- Source: Frank Trenholm Coffyn
Frank Trenholm Coffyn (October 24, 1878 – December 10, 1960) was a pioneer aviator.
Biography
He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on October 24, 1878, to Julia (Haskell) and George M. Coffyn, a banker. His brother was William Haskell Coffin, an artist who took his own life in 1941.
He married Louise D. Adams in 1902 and had two children: Nancy Lou Coffyn Stralem (1902-1995) and Kingsland A. Coffyn (1904–1983). After they divorced, he married Pauline Louise Neff in 1919. They divorced in 1928.
He became interested in flight after witnessing a flight by Louis Paulhan in New York City in December 1909. His father knew one of the Wright Company's executives, and arranged a meeting with Wilbur Wright. Wilbur invited Coffyn to Dayton, Ohio, where he began flight instruction in May 1910.
Coffyn flew with the Wright Exhibition Team until December 1910 where he trained pilots in Dayton, Ohio, and he delivered aircraft to the United States Army in Texas. In 1912 he was hired by Russell A. Alger Jr. (1873–1930) of Detroit, Michigan, to fly a Wright Flyer Model B over New York City.
The Vitagraph Film Company had him shoot the first aerial footage of New York City where he flew under the Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge in his Mayea Boat & Aeroplane Works plane.
In the mid-1920s Coffyn appeared in several Hollywood silent movies.
He was a United States Army flight instructor in World War I. He sold aircraft for the Burgess Company, and got a helicopter pilot's license. He worked for the Hiller helicopter company until his retirement.
He died on December 10, 1960, in Palo Alto, California.
Selected filmography
Her Husband's Secret (1925)
Private Affairs (1925)
Ranson's Folly (1926)
External links
Frank Trenholm Coffyn at Flickr Commons via Library of Congress
Frank Trenholm Coffyn at IMDb