Emmet Tanner enlisted in the Army at the start of World War I. In 1919, Tanner won the first transcontinental air race from San Francisco to New York City in a de Havilland plane (the first of the Western flyers to make the trip). Additionally, he piloted Lydia “Grandma” Kahl, in her eighties, making her the oldest woman to fly. He also holds a patent on a rotary gas engine which helped increase engine power for future aircraft.

Emmett Tanner died as a result of an aircraft crash in the San Francisco bay on August 22, 1923. 

Link to the collection's Descriptive Finding Guide.