Education
Born to a farming family in Virden, Illinois, he was the eldest of four sons, and attended Valparaiso University in Indiana and Chicago.
Born to a farming family in Virden, Illinois, he was the eldest of four sons, and attended Valparaiso University in Indiana and Chicago.
He was a famous aviator and balloonist. He scaled buildings, hung from self-made slings, and scaled dangerous heights to capture his unique images. Some time around 1904 he gave up photography and took up exploration.
This included attempts at the North Pole and the Transport-Atlantic crossing - both attempted in Walter Wellman"s airship America.
At the first attempt to cross the Atlantic in 1910 Vaniman sent one of the first aerial radio transmissions when he urged the launch boat to "come and get this goddam cat!" - "Kiddo" the cat who was (at first) not happy about being airborne. Kiddo caused such a ruckus, that the cat had to be placed inside a gunny sack and suspended below the airship"s gondola.
They anticipated a five-day crossing, but the airship"s motor failed after 38 hours, leaving it adrift until it was rescued two days later by the Trent, a passing Royal Mail steamship. Vaniman lost his life during his second attempt at a transport-Atlantic airship crossing when his airship, the Akron, exploded off the New Jersey shore on July 2, 1912.
Filled with 11,300 cubic meters of hydrogen gas, his was the first American airship that could compare to the better known European manufactured models.
Vaniman and his crew of four were killed just minutes after the Akron became airborne when it suddenly exploded in front of the gathered crowd near Atlantic City, and gondola plunged 750 meters into an inlet. Subsequent investigation indicated that internal pressure had split the bag. The State Library of New South Wales has the world"s most extensive collection of his panoramas.