A newspaper article said the “aeroplane” looked like a bird in the sky.For many of the thousands of spectators on the ground, gazing into the sky 100 years ago this week, the flight of Calbraith “Cal” Perry Rodgers over Akron was the first time they had seen an airplane.The occasion that brought Rodgers and his biplane, the Vin Fiz, on a flight over Akron was his bold attempt to win a $50,000 prize from publisher William Randolph Hearst as the first person to make a transcontinental flight within 30 days.Rodgers took off from Sheepshead, N.Y., on Sept. 17, 1911. By the time he reached Northeast Ohio, on Sept. 28, he needed to make an unplanned landing north of Kent, near Johnson and Hudson roads in Portage County’s Franklin Township.A few mechanics and a three-car train — the Vin Fiz Special — followed Rodgers, carrying parts for his Wright Brothers-built plane.Two planes already had been wrecked — “smashed in accidents and had to be abandoned” — in his quest by the time he arrived near Akron, the Beacon Journal reported a century ago.A 1961 Beacon Journal story, by famed reporter Helen Waterhouse on the 50th anniversary of the flight, reported that Rodgers flew sitting in a wooden kitchen chair on the plane and had engine problems when he crash-landed near Akron.Waterhouse reported that Rodgers allowed boys from the area to write their names on the side of the plane and that bystanders trampled crops in the farm field to get a glimpse of the Vin Fiz.“There weren’t even many autos in those days, and most of us had never seen planes,” a woman identified as Mrs. Frank Galloway said in the 50-year-old newspaper article.It was expected that Rodgers would take off the following day, Sept. 29, on the next leg of his journey. A crowd of 500 gathered at 4:40 p.m. at “Chalkers’ Landing” at North Howard Street and Cuyahoga Falls Avenue in hopes of catching a glimpse of him.The Akron Beacon Journal reported that members of Rodgers’ party had “telegraphed ahead to have bonfires started so that he might find Akron in the darkness. This was not done.“Anxious faces” were turned to the sky “and the crowd was loath to turn away until darkness came at about 5:30 o’clock,” the paper reported.Rodgers did not show up.Arrival in AkronFinally, on Sept. 30, he got his plane in the air and put on an aerial show for those gathered on the streets of Akron.In a story headlined “Rodgers Cheered by Akronites,” the Beacon Journal reported that Rodgers flew over Akron for 13 minutes at a height of 900 feet on his way to Mansfield.“His coming was announced by the ringing of a bell, which brought thousands of persons to the streets and windows,” the paper reported.“Rodgers was not visible until 9:05 [a.m,] on account of the dark background of cloud. Nothing but a mere speck in the sky could be distinguished, having all the appearance of a bird.”The paper said Rodgers flew his aircraft over Main Street and over Market and Mill streets, then turned south over Howard Street and made a figure 8.“Three times he circled Main Street, between Market and Mill streets and turning his machine south, shot away and was lost to the crowds,” the story reported.“The machine was visible until 9:17, when it was lost in a cloud of gray smoke. By straining the eyes, the machine was seen again, as it arose. Then it disappeared.”A crashing successThis summer, Robert Boyles of Warrenton, Va., wrote a 30-page ebook and children’s book about Rodgers’ transcontinental journey titled Crashing From Coast to Coast.He estimates that Rodgers crashed at least 16 times and there were more times when a wheel was broken or some repairs were needed on the Vin Fiz when it landed during his trip. The name Vin Fiz came from a grape-flavored soft drink the Armour meatpacking company was selling at the time and was painted prominently on the biplane. Armour sponsored the flight, paying Rodgers for each mile he covered.Boyles, 57, said Rodgers often flew at an altitude of 4,000 feet. He was exposed to the elements — with no seat belt.“It’s a miracle he survived the first crash,” Boyles said.Rodgers, 32, a descendant of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, did not make it across the country in 30 days, landing in Pasadena, Calif., on Nov. 5, — 49 days after he left the East Coast.But Rodgers wanted to get his plane to the sands of Long Beach.“He says, ‘I don’t consider the trip finished until I am on the beach,’ so he starts another flight, but his plane was worn out and the engine failed on the flight and he had the worst crash of the whole trip,” Boyles said.He finally arrived at Long Beach on Dec. 10, 1911 — 84 days after his adventure began.Difficult conditionsBoyles became interested in Rodgers’ story when his wife, Janice Kronenthal Boyles, 61, a Tallmadge native and a Kent State University graduate, began working as a quilter this summer, making a fabric for a reproduction of the Vin Fiz for the Wright Experience in Warrenton, Va. The nonprofit organization makes reproductions of Wright Brothers aircraft, studies the engineering of those airplanes and provides educational material.Robert Boyles said Rodgers made the trip at a time when there were no airports, no air traffic controllers and the plane itself was difficult to fly.He researched the flight and Rodgers, as well as the genius of the Wright Brothers. The more he dug into it, the more intrigued he became with the story.Boyles said that growing up in Pittsburgh, he had never even heard of Rodgers until this summer.“This guy has been lost to history,” he said.His wife said she, too, is fascinated with Rodgers.“There were so many obstacles in his way,” Janice Boyles said. “He should have given up and he didn’t. This is a fellow that kids and adults can take pride in. He kept on going. He did something that was honest. He did something that took courage.”Rodgers made about $15,000 to $20,000 (about $236,000 to $472,000 today) from Armour for his efforts in 1911.But his life had a tragic conclusion only four months later.Boyles said that in a flight over the Pacific Coast in another aircraft, Rodgers was trying to avoid a flock of birds when he crashed into the water and was killed. “Those early fliers were amazingly courageous people, and we need courage,” Boyles said.“If he had just gotten on an airplane and flown across the country, I would not be impressed. But he had to overcome so many obstacles to accomplish this, I saw it as a metaphor for life because I think all of our lives are that way.“We end up crashed in life and you have to overcome it.”Boyles’ ebook on Rodgers can be purchased on iTunes, at Amazon.com, and at Barnes & Noble.Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.