On January 18, 1911, Eugene Ely landed the Curtiss biplane on a deck erected on the cruiser Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay. He was aided by a tailhook — the first ever — and arrestor cables attached to sandbags.
Lawrence Sperry never rested on his laurels. Between 1915 and 1923, he had 23 patents either pending or granted. Among his inventions was instrumentation that permitted aircraft to be piloted when visibility was zero.