Quick Facts
Pisces
Biography
Albert Leo Stevens (March 9, 1877 – May 8, 1944) was a pioneering balloonist.
Biography
He was born on March 9, 1873 or 1877, in Cleveland, Ohio, of Czech parentage. He had brother Frank Stevens (1875–1958).
He began making balloon ascensions in 1889 at age 12, and began manufacturing balloons and dirigibles at the age of 20 in 1893. In 1895, he made his first parachute jump from a church spire in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
He participated in the Gordon Bennett Balloon Races. He flew one of the very first dirigibles in the United States in 1906.
He opened the first private airfield in the nation in 1909. Stevens also played a key role in the development of safety features for parachutes.
On July 8, 1911, he ascended in a balloon from the Wanamaker's store in New York City heading toward Philadelphia, but he landed in West Nyack, New York.
During World War I he was a US Army instructor.
He died on May 8, 1944, at age 67.
Legacy
There is the Leo Stevens Award. The National Air and Space Museum houses the Leo Stevens Glass Plate Photography Collection, 1900-1915.
