George Miller Dyott
Encyclopedia
George Miller Dyott was an American
pioneer aviator
and explorer of the Amazon
.
to a British father and American mother. He test piloted planes
not long after the Wright brothers
, and was one of the first pilots ever to fly at night. He was awarded his Royal Aero Club pilot's Certificate (Number 114) on the 17th August 1911.
Though less well known now, Dyott gained his licence soon after many of the most famous names of early aviation. Moore-Brabazon
was the first to gain the newly devised certificate, on 8 March 1910 and Rolls
, Grahame-White
, Cody
, Roe
, Sopwith
followed in that year, but de Havilland
and Blackburn
won theirs in 1911, only a few months before Dyott.
In the autumn of 1911 Dyott and Capt. Patrick Hamilton travelled to New York with two Deperdussin monoplanes
, a two-seater and a single seater. They made an exhibition tour, stopping for a while in Nassau
and in Mexico
. A highlight, literally, of the Nassau exhibition was a night flight in the two seater, with Hamilton as passenger, carrying a searchlight powered from the ground via cables. In Mexico the two seater carried many passengers, including the Mexican Republic's President Madero
. He later reported on the different flying conditions in hot climates, particularly the effects of thermals, rotating winds and the excitement of flying over forest fires.
After returning to the UK, he decided to design his own aircraft. This was known as the Dyott monoplane
; after receiving and testing it, Dyott took it to the US in April 1913. He made a sixth month demonstration tour, flying for more than 2,000 miles at venues between New York and California. When he returned to the UK he flew it in the London
-Brighton
handicap of November 1913, but had to make an unscheduled landing.
After serving as a Royal Naval Air Service
squadron commander during the First World War, he become an explorer and joined the Royal Geographical Society
. In 1927, he was the second person to transverse the Amazonian "River of Doubt", in the footsteps of the 1913–14 Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition
. Dyott wanted to verify Roosevelt's claim of discovering the river, for which there had been some doubt. In 1928 he mounted an expedition to search for the missing British explorer Percy Fawcett
in the Amazon. Dyott found evidence he believed confirmed Fawcett had been killed by the Aloique Indians, but the strength of his evidence soon collapsed on closer scrutiny and the mystery of Fawcett's disappearance remained unresolved.
Related to the Fawcett expedition, during which Doyott was held captive by Indians and barely escaped with his life, Dyott published a book about his adventures called Manhunting in the Jungle (1930), and also co-wrote and starred in a 1933 Hollywood action film called Savage Gold. The book was later adapted to film as Manhunt in the Jungle (1958). In 1929 Dyott played himself in a documentary called Hunting Tigers in India, filmed in India on the A. S. Vernay expedition under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History
. It was billed as "the first all-talking nature picture" and was supposedly shown to First Lady Mrs. Hoover
in the White House
theater.
Dyott was active in the early years of aviation in South America too. He set-up a company which took and sold aerial-photographs as post-cards.
Dyott spent most of his life in South America but died in the City of his birth, New York, in 1972.
Film
Americans
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
pioneer aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
and explorer of the Amazon
Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...
.
Biography
Dyott was born in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to a British father and American mother. He test piloted planes
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
not long after the Wright brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
, and was one of the first pilots ever to fly at night. He was awarded his Royal Aero Club pilot's Certificate (Number 114) on the 17th August 1911.
Though less well known now, Dyott gained his licence soon after many of the most famous names of early aviation. Moore-Brabazon
John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara
John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara, GBE, MC, PC was an English aviation pioneer and Conservative politician...
was the first to gain the newly devised certificate, on 8 March 1910 and Rolls
Charles Rolls
Charles Stewart Rolls was a motoring and aviation pioneer. Together with Frederick Henry Royce he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in a flying accident, when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display near Bournemouth,...
, Grahame-White
Grahame-White
Grahame-White was an early British aircraft manufacturer, flying school and later manufacturer of cyclecars.The company was established as Grahame-White Aviation Company by Claude Grahame-White at Hendon in 1911...
, Cody
Samuel Cody
Samuel Franklin Cowdery was born in Birdville, Texas, USA. He was an early pioneer of manned flight, most famous for his work on the large kites known as Cody War-Kites that were used in World War I as a smaller alternative to balloons for artillery spotting...
, Roe
Alliott Verdon Roe
Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe OBE, FRAeS was a pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer, and founder in 1910 of the Avro company...
