Charles Francis Walsh (October 27, 1877 – October 3, 1912) was an American pioneer aviator who died in a crash in Trenton, New Jersey. Early life Charles Francis Walsh was born in Mission Valley, California, on October 27, 1877, to Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Walsh. When he was a young boy, the family moved to nearby San Diego, California. Growing up, he worked in his father's grocery store. Enterprising even at an early age, he started his own bicycle business as a teenager, but this would be the first of several unsuccessful ventures for Walsh until his early thirties. In 1901, at the age of 24, he hitchhiked to Los Angeles and took a job as a stationary engineer at the California General Hospital in Los Angeles. It was there that he met a young nursing student named Alice Connolly. They were married on September 23, 1903. In January 1904, he and his new wife moved to Winslow, Arizona, where he went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad as a freight train engineer. Charles grew impatient during what turned out to be a long and frustrating apprenticeship, so he moved back to Los Angeles to work in an oil refinery as a field engineer. It was not long, however, before they ventured to Goldfield, Nevada, to seek their share of the gold fortune believed to be there. At first, the Walshes were able to make decent money supporting the blossoming mining industry of the town. The couple did return to Los Angeles in the spring of 1905 to give birth to their son Kenneth, while Charles briefly returned to work in the oil fields. They returned to Goldfield a short time later. Alice gave birth to a daughter (Juanita) there the following year. When Goldfield died a quick death in 1907, however, a financially troubled Walsh was forced to move his family into his father's house at 17th and K streets in San Diego. Charles found work as an elevator operator in a local hotel. Walsh became fascinated with aviation from reading about the subject in the local newspapers. Using only pictures from these newspapers, he sketched his own airplane design in between elevator trips at work and was determined to fly it one day. In 1909, Walsh convinced a small group of local investors to open the first airplane manufacturing company in California. First airplane The San