Micajah Clark Dyer (1822-1891) was a pioneer aviator. He invented a flying machine for which he received Patent No. 154,654 on Sept. 1, 1874, titled “Apparatus for Navigating the Air.” It was placed in Class 244 for Aeronautics and Astronautics, and in Subclass 28 for Airships with Beating Wings Sustained. At that time, designs for manned flight were just beginning to make the transition from balloons and gliders to powered, heavier-than-air craft. His design is a very early example representing that transition. Clark, as he was called, married the buoyant power of a balloon with navigational controls for flight.

Blairsville, Union County, Georgia, where the invention and flights took place, and its surrounding counties didn’t have newspapers at that time, but the story of Clark’s invention was reported in dozens of newspapers in other towns across the U.S., perhaps also in foreign countries since efforts were underway all over the world at the time to build a machine that could fly.

Several neighbors, including Johnny Wimpey, Jim Lance and Herschel Dyer, witnessed Clark’s flights off Rattlesnake Mountain in the Choestoe Community of Union County in years about 1875 to 1885. He is buried in the Old Choestoe Baptist Church Cemetery, Blairsville, Ga.

A website, https://micajahclarkdyer.blogspot.com/, has been maintained since 2004 to acquaint people with Clark’s accomplishments.