The aviation pioneer Tony Jannus provided many residents of Mississippi River towns their first view of an airplane in November 1912. Jannus was a pioneer who piloted early models of aircraft and pointed out the potential of aviation. Among other things, he piloted the plane from which the first parachute jump occurred on March 1, 1912, near St. Louis.
Jannus flew a Benoist Land Tractor Type XII, mounted on floats for this trip. This first flight down the Mississippi River began in Omaha on November 6, 1912. Jannus carried, among other small items, a letter from the mayor of Omaha to the mayor of New Orleans. He flew short hops down the river, providing aerial exhibitions, and finally arrived in St. Charles by November 17.
In St. Louis he took on a passenger—William Trefts, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff photographer who was also filming motion picture footage. The Lemp Brewery of St. Louis provided him a case of Falstaff beer for the mayor of New Orleans and letters to local distributors of the beer, including Wm. H. Sexauer of Ste. Genevieve and J. S. Wahl of Caruthersville. They left St. Louis early on November 25.
Arriving at Little Rock Landing near Ste. Genevieve by 9 a.m., the men walked into town, purchased gasoline, and carried it back to the plane. A large crowd of local people accompanied them to see the first airplane ever to visit Ste. Genevieve. They left for Grand Tower, Illinois, at 12:50 p.m. and arrived in 35 minutes.
The next day the plane pushed on to Cape Girardeau, arriving about 7:30 a.m. A crowd of 5,000 covered the riverbank and the tops of buildings along Water Street, the ferry boat Gladys had many aboard, and sightseers packed the steamer Cape Girardeau. The siren whistle at the powerhouse gave the signal when the plane appeared to the north, followed shortly by the Gladys in mid-stream, and the whistle at the Morrison ice plant.
Jannus flew a short exhibition thereafter. The crowd was so enthusiastic that it was impossible to protect the machine, and onlookers broke some of the ribs. The men got spare parts from the factory in St. Louis by the next morning. Jannus gave an exhibition and carried three passengers before leaving Cape Girardeau for Thebes. They flew low over the water and made slow progress because of the twists and turns of the channel in the stretch to Cairo, Illinois.
From Cairo the plane headed to Columbus and Hickman, Kentucky, then New Madrid and Caruthersville. When the plane arrived in Caruthersville on November 30, the Democrat-Argus wrote, “Hundreds lined the riverbank in anticipation as early as noon. Most had never seen a flying machine and expected the plane to arrive over the treetops. There was some disappointment when it came into view just skimming the top of the water.”
From there the men headed downriver, arriving in New Orleans on December 15, and delivering the letter to the mayor and the case of Falstaff beer. Jannus had set a 1900-mile record for overwater flight.
Tony Jannus became the first commercial airline pilot, flying the inaugural flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line in 1914. He then became a test pilot for the Curtiss Aeroplane Company. It was in this capacity that Curtiss sent Jannus to Russia as test pilot and trainer for Russian combat pilots on October 1, 1915. During a flight on October 12, his plane crashed into the Black Sea, ending the life of this promising airplane pioneer.
