Anthony Habersack Jannus (Tony) (1889-1916)
Pilot Tony Jannus was an early American pilot who flew the airplane from which Albert Berry made the first parachute jump in 1912. The parachute which was strung to the bottom of the airplane with rubber bands, snapped with Berry's body weight when he jumped from the plane.
Tony's father was a patent attorney and Tony was born in Washington, DC. Tony was a boat mechanic before he and his brother became test pilots for airplane builder Thomas W. Benoist in St. Louis, Missouri in 1911. In October, 1913, he flew actress Julia Bruns in a Baldwin Red Devil 4,000 feet above Staten Island for twenty minutes. The following month he moved to St. Petersburg, Florida.
Many people have parked at the Tony Jannus lot at Tampa International Airport and been to the St. Petersburg Concert hall bearing his name, but don't really know who he was. He was an aviator pioneer who flew across the bay from St. Petersburg to Tampa which is 20 miles apart. In the early twentieth century there were no bridges spanning the gulf, so if you wanted to travel between the cities it would be by a 64 mile rail trip, steamship or an automobile or horse and buggy ride over primitive, bumpy unpaved roads taking several hours.
A Jacksonville businessman Percival Fansler approached several St. Petersburg community leaders, led by L.A. Whitney of the Chamber of Commerce and suggested airline service to connect the cities. A 90 day contract was signed on the 10th anniversary of Wilbur and Orville Wright's historic first airplane flight. Jannus piloted the $5 per passenger three minute inaugural flight before a crowd of 3,000 people. Skimming 50 feet above the water in a 75H.P. engine, he reached the maximum speed of 75 miles per hour. There was a crowd of 2,000 people waiting in Tampa for the landing.
In 1914, Jannus left St. Petersburg to become a test pilot for Curtiss Aeroplane Company. In 1915, he was sent to Russia as Glenn Curtiss's test pilot and a trainer of Russian pilots for World War 1. Jannus died October 12, 1916, when his Curtiss H-7 had engine problems and crashed in the Black Sea, as he was delivering bombers to the Romanov government.
Jannus described flying as,"poetry of mechanical motion, a fascinating sensation of speed, and abstraction from things material into an infinite space."
In 1964 the Tony Jannus Award was started to recognize outstanding aviation individual achievement for the likes of Eddie Richenbacker, Donald Douglas, Jimmy Doolittle, and Chuck Yeager.
Thomas Reilly's book "Jannus, an American Flyer," is filled with long forgotten pioneering figures in aviation. Reilly paints Jannus as a suave, handsome, articulate woman's man. He dated movie stars and women adored his dashing good looks. Jannus was a barnstormer, daredevil test pilot that had a magnetic personality. Any aviation enthusiast or history buff will want to get a copy of Reilly's book. Reilly spent 25 years as an aviation consultant and has completed years of research, including history from Russian archives. His research starts from the dawn of aviation.
Anthony (Tony) Haversack Jannus is a romantic and important figure from Tampa/St. Petersburg's past.
www.bornfreetravel.com
Photo of Paisley Dorr, 2 by Brian Thomas from the St. Petersburg Times.
