How to Pronounce Augustus Post
#50
Most Popular
Boost
Dec 08, 1873 Brooklyn, New York, United States Died on 04 Oct 1952 (aged 78)
American adventurer
SagittariusAugustus Post - Place of Birth, Date of Birth, Age, Wiki, Facts, Net Worth, Birthday, Biography and Family
Augustus Post, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Family, Facts, Age, Net Worth, Biography and More in FamedBorn.com
About Augustus Post
- Augustus Thomas Post Jr.
- (8 December 1873 – 4 October 1952) was an American adventurer who distinguished himself as an automotive pioneer, balloonist, early aviator, writer, actor, musician and lecturer.
- Post pursued an interest in transportation of every form.
- In 1898, when Post was 25, following his time at Harvard Law School, he circumnavigated the globe by rail and steamship.
- He then bought one of the first cars ever made and helped found the Glidden Auto Tours, an automotive distance drive and competition used to promote a national highway system.
- He was the original founder of what is now the American Automobile Association (AAA), first known as the Auto Club of America.
- He established the nation's first parking garage and also received the first driving tickets in New York.In 1907 he was one of the first civilians to descend in a submarine.
- Two years later he became the thirteenth man to fly solo in an airplane, and was an original founder of the Aero Club of America.
- He was elected to be its first secretary, a position he held for more than 20 years.
- In that capacity he served as official timer for Orville Wright's historic 57-minute flight at Fort Myer, Virginia in 1908.
- The following year Post worked with Alexander Graham Bell’s Aerial Experiment Association where he represented the Aero Club and helped test new equipment and gliders.
- Post then worked with fellow AEA alumn Glenn Curtiss, developing innovations and flight testing his planes.
- He was present for the historic flight of the Curtiss June Bug and co-authored The Curtiss Aviation Book in 1912.Post's interest in aviation included balloons as well as aircraft.
- While working with Curtiss he also participated in the international Gordon Bennett Balloon Races from 1906-1910.
- In 1910 he set a distance and duration record in a free balloon, flying as aide to Alan R.
- Hawley in the balloon "America II," a North American record that stood for 95 years.After training American aviators in World War I, he continued to promote U.S.
- investment in aviation.
- In 1919, five years after having predicted the possibility of transatlantic, he approached hotel owner Raymond Orteig and presented an idea for encouraging a flight between Paris and New York City.
- Post wrote the rules and Orteig put up the $25,000 prize money for the competition that was ultimately won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927.
- Post also made meaningful contributions to the establishment of the US air mail service, and to the creation of the one of the first major academic programs in Aeronautical Engineering, which was at New York University.Outside of his work in transportation, Post was an avid outdoorsman.
- He was an original member of the Society of the Sons of Daniel Boone which merged to form the Boy Scouts of America in 1910.
- He became close friends with the Scouts’ founder, Daniel Carter Beard, and served on the group's National Council from its inception.
- The Sons of Daniel Boone later were reunited and became known as the Buckskin Men, of which Post was a member.
- Post wrote and edited many articles for the Scouts’ Boys’ Life publication throughout his lifetime.In addition to his other pursuits, Post maintained a concurrent interest in the arts.
- He performed on Broadway, acted in plays, and wrote books of poetry, an opera, and original songs.
- In his later life Post devoted himself to the arts.
- He worked as part of the National Association for Music in Hospitals, performed with the New York Symphony Chorus, and served many other civic organizations.
- He also continued to support the causes and groups he had helped establish and was a sought-after professional lecturer until his death in 1952 at age 78.
