Cromwell Dixon

Cromwell Dixon (July 9, 1892 – October 2, 1911) was a teenage dirigible pilot and aviator. He became the first person to fly an airplane across the Continental Divide in September 1911 when he flew fifteen miles over Mullan Pass.

Life Early life Cromwell Dixon was born in San Francisco July 9, 1892, to Annie and Charles P. Dixon. His father died the next year. With another child on the way, Annie moved to Columbus, Ohio, where she kept her little family together and made a living by renting out rooms and taking in sewing. From an early age, Dixon showed a knack for mechanics. A family story said that he took a clock apart when he was only one year old. As a boy, he built clockwork-powered toys—a fish and a small boat that he sailed on a lake. At the age of ten, Dixon invented a roller coaster for the neighborhood kids; in 1903 he built his own motorcycle. Local newspapers took an interest in Dixon's inventions and began publishing articles about the young inventor by the time he was twelve.