Almost exactly eight years after the Wright Brothers took to the skies at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the first powered flight occurred over the Santa Barbara area — January 1, 1911.
In December 1910, arrangements were made to bring a daring French flyer, Dadier Masson, to Santa Barbara. One of the primary backers behind the venture was Milo Potter, owner of the fabulous Potter Hotel. A makeshift airfield was put down out in Hope Ranch near the Potter Country Club, now La Cumbre Golf and Country Club.
Masson flew a Farnham-Curtiss biplane, a pusher-type machine that had its 80-horsepower engine in the back and the pilot’s seat in front of the wings. This model at the time held the American record for the number of passengers taken aloft in one flight — four.