First High-Altitude Aeroplane Flights

In the skies directly above this spot, on March sixteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth of nineteen oh five, aeronaut Daniel John Maloney made three soaring flights in a glider designed and built by Professor John J. Montgomery of Santa Clara College. The historical marker calls these the first high-altitude flights in the world, a claim Montgomery himself never made.

Montgomery's design used curved wing surfaces to generate lift, a principle he had been developing for two decades. Maloney was released from a balloon at altitude and guided the craft through controlled maneuvers before landing. The flights drew national attention and preceded the wider recognition of the Wright Brothers' powered work. Montgomery is sometimes called the Father of Basic Flying, and this California valley was where his ideas first took sustained flight.