On October 11, 1910, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American president to fly in an airplane, riding with pioneering aviator Arch Hoxsey at Kinloch Field near St. Louis, Missouri. Roosevelt, who had left office in 1909, accepted Hoxsey’s invitation during an aviation meet while campaigning in Missouri. The brief flight covered nearly three miles in three minutes and twenty seconds, as more than 10,000 spectators watched.
The flight suited Roosevelt’s reputation for embracing physical daring and new technology. Seated beside Hoxsey in an open Wright biplane, Roosevelt waved enthusiastically to the crowd as the aircraft made two low laps around the field. After landing, he told Hoxsey, “That was the bulliest experience I ever had. I envy your professional conquest of space.”
The event gave early aviation a striking public endorsement, but it also underscored how dangerous flying remained. On December 31, 1910, the 31-year-old Hoxsey was killed near Los Angeles while attempting to surpass his own altitude record of 11,474 feet, set five days earlier. The photograph of Roosevelt and Hoxsey together in the biplane endures as an iconic image of American aviation’s earliest, most daring era.
