Lyman Wiswell Gilmore, Jr. (June 11, 1874 Beaver Creek, Thurston County, Washington- February 18, 1951) was an aviation

Aviation

Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

 pioneer. In Grass Valley, California

Grass Valley, California

-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Grass Valley had a population of 12,860. The population density was 2,711.3 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Grass Valley was 11,493 White, 46 African American, 208 Native American, 188 Asian, 9 Pacific Islander, 419 from other...

, USA, he built a steam-powered airplane and claimed that he flew it on May 15, 1902. Due to the requirement of a heavy boiler and the dependency on coal as a power source, the flights would have been short. Proofs of his claim were lost in a 1935 hangar fire.

First flight

Lyman built a steam-powered airplane and may have flown it on May 15, 1902.

There are photographs from 1898 showing Gilmore's machine, but none showing the plane in the air. The claims of the aircraft achieving flight are unconfirmed, and given the weight evident by the grounded aircraft photos, the possibility of flight is highly disputed.

Personal life

Some people who remember him claim that Lyman Gilmore, an eccentric

Eccentricity (behavior)

In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...

 man, vowed to never cut his hair or beard, and wore a trench coat even in the middle of summer.

Work

Lyman Gilmore was in contact with other flight pioneers like Samuel Langley and, eventually, the Wright brothers

Wright brothers

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...

.

In 1902, Gilmore was granted two patents on steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

s, the first of which was granted in 1902. He invented in other areas too, for example a rotary snowplow

Snowplow

A snowplow is a device intended for mounting on a vehicle, used for removing snow and ice from outdoor surfaces, typically those serving transportation purposes...

. On March 15, 1907, Gilmore opened the first commercial airfield, Gilmore Airfield, in Grass Valley. There is now middle school named in his honor on the site of the airfield.

Local legend says Gilmore wore the same long coat for years and was never far from it. It continues to say that when he was involuntarily hospitalized for his last illness the coat and all of his long-worn clothing were burned. While he had never accumulated much money, it was said that all he had was sewn into the lining of that coat and was destroyed with it.
After the fire in his hangar, Gilmore began mining for gold and died a poor man in Nevada City, California

Nevada City, California

-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Nevada City had a population of 3,068. The population density was 1,399.7 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Nevada City was 2,837 White, 26 African American, 28 Native American, 46 Asian, 0 Pacific Islander, 40 from other races,...

. His grave can be found in Pine Grove Cemetery, about a half mile outside of town.

See also

• Early flight
  Early Flight
  -Personnel:*Marty Balin – guitar, vocals*Paul Kantner – rhythm guitar, vocals*Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar, vocals*Jack Casady – bass*Grace Slick – vocals on "J. P. P. McStep B. Blues", "Go to Her", "Mexico", and "Have You Seen the Saucers", piano on "Mexico" and "Have You Seen the Saucers"*Spencer...
  
   - for other pre-Wright-brothers inventors.
• Mystery airship
  Mystery airship
  Mystery airships or phantom airships are a class of unidentified flying objects best known from a series of newspaper reports originating in the western United States and spreading east during 1896 and 1897. According to researcher Jerome Clark, airship reports were made worldwide, early as the...
  
  
• Lyman Gilmore Middle School

Books

Land, R.A., America's First Commercial Airfield and Lyman Gilmore Junior. Xlibris publishing,
2006. Biography.

External links

• http://www.aerofiles.com/_ga.html
• http://www.ncngrrmuseum.org/
• http://www.flyingmachines.org/gilmore.html