October 31, 2010

Dermott (Chicot County) namesake Charles McDermott was a medical doctor, a minister, a plantation owner, a Greek scholar, and an inventor of a flying machine. McDermott was convinced that manned flight was possible after watching birds glide through the air. After thirty-nine years of work, he delivered a model of his flying machine to Washington DC in 1872 and was awarded a patent for “Improvement in Apparatus for Navigating the Air.” He exhibited his machine all over the United States. When the Wright brothers successfully launched their plane in 1903, some observers believed that they must have made use of information from McDermott’s patent.