Jack Hitt

And they said, you know, that's only for enlisted soldiers.

And you were just some made up dude called an aeronaut.

So no.

Wow.

And so he's kind of fading at the turn of the century, but his image as to who he was, this icon of invention and kind of eccentricity was very much in the air.

And you won't find this in any history book, but I'll put this to you.

So 1900 is the year that L. Frank Baum wrote his book, The Wizard of Oz.

So the titular character is, in the beginning of the book, he is this old man in white hair with insane mustaches, sort of half scientist, half crackpot con man.

And then in the dream world of that book, he becomes the showman who invents this whole world and then in the end jumps in this balloon and flies off.

And his last words are, I don't know how to steer this thing.

I can see it.

You know, because he's the grand old man of air flight, right?

And he had sort of institutionalized this longing to get out to the farthest, the longest, the fastest.

He is the Ben Franklin of the air.

And, you know, they want him to come and honor him.

And so he goes.

And he has a granddaughter named Florence Leontine Lowe.

She is eight years old.

And in one of the exhibits, there is this sort of cartoon-like display with like movable airplanes.

And, you know, they knew that Thaddeus Lowe was going to bring his granddaughter.