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

Biography

He was born in

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, on October 24, 1878, to Julia (Haskell) and George M. Coffyn, a banker. His brother was William Haskell 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 ...

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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 on ...

's executives, and arranged a meeting with

Wilbur Wright The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...

. Wilbur invited Coffyn to

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, where he began flight instruction in May 1910. Coffyn flew with the

Wright Exhibition Team The Wright Exhibition Team was a group of early aviators trained by the Wright brothers at Wright Flying School in Montgomery, Alabama in March 1910. History The group was formed in 1910 at the suggestion of balloonist Augustus Roy Knabenshue. ...

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

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, 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 The Brooklyn Bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River. It w ...

and

Williamsburg Bridge The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge across the East River in New York City, connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Originally known as the East River Bridge, the Williamsburg Brid ...

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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. 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 Hen ...

, 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 language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

Selected filmography

* '' Her Husband's Secret'' (1925) * '' Private Affairs'' (1925) * '' Ranson's Folly'' (1926)

External links

Frank Trenholm Coffyn
at

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via

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

References

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