Thomas Scott Baldwin was born in Missouri in June 1854 and, after working on the railroads and as an acrobat in a circus, became the first American to descend by a parachute from a balloon, in January 1885, having obtained Balloon Pilot Licence No 1. After experiments with dirigibles, Baldwin developed his own aircraft, the Red Devil series of biplanes, built by Glenn Curtiss. Baldwin died in May 1923, aged 68.