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LUCKY 13
Part 1 of a Planned Series of Aviation History
By Jill Larson, Archivist
July 29, 1911, marked an exciting day for the citizens of the Vincennes area. Thousands of spectators gathered to watch Lucky 13, piloted by Hugh A. Robinson, a veteran flier of two years. His plane was the first of any kind to fly over Indiana’s oldest city. Richard Day, Vincennes’ noted historian, was interviewed on the 100th anniversary of this flight and recounted many interesting details of the plane and its pilot in an article by Jenny Peter in the Vincennes Sun-Commercial in 1980.
According to the article, this bi- plane was built by Glenn Curtiss who was a chief rival of the Wright brothers. The plane, which only weighed about 1500 pounds, arrived in Vincennes by train in two large crates and was constructed of only a few pieces of bamboo, spruce, and tape! Lucky 13 was brought to Vincennes as a part of Curtiss’ campaign to advertise the aircraft, and it was sponsored by the Vincennes Sun-Commercial. The airplane had a wingspan of 35 feet and an 8-cylinder, 75 horsepower engine capable of speeds of up to 68 mph and could fly up to 1000 feet high. The pilot sat on the lower wing in front of the engine, Day reported, and his only instrumentation was a watch attached to the plane’s steering wheel. He had no parachute or safety belt. The takeoff was held at the fairgrounds, which is now Gregg Park. “There were Model Ts lined up and down Fairground Avenue, which is now Washington Avenue,” Day reported. In 1980, Day interviewed Manly Smith, who was age 10 at the time of the flight. (Smith is the young gentleman observing the plane in the above photograph taken from the files of Lewis Historical Library.) Hugh Robinson took off in Lucky 13 and landed several times at the old fairgrounds.
Hugh Armstrong Robinson was born on May 13, 1881 in Neosho, Missouri. Robinson was a pioneer in the earliest days of aviation, combining his skills of inventor, pilot, and daredevil. He is said to have been the third person to successfully fly an aircraft after the Wright Brothers in a plane of his own design and construction and the first person to make an air-sea rescue. Robinson also devised the art of dive-bombing!
In 1910, Robinson became a pilot and chief engineer for Glenn Curtiss at Curtiss Aviation, North Island, California. Working there, he invented a tailhook system that helped make possible Eugene Ely’s first ever flight, on January 18, 1911, to the deck of a ship, the USS Pennsylvania, by allowing the airplane to stop quickly and safely. Robinson took part in Curtiss’ development of hydroplanes. He was instrumental in designing and building the Benoist Airplane from which the first successful parachute jump was made. In fact, the parachute and apparatus used to support and release it were also designed and built by Robinson. In 1912, Robinson took a Curtiss Hydroplane to Europe at Monaco and flew impressively in aviation meets. Later, he became the first person to complete a 360-degree vertical loop in an airplane. He performed this stunt as the “Circle of Death” hundreds of times in demonstrations around the globe.
Surviving 15 major crashes in his lifetime, Robinson died in 1963 of natural causes. In memory of his achievements, the airport in Neosho, Missouri was renamed Neosho Hugh Robinson Airport in 1999.
