Floyd Bennett

Floyd Bennett (1890-1928), American aviator, born near Warrensburg, New York, educated in public schools, and later trained as a garage mechanic. He enlisted in the aviation corps of the United States Navy in 1917, and became an instructor in aviation mechanics at the U.S. naval base at Hampton Roads, Virginia. In 1922 he was transferred to Norfolk, Virginia, where he met American explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd. Bennett piloted the plane that flew him and Byrd to the North Pole in 1926, although there is speculation regarding whether they actually reached the pole. Byrd chose Bennett as second in command of a projected flight to the South Pole, but before this trip Bennett contracted pneumonia and died.