HONORING GILLESPIE'S FLIGHT PIONEER

Fredericksburg Standard - September 25, 2024

Jacob Brodbeck may never get the recognition he deserves for his first flight 44 years before the Wright Brothers and their Kittyhawk plane made international news.

But on Saturday, friends and descendants honored Brodbeck, an early German settler to Fredericksburg, for his first flight in a coil-powered “airship” at the Gillespie County Airport.

Mayor Jeryl Hoover proclaimed Saturday Jacob Brodbeck Day.

Brodbeck was born in Germany in 1821, emigrated to Texas in 1846, and arrived in Fredericksburg in 1847, becoming its second schoolteacher. Brodbeck also served as county surveyor, district school superintendent and county commissioner. On Sept. 20, 1865, Brodbeck flew his inventive airship craft in its maiden flight, a short flight above the tree line but lasting just 100 feet before crashing into his brother’s chicken coop.

Brodbeck was proclaimed the Father of Aviation by two Texas governors. The city honored him on the 159th anniversary of that first flight.

Hoover said the proclamation was “an acknowledgement of their great family history.”

Gillespie County Airport Manager Tony Lombardi touted the airport’s history started by the late Hans Hannemann and Red Schroeder.

“I did not know anything about Jacob Brodbeck until I became the airport manager seven years ago,” Lombardi said. “David Gasmire came to me on my first day, dropped a file on my desk, and asked, ‘Do you know anything about Jacob Brodbeck?’” Lombardi said Gasmire spoke to him about the pioneering pilot for the next hour and a half.

Rick Brodbeck, great-great-grandson of the flight inventor Jacob Brodbeck, told how Brodbeck developed his airship.

“From that day on, I’ve made it my focus to learn and talk about Jacob Brodbeck,” he said. “I’ll continue to talk about him until people stop listening.”

Lombardi and airport groundskeeper John Watt built a replica of the airship used by Brodbeck, which hangs in the airport terminal lobby. Rick Brodbeck, a great-great-grandson of Jacob, said he was grateful for people to honor a man that started an era that has enhanced our way of life to the present day. “One hundred and seventy nine years ago, Jacob Brodbeck had a dream to depart himself from earth — to fly,” Brodbeck said. “Through 20 years of calculations and recalculations, using calculus, trigonometry, geometry, understanding high pressures and low pressures lift versus weight and basic aerodynamics, Jacob invented a wing design that is still used today.”

Brodbeck said his great-great-grandfather put his theory to the test on Sept. 20, 1865, 159 years ago, coiling up a clock spring-loaded propeller. When the power was released, his wing design sustained lift of a height of 12 feet. (Other family members say it was more as he was said to have been “above the tree line.”) Once the coil spring unwound, he lost forward thrust and the airship came down. He said funding problems kept him from further pursuing his dream of flight, but “his legacy lives on.”

“In 1872, the invention of the first liquid-fueled combusting engine would help make advancements in aviation,” Brodbeck said. “On April 14, 1903, the Wright Brothers were able to combine this new technology with the already proven aerodynamic technology from Jacob Brodbeck to control their ascent and descent of their airship.” Brodbeck recounted how flight exploded with advancements so quickly that it was used in World War I and the first commercial flight happened in 1914. He noted that World War II “started and ended with flight,” and he said space travel has allowed mankind to reach the moon.

“Flight has changed mankind in every way from launching satellites so we can communicate with phones, to watching TV, to getting next-day delivery from Amazon and traveling the world in a matter of hours,” he said. “This all stems back to one man and his aerodynamic wing design — the Father of Aviation, Jacob Brodbeck.”

Host Gwen Fullbrook, owner of Crosswind Aviation, said the most important thing people in attendance need to remember is that “Gillespie County is the birthplace of aviation.”

Fullbrook and her organization work to develop adult and student-aged pilots. She said Fredericksburg High School’s innovative aviation program already has 24 students enrolled.— Ken Esten Cooke

Brodbeck descendants at Saturday’s Jacob Brodbeck Day ceremony at the Gillespie County Airport were, from left, Pandora Morin, Calvin Grobe, Reta Killingsworth, Karen Grobe, Blake Brodbeck, Dorothy Brodbeck, Todd Brodbeck, Rick Brodbeck, Heather Kinard and son Zavian, and Anna Lake and daughter Laramie.