World’s first commercial airline: The two flying brothers

• The airline made two flights daily, six days a week. The tickets sold out 16 weeks in advance.
• Then a second Benoist airboat was added with Tony Jannus' brother, Roger, as the pilot. The airline operated for almost four months before interest declined rapidly because winter residents went back north.
• The brothers continued to perform tests of aircraft and trained other pilots. Both brothers died while flying - Tony's plane crashed into the Black Sea in 1916 while training Russian pilots, and Roger crashed during air patrols over France in 1918.

The first scheduled passenger airline service took off on Jan 1, 1914. Thomas Benoist designed the "flying boat", the pilot was Tony Jannus, and Abram C. Pheil was the first paying passenger.

The 21-mile (34-kilometre) flight took 23 minutes, flying from St. Petersburg to ...