Charles Irving "Sam" Elliott (1892–1972) was a pioneer aviator in the Hawaiian Islands. As an airline pilot, he is credited with the first scheduled passenger flight between the Hawaiian Islands, the first scheduled airmail flight between the Hawaiian Islands, and the first scheduled cargo flight in the US/Hawaiian Islands. Early life Elliott was born on November 13, 1892, in Barnum, West Virginia, to Fredrick and Susan (Blackburn) Elliott. Elliott had three younger sisters (Ruth, Lilly, and Myrtle) and two younger brothers (Francis and Donovan). His teenage years were spent in Seaside, Oregon where he worked with his father as a carpenter. Elliott joined the US Navy in 1915 and married Christine E. Benton on Sept. 12, 1918 in San Diego, California. Naval career Elliott was a carpenter's mate stationed at Rockwell Field on the San Diego Harbor. In 1919, Elliott applied for and was accepted into the Navy's flight training program offered to enlisted personnel. After graduation from flight school, he was selected to remain at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida as a flight instructor. His next assignment was to fly scout planes off the Battleship USS Nevada. He was then assigned to Torpedo Plane Squadron #2 in San Diego, and made his connection to Hawaii when his unit was transferred to Naval Air Station Pearl Harbor in 1923. Being an enlisted man, Chief Petty Officer Elliott was referred to as a Naval Aviation Pilot, or AP for short. Airline career In 1929, the newly formed Inter-Island Airways needed to hire a Chief Pilot to help begin flight operations. The founder of Inter-Island Airways, Stanley Kennedy Sr., flew Curtiss H-16 seaplanes for the US Navy in World War I. Due to his knowledge of their capabilities and the lack of suitable airports in Hawaii at the time, Kennedy wanted to hire a Chief Pilot with naval seaplane experience. Elliott was hired as Chief Pilot for Inter-Island Airways on August 1, 1929. Elliott's initial tasks were to oversee the construction of the company's hangar, hire new pilots, fly the company's Bellanca Pacemaker on sightseeing flights over Oahu, and prepare for the arrival of their Sikorsky S-38 amphibious aircraft from the factory in Connecticut. Kennedy and Elliott, both being WWI veterans, chose Armistice Day to be the inaugural day for scheduled air travel between the Hawaiian Islands. First scheduled airline flight in the Hawaiian Islands On November 11, 1929, Territorial