Dates

• Existence: 1884 - 1928

Biographical Note: Leonard Warden Bonney

Leonard Warden Bonney was a flier on the Wright Exhibition Team.

Born in 1884 in Ohio, Bonney attended Oberlin College. He became the 47th licensed pilot and flew for the Wright Brothers' exhibition team in 1909-1910. In 1912 he went to work for the Sloan Airplane Company, by 1913 he was a test pilot for the Amas Airplane Company, and later in 1918 he worked for Alexandria Aircraft Corporation. In 1914-1915 he was a military aviator for the Mexican government and during World War I he became an Army and Navy instructor based in New York. In 1928 he begain designing his own aircraft, dubbed the Bonney Gull. He died in 1928 when he crashed the Bonney Gull on its maiden flight.