Gage-Martin
Photo from Alaska State Library via Jim Ruotsala collection
First aircraft to fly in Alaska.
Information from Jim Ruotsala's book Pilots of the Panhandle
In 1913, a group of Fairbanks businessmen contacted James ~ Martin, a New Englander, temporarily residing in Seattle, and asked him to fly over the ballpark during the annual 4th of July celebration.
Martin, no relation to the famous airplane designer Glenn Martin, was at that time tops in the field of aerodynamics and a friend of General Billy Mitchell. His wife Lilly Irvine Martin, who accompanied him, was also an accomplished aviatrix and was the first woman to ever fly in England.
He shipped his flimsy aircraft by steamer to Skagway then loaded it on a White Pass and Yukon Narrow Gauge Railroad flat car for the 125 mile trip to Whitehorse, then by riverboat 800 miles down the Yukon River and 100 miles up the Tanana and Chena rivers to Fairbanks.
Hundreds of people lined the ballpark, sat on roof tops, in trees, and on poles and watched awestruck as Martin circled over the town at the fantastic altitude of 200 feet. Martin flew for 1 1 minutes, then touched down on the ballpark, completing the first flight in Alaska. Professor Peterson was the "First to Try", Martin was the "First to Fly."