, Sopwith
Thomas Sopwith
Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, CBE, Hon FRAeS was an English aviation pioneer and yachtsman.-Early life:...
followed in that year, but de Havilland
Geoffrey de Havilland
Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, OM, CBE, AFC, RDI, FRAeS, was a British aviation pioneer and aircraft engineer...
and Blackburn
Robert Blackburn (aviation pioneer)
Robert Blackburn, OBE, FRAeS was an English aviation pioneer and the founder of Blackburn Aircraft.He was born in Kirkstall, Leeds, Yorkshire, England...
won theirs in 1911, only a few months before Dyott.
In the autumn of 1911 Dyott and Capt. Patrick Hamilton travelled to New York with two Deperdussin monoplanes
Monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
, a two-seater and a single seater. They made an exhibition tour, stopping for a while in Nassau
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
and in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. A highlight, literally, of the Nassau exhibition was a night flight in the two seater, with Hamilton as passenger, carrying a searchlight powered from the ground via cables. In Mexico the two seater carried many passengers, including the Mexican Republic's President Madero
Francisco I. Madero
Francisco Ignacio Madero González was a politician, writer and revolutionary who served as President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913. As a respectable upper-class politician, he supplied a center around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce...
. He later reported on the different flying conditions in hot climates, particularly the effects of thermals, rotating winds and the excitement of flying over forest fires.
After returning to the UK, he decided to design his own aircraft. This was known as the Dyott monoplane
Dyott monoplane
The Dyott monoplane was a single-engined, single-seat mid-wing monoplane designed by G.M. Dyott for his own use as a sports and touring aircraft. It proved successful, making a six month tour of the USA soon after its first flight in 1913.-Design:...
; after receiving and testing it, Dyott took it to the US in April 1913. He made a sixth month demonstration tour, flying for more than 2,000 miles at venues between New York and California. When he returned to the UK he flew it in the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
handicap of November 1913, but had to make an unscheduled landing.
After serving as a Royal Naval Air Service
Royal Naval Air Service
The Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...
squadron commander during the First World War, he become an explorer and joined the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
. In 1927, he was the second person to transverse the Amazonian "River of Doubt", in the footsteps of the 1913–14 Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition
Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition
The Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition was jointly led by Theodore Roosevelt and Cândido Rondon in 1913–1914 to be the first explorers of the 1000-mile long "River of Doubt" located in a remote area of the Brazilian Amazon basin...
. Dyott wanted to verify Roosevelt's claim of discovering the river, for which there had been some doubt. In 1928 he mounted an expedition to search for the missing British explorer Percy Fawcett
Percy Fawcett
Lt. Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett was a British artillery officer, archaeologist and South American explorer....
in the Amazon. Dyott found evidence he believed confirmed Fawcett had been killed by the Aloique Indians, but the strength of his evidence soon collapsed on closer scrutiny and the mystery of Fawcett's disappearance remained unresolved.
Related to the Fawcett expedition, during which Doyott was held captive by Indians and barely escaped with his life, Dyott published a book about his adventures called Manhunting in the Jungle (1930), and also co-wrote and starred in a 1933 Hollywood action film called Savage Gold. The book was later adapted to film as Manhunt in the Jungle (1958). In 1929 Dyott played himself in a documentary called Hunting Tigers in India, filmed in India on the A. S. Vernay expedition under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
. It was billed as "the first all-talking nature picture" and was supposedly shown to First Lady Mrs. Hoover
Lou Henry Hoover
Lou Henry Hoover was the wife of President of the United States Herbert Hoover and First Lady of the United States, 1929-1933. Mrs. Hoover was president of the Girl Scouts of the USA for two terms, 1922-1925 and 1935-1937....
in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
theater.
Dyott was active in the early years of aviation in South America too. He set-up a company which took and sold aerial-photographs as post-cards.
Dyott spent most of his life in South America but died in the City of his birth, New York, in 1972.
Works
Books- Possibilities of Aerial Transport in Peru (1919)
- Silent Highways of the Jungle: Being the Adventures of an Explorer in the Andes and Reaches of the Upper Amazon (1922)
- On the Trail of the Unknown. In the wilds of Ecuador and the Amazon. With plates and a map (1926)
- The Volcanoes of Ecuador, Guideposts in Crossing South America (1929)
- Manhunting in the Jungle, The search for Colonel Fawcett (1930)
- Nip and Tuck: A true story of two little bears (1935)
Film
- Hunting Tigers in India (1929; as himself, documentary)
- Savage Gold (1933; co-wrote story, and plays himself)
- Manhunt in the Jungle (1958; screenplay based on his book Manhunting in the Jungle)