Frank Trenholm Coffyn (October 24, 1878 – December 10, 1960) was a pioneer aviator.

Biography

He was born in Charleston, South Carolina on October 24, 1878 to Julia (Haskell) and George M. Coffyn, a banker. His brother was William Henry Coffin, an artist who took his own life in 1941. He married Louise D. Adams in 1902 and had two children: Nancy Lou Coffyn Stralem (1902-1995) and Kingsland A. Coffyn (1904–1983). After they divorced, he married Pauline Louise Neff in 1919. They divorced in 1928. He became interested in flight after witnessing a flight by

Louis Paulhan Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan (; 19 July 1883 – 10 February 1963), was a French aviator. He is known for winning the first ''Daily Mail'' aviation prize for the first flight between London and Manchester in 1910. Biography Paulhan was b ...

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in December 1909. His father knew one of the

Wright Company The Wright Company was the commercial aviation business venture of the Wright Brothers, established by them on November 22, 1909, in conjunction with several prominent industrialists from New York and Detroit with the intention of capitalizing o ...

's executives, and arranged a meeting with Wilbur Wright. Wilbur invited Coffyn to

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

where he began flight instruction in May 1910. Coffyn flew with the Wright Exhibition Team until December 1910 where he trained pilots in

and he delivered aircraft to the

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in Texas. In 1912 he was hired by Russell A. Alger Jr. (1873–1930) of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

to fly a Wright Flyer Model B over

. The Vitagraph Film Company had him shoot the first aerial footage of New York City where he flew under the Brooklyn Bridge and

Williamsburg Bridge The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressw ...

in his Mayea Boat & Aeroplane Works plane. In the mid-1920s Coffyn appeared in several Hollywood silent movies. He was a

flight instructor A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He sold aircraft for the

Burgess Company The Burgess Company was a U.S. airplane manufacturer between 1910 and 1918. History The business was incorporated in 1910 as the "Burgess Company and Curtis, Inc." (after W. Starling Burgess and Greely S. Curtis, its co-founders with Frank Henr ...

, and got a helicopter pilot's license. He worked for the Hiller helicopter company until his retirement. He died on December 10, 1960 in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

Selected filmography

* ''

Her Husband's Secret ''Her Husband's Secret'' is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Antonio Moreno, Patsy Ruth Miller, and Ruth Clifford Ruth Clifford (February 17, 1900 – November 30, 1998) was an American actress of lea ...

'' (1925) * '' Private Affairs'' (1925) * '' Ranson's Folly'' (1926)

External list

Frank Trenholm Coffyn
at

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via

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coffyn, Frank T. Members of the Early Birds of Aviation People from Dayton, Ohio Wright brothers 1878 births 1960 deaths