yesterday is an accomplishment today, while tomorrow heralds the unbelieveable" . Abram C. Pheil, former mayor of St. Petersburg, won an auction for the first ticket with a winning bid of $400 and was a passenger on the inaugural flight . It was the first time a ticket was sold to the general public for point-to-point scheduled air travel. The Benoist reportedly reached a maximum speed of during the flight, according to a United Press account. Other reports indicate that Jannus flew over the Bay at an altitude of less than . Upon the airboat's arrival in Tampa, the Tampa Tribune reported, "a crowd of two thousand was waiting...Messrs. Jannus and Pheil bowed and smiled". Thereafter, flights departed St. Petersburg daily except Sundays at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.. Return flights left Tampa at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Curtiss test pilot Following the end of the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line's scheduled service between the two Florida cities on March 31, 1914, Jannus left St. Petersburg and quit flying for Benoist, becoming a test pilot for Curtiss Aeroplane Company. In July, 1915, Jannus successfully flew the prototype Curtiss JN-3, forerunner of the JN-4 "Jenny" of World War I fame. On October 1, 1915, he was sent by Glenn Curtiss to Russia as the company's test pilot and trainer of Russian pilots flying Curtiss airplanes in combat during World War I. Death Jannus died on October 12, 1916, near Sevastopol (then part of Czarist Russia) when his plane, a Curtiss H-7 he was using to train Russian pilots, had engine problems and crashed into the Black Sea, killing Jannus and his two-man Russian crew. His body was never recovered. Legacy The Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society founded in 1963, perpetuates the memory of Jannus as the first commercial airline pilot, by annually conferring the Tony Jannus Award for outstanding achievement in scheduled air transportation. Past recipients of the award have been influential in aviation. These include Eddie Rickenbacker, Donald Douglas, Jimmy Doolittle, C. R. Smith (the founder of American Airlines), William A. Patterson (president of United Airlines 1934–1966), and Chuck Yeager. Those so honored are enshrined at the St. Petersburg Museum of History's Tony Jannus exhibit. An operational replica of the Benoist Model XIV airplane flew across Tampa Bay in a 75th anniversary re-enactment of Jannus' flight, on January 1, 1989. It is now exhibited at the St. Petersburg Museum of