User:Margarita423/User:CSTKing/Earl Leland Smith

Aviation
An experiment that ultimately ended as a failure was the impetus for developing new ideas in transporting people across the states. Initially combining rail and air was thought to be a good way to move individuals across the country. However neglecting to consider the public's thoughts on flying was a decision that was detrimental to the success of this idea.

Smith conducted the first national rail-air flight on June 14, 1929. He logged in more than 4500 hours in his rail-air flight without any reported accidents in two years. However, on September 1, 193, Smith crashed into a house in Baltimore Maryland due to a plane malfunction. This accident left him recovering from a crushed spine for two months. 

Between the years of 1941-1952, Smith became a safety investigator for the Civil Aeronautics Board. He was a safety investigator in Detroit, Michigan for five years and in Minneapolis, Minnesota for six years. During his time as a safety investigator, he testified in a Montana 1942 accident report as an expert. Smith gave his opinion as to what factors could have caused the accident saying, “The direction of the wind on the runway creates another hazard. The slag piles or runaway material that was piled in different places around the runaway would create another hazard. And, of course, the rain, which would come under weather, would no doubt obscure the pilot’s vision to a certain amount. And by adding these hazards together, it makes a pretty big hazard.”

Family
He had four siblings: Chester Leroy Smith (1899-1964), Kenneth R Smith (1900-1995), Lloyd R Smith (1905-1971), and Grace May Smith Hutton (1910-1986).

Smith married Helen E. Miller in 1939 in Missouri and had two children, Paul L. Smith (1919-2006) and Imogene M. Smith (1927-2005).