Govs & Gadgets: Swashbuckling Hiram Bingham III and autogiro

By at 11:55 am Tuesday, Dec 26


Continuing in our series of official US lawmaker portraits that include objects of a technological persuasion...

• Jeb Bush post
• John H. Sununu post
BB reader Bill Higgins says:
Oh, I'll see your Blackberry and raise you an autogiro.

Hiram Bingham III barely qualifies for your Governors' Gadgets Derby; he served, owing to peculiar circumstances, as Governor of Connecticut for exactly one day in 1925. His career in the U. S. Senate was longer and more distinguished. But he is best known as an archaeologist, since he discovered the forgitten Inca city of Macchu Pichu. See this link.

Anyway, Bingham was a pilot and an enthusiastic promoter of aviation. For a photo of him posing in front of the U.S. Capitol, climbing out of his autogiro after a quick game of golf, see this link. For an impressive photo of the same aircraft against the Capitol dome, see this link.

Xeni Jardin

Boing Boing partner, Boing Boing Video host and executive producer. Xeni.net, Twitter, Google+. Email: xeni@xeni.net.

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