Columbus Ohio's First African American Aviator

Lonnie Carmen poses with an airplane he built using a motorcycle engine from his recycling business.

A so-called “junk man,” people handed over their unwanted goods to Carmon who refurbished and resold them at his Columbus home. As told by his granddaughter Yvette Davis, Carmon came across a motorcycle engine and began crafting his plane around it. Without any prior training or blueprints, the naturally gifted Carmon built a fully functional aircraft.

Lonnie Carmen built the above airplane in 1926 with a motorcycle engine. He was the first African American Columbus airman. The homebuilt machine flew, but the pilot had to hide it in a barn in the black community of Urbancrest for fear that some of the jealous pilots flying out of Norton Field would damage it. Lonnie's daughter, Anna, the second of his six children, says that he was self-employed, always had a truck or two and would haul things for people. He sometimes would haul old cars home and would have them running within hours. Saturday was always airplane day and Lonnie would pile the family into the Franklin sedan and drive to the flying field to give the whole family airplane rides.

People in the southend neighborhood of Main Street and Grant Avenue would wait for Lonnie and his passengers to fly the new Piper Cub that he owned in the 1930s over the neighborhood at five hundred feet. On Sunday afternoons, he would take his drive in the Franklin or a hand-me-down Durant and the destination would always be Port Columbus to watch the air machines coming and going. Lonnie Carmen was an inventor, mechanic, family man and Columbus' first African American aviator.

Sources: Arnett Howard Collection; Columbus African American Collection; 955thelou.com article by D. L. Chandler