Little-Known Details About The American Cowboy Who Became An Aviation Pioneer

When the spectacle of the Wild West was thrilling audiences around the world, Samuel Franklin Cody emerged as a natural star. And even though his dramatic backstory was almost certainly phony, his love of danger was definitely not. For 25 years, he remained in the spotlight, graduating from famous sharpshooter to aviation pioneer.

A taste of frontier adventure

Starting out as a circus performer, Cody’s skill with horses — and guns — made him a firm favorite with civilized Europeans craving a taste of frontier adventure. But in the end, he would swap saddles and stirrups for the skies. And ultimately, his insatiable desire for flight would seal his unfortunate fate.

The War Kite

In 1901 with England embroiled in the Second Boer War, Cody visited the country’s War Office with a unique proposal. In his hands, he was clutching the blueprints for a fantastical flying machine: a kite that he believed could change the face of combat for good. And surprisingly, he wasn’t just full of hot air. 

Taking to the skies

In fact, Cody spent the next two years demonstrating the device dubbed the War Kite, even using it to propel himself more than 20 miles across the English Channel. And in 1905 he achieved his dream of flight, soaring thousands of feet into the air on a machine of his own invention.

The legend begins

But how exactly did a wannabe cowboy — and proven fraud — become one of the most influential figures in early aviation? Well, although Cody liked to spread the legend that he was born in the frontier town of Birdville, Texas, his story actually began in 1861 in Davenport, Iowa, on the banks of the Mississippi.