Harry Nelson Atwood
(1883-1967)

Harry Atwood was trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an electrical engineer, but he left his business near Boston to learn how to fly from the Wright Flying School in Ohio.

He became a proficient pilot and within three months of his first lesson made a record-breaking 461-mile flight from Boston to Washington, DC, landing on the White House lawn. Between 14 and August 25, 1910 he made a 1,256-mile flight from St. Louis to New York, making 11 stops along the way.

Atwood was one of the few early aviators to die of natural causes rather than an aircraft accident, passing away in 1967 at the ripe old age of 83.