Floyd Bennett

Floyd Bennett
October 25, 1890(1890-10-25) – April 25, 1928 (aged 37)
Place of birth	Warrensburg, New York
Place of death	Quebec, Canada
Place of burial	Arlington National Cemetery
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Rank	Warrant Officer
Awards	Medal of Honor

Floyd Bennett (October 25, 1890 – April 25, 1928) was an American aviator who piloted Richard E. Byrd on his attempt to reach the North Pole in 1926.

Biography

Bennett was born in Warrensburg, New York, in 1890. He was an automobile mechanic before he enlisted in the Navy in 1917, during World War I. Bennett was warranted as a machinist, then he attended flight school and learned to fly. Bennett served with Richard E. Byrd on an aviation survey of Greenland in 1925, where Byrd came to respect his ability as a pilot.

Byrd named Bennett as his pilot for an attempt to reach the North Pole by air in 1926. Bennett was at the controls on May 9 as the two men made their attempt, in a Fokker Tri-motor called the Josephine Ford. They returned to their airfield in Spitsbergen on the same day. Although members of the European press were skeptical of their claim (because it seemed that the plane had been away from Spitsbergen too briefly to have reached the North Pole), Byrd and Bennett were lionized as heroes in America. Bennett was awarded the Medal of Honor for this "feat". The subsequent discovery of Byrd's diary of the flight, with erased (but still legible) sextant readings, has shown that they could not possibly have reached the North Pole (see Bernt Balchen).

Byrd and his team had been leading candidates to win the large Orteig Prize in 1927, one to be awarded for the first nonstop flight between France and the United States. Once again, Byrd named Bennett as his pilot for the attempt. However, Bennett, alone in the heavily-laden airplane, a Ford Tri-motor named the America, was seriously injured during a practice flight and the airplane was badly damaged when it crashed on take-off. Following this failure by Bennett and Byrd, Charles Lindbergh won the Orteig Prize, flying from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France.

Floyd Bennett died in Quebec, Canada, on April 25, 1928, of pneumonia that had developed quite some time following the injuries he suffered in his airplane crash. Bennett's remains were buried in the Arlington National Cemetery.^[1]

Honors

Two airports in New York are named in honor of Floyd Bennett. Floyd Bennett Field, New York City's first municipal airport, and Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport near his birthplace, in Queensbury, New York. The destroyer, USS Bennett (DD-473), is also named in his honor. On his flight to the South Pole in 1929, Byrd named his Ford Tri-motor airplane the Floyd Bennett in honor of him.

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: Machinist, U.S. Navy. Born: October 25, 1890, Warrensburg, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. Other Navy award: Distinguished Service Medal.

Citation:

For distinguishing himself conspicuously by courage and intrepidity at the risk of his life as a member of the Byrd Arctic Expedition and thus contributing largely to the success of the first heavier-than-air flight to the North Pole and return.

See also

United States Navy portal

• List of Medal of Honor recipients
• List of Medal of Honor recipients during Peacetime

Notes

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
• Floyd Bennett at Find a Grave Retrieved on 2007-11-15
• Floyd Bennett, Warrant Officer, United States Navy, Arlington National Cemetery.