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Discover Mid-America — April 2006
Recalling a Kansas City pioneer
On New Year’s Day, in his weekly automotive feature in The Kansas City Star, Tom Strongman featured a unique sports car built by Ben Gregory. The car, completed in the 1950s, had many innovations, including a center-point steering setup and front wheel drive, both unique in its day. Bob Chinnery of Independence, MO now owns the car and plans to restore it.
The article brought back memories of several interviews I had with Gregory in 1970 when I was researching my book Aviation History in Greater Kansas City.
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Gregory died in 1974, after a long life full of adventure. While he spent much of his life tinkering with front-wheel-drive roadsters and a miniature Jeep-like vehicle for the Marines called the Mighty Mite, Gregory was once known in Kansas City as a barnstorming pilot.
Although he helped test a biplane in Overland Park in 1910, Gregory’s flying career started in 1921 when he bought a Lewis Bennett, a modified Curtiss “Jenny” biplane.
“With oversized wings and a control wheel that replaced the stick, the Lewis Bennett made a good barnstorming plane,” Gregory told me. “I bought it from Frank Stanton, sales manager of the company. There were only three built, and I eventually owned all three of them.”
In 1924, Gregory was flying near Joplin, MO, hopping rides to lead miners in the area. Nearby was a children’s tuberculosis sanitarium. Gregory asked the hospital director if his flying disturbed the younger patients. “Gosh, no,” the director told him. “Your airplane is the best therapy these kids have ever had.”
Gregory had an idea. He made a few phone calls. Soon a Joplin tent and awning company had erected a tent with a carpeted floor. A local dairy brought ice cream by the 5-gallon drum. A gas company donated enough gas to keep the Lewis Bennett flying a month. Before the weekend was over, every child in the hospital went for a ride in Ben Gregory’s airplane.
In 1925, after giving hop-rides in a variety of aircraft, Gregory helped organize an airline between Kansas City and Wichita. The enterprise failed when the owner of the engines the airline planned to stockpile was killed in a crash in Ohio.
In 1929, Gregory began a career that established his reputation as a big-plane barnstormer. Flying the venerable Ford Tri-Motor, Gregory could haul up to 14 passengers per hop. In the Depression years, Gregory had to work hard to keep his barnstorming business going. Unable to get passengers for the going rate of $1.50, Gregory reduced the price to 50 cents, advertised extensively and toured the Midwest with his “Tin Goose.”
In San Antonio, TX, 8,000 persons came out to “Fly With Ben.” The entire population of Lawton, OK did the same, as did the entire university enrollment at Norman. Joplin went mad for flights, with 12,000 persons paying for a ride. Gregory had similar success in Davenport and Waterloo, IA.
A new wrinkle developed. Some couples wanted to get married in mid-air. So Gregory hired a preacher by the hour, supplied licenses and got local jewelers to furnish wedding rings for publicity. In all, 96 weddings were performed in the rattling tri-motor.
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Ben
Gregory's Ford Tri-Motor, the "Ship From Mars."
(photo courtesy of Aviation History in Greater Kansas City)In 1936, Gregory came up with a unique aerial act, the “Ship from Mars.” He replaced the tri-motor’s seats with a generator, which powered several searchlights and about 250 feet of neon tubing on each side of the plane. In addition, a device created smoke that poured from all three engines.
For the next six years, Gregory’s “Ship from Mars” thrilled fairgoers and townspeople throughout the Midwest. According to Gregory, many a breathless reporter turned in a story of a “flaming holocaust” only to have his editor laugh him out of the newsroom.
When I talked to Gregory in 1970, he was in his eighties but his mind was still sharp. I often saw him driving his red sport car in North Kansas City, and would see him at meetings of the OX5 Club, a group of veteran pilots. He told me he still felt young.
“I enjoy the company of younger folks more than these old birds,” he said.
Ken Weyand can be reached at kweyand1@kc.rr.com
> Traveling with Ken Archive — past columns