplanes, which he later sold in South America, and Walden got the hangar and the unfinished third plane. Returning to his dental practice, he would put in a whole day there, then motorcycle out to the hangar to spend most of the night working on his planes, a grueling pace at best. In following years, Walden built nine more ships, performed at air shows, and survived at least a dozen more crashes.

In 1912, a flight student crashed in one of his planes and, while injuries were relatively minor, the accident so unnerved Walden that he quit flying to concentrate on laboratory work. There, in 1915, he invented and patented the first radio-controlled missile, a model of which is in the Smithsonian Institution. When the USA entered WW1, he formed a company with a New Jersey lumber mill to make aircraft wings and tails for the military. Then, in 1929, he formed Walden Aircraft at Long Island City; however, aviation had become a big business, and it was impossible for a small company to compete. In 1932, he sold his plant and went back to dentistry.

Walden died at age 81, one week before his induction into the National Aviation Hall of Fame 1964.

REFERENCES:
Morehouse Early Pioneers


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early aviator logo Denotes an individual known to have soloed an aircraft prior to December 16, 1917, whether they were members of the "Early Birds of Aviation" Organization or not.