"Slats" Rodgers Airplane (Texas 1912).

[klem]

Floyd H. "Slats" Rodgers was born in Georgia in 1889 and moved to Texas with his family as a child. From his youth, he was fascinated by aviation. At Cleburne and Keene, in 1912 "Slats" Rodgers designed and built with a Santa Fe engineer friend, John C. Fine, an airplane (Old Soggy No. 1), considered the first built in Texas. He flew it without instruction in late 1912. Rodgers to recoup some of his expenses, he set up a tent and charged 50 cents admission to see the plane. In three days he earned $700. He became a flight instructor for the Army in 1916. Although his flying career continued until the end of his life. His autobiography, Old Soggy No. 1. The Uninhibited Story of Slats Rodgers, was published in 1954 (via the Texas State Historical Association, photo by Slats Rogers and Old Soggy-site Layland Museum of History).