Thomas Scott Baldwin (June 30, 1860 – May 17, 1923) was a U.S. Army major and pioneer balloonist. He was the first American to descend from a balloon in a parachute.
On January 30, 1885 he made one of the earliest recorded parachute jumps from a balloon. He made many more jumps, gaining the nickname: "Father of the Modern Parachute."
In 1900, Baldwin created a motorized balloon. Using a motorcycle engine built by Glenn Curtiss and an aerodynamic cigar shaped, hydrogen filled, balloon, Baldwin created the dirigible "California Arrow", which underwent the first controlled circular flight in America on August 3, 1904. The aircraft was piloted by Roy Knabenshue at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.
The Army Signal Corps paid him $10,000 for a dirigible that could be used for sustained and controlled navigation. Baldwin created a dirigible that was 95 feet (29 m) long and powered by a new, more powerful Curtiss engine. The Army bought it and designated its first dirigible "SC-I" (Signal Corps Dirigible Number 1). Baldwin picked up the sobriquet: "Father of the American Dirigible." He received the Aero Club of America's first balloon pilot certificate.
In 1910 Baldwin designed his own airplane, and it was built by Glenn Hammond Curtiss. It used a 25 horsepower (19 kW), four-cylinder Curtiss engine that was later replaced by a Curtiss V-8 engine. Baldwin flew it at an air meet in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 7, 1910 and October 8, 1910 then took his airplane to Belmont, New York.
He put together a company of aerial performers including J. C. Mars and Tod Shriver in December of 1910 and toured countries in Asia, making the first airplane flights in many of those locations. The troupe returned to the United States in the spring of 1911.
When he returned from the Pacific tour, Baldwin began testing a new airplane at Mineola, New York. The new aircraft was similar to the basic Curtiss Pusher design but was constructed of steel tubing instead of wood. The aircraft was constructed by C. and A. Wittemann of Staten Island, New York, and was powered by a 60 horsepower (45 kW), Hall-Scott V-8. It was capable of 60 mph (97 km/h). Baldwin named his new aircraft the "Red Devil III", and thereafter each of his designs would be called a "Baldwin Red Devil". Tony Jannus flew actress Julia Bruns in a Red Devil on October 12, 1913, in a New York Times Derby.
In 1914 he returned to dirigible design and development, and built the U.S. Navy's first successful dirigible, the DN-I. He began training airplane pilots and managed the Curtiss School at Newport News, Virginia. One of his students was Billy Mitchell, who would later become an advocate of American military air power.
A Red Devil is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's Udvar-Hazy Center (UHC) of the National Air and Space Museum. UHC is located in the Washington, DC suburb of Chantilly, VA near Dulles International Airport.
When the United States entered the World War I, Baldwin volunteered his services to the Army, even though he was 62 years old. He was commissioned a captain in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps and appointed Chief of Army Balloon Inspection and Production. Consequently, he personally inspected every lighter-than-air craft built for and used by the Army during the war. He was promoted to the rank of major during the war.
After the war, he joined the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, as a designer and manufacturer of their airships.
He died on May 17, 1923, at the age of 62. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honours.