Leonard Warden Bonney

Lore & Background

Bonney was born in Wellington, Ohio, on December 4, 1884, possibly as Warden Leonard Bonney. He attended Oberlin College. In 1910 and 1911, he flew for the Wright Exhibition Team and was the 47th licensed pilot. In 1912 he worked for the Sloan Airplane Company, and in 1913 he was a test pilot for the Amas Airplane Company in Washington, D.C. By 1918 he was the general manager for that company. In 1914 and 1915 he served as a military aviator for the Mexican government under General Carranza. During World War I he became an Army instructor at Garden City, New York, and a naval instructor at Smith's Point, New York.

In 1925 Bonney married Flora MacDonald. That same year he began designing and constructing in Garden City, New York, a novel plane with duraluminum folding gull-like wings and a side-by-side cockpit. He called the plane the Bonney Gull. A 1928 issue of Time magazine described the unusual aircraft as fat in body with graceful curving wings, abandoning the aileron, and featuring an expanding and contracting tail, variable camber in the wings, and a varying angle of incidence.

Bonney was killed on May 4, 1928, during the maiden flight of the Bonney Gull when the aircraft nosedived into the ground from about 50 feet of altitude, seconds after taking off from Curtiss Field, Long Island.

Reader's Guide

Leonard Warden Bonney's significance lies in his dual role as an early aviator and an innovative aircraft designer. As a member of the Wright Exhibition Team and the 47th licensed pilot, he was part of the first generation of aviators who helped popularize flight. His later work as a test pilot and instructor for both the Mexican government and the U.S. military during World War I demonstrates the expanding roles of aviators in the early 20th century. However, his most notable contribution was the Bonney Gull, an aircraft that incorporated radical design features such as folding gull-like wings, variable camber, and an expanding tail—concepts that sought to improve stability and control without traditional ailerons. The Bonney Gull's tragic crash on its maiden flight, killing Bonney, underscores the risks faced by early aviation pioneers. His legacy is preserved in historical records and newsreel footage, illustrating the experimental spirit of the era.

Did You Know?

• Bonney was possibly born as Warden Leonard Bonney.
• He was the 47th licensed pilot.

Pioneering the Skies: A Restless Early Career

Leonard Warden Bonney entered the world on December 4, 1884, in Wellington, Ohio, though some records suggest his given names may have been reversed at birth. After attending Oberlin College, he threw himself into the infant world of powered flight with extraordinary urgency. In 1910 and 1911, he took to the air as a member of the Wright Exhibition Team, earning the distinction of becoming the forty-seventh licensed pilot in the country. His career then accelerated rapidly: by 1912 he was working for the Sloan Airplane Company, and in 1913 he served as a test pilot for the Amas Airplane Company based in Washington, D.C. His dedication to that firm grew steadily, and by 1918 he had risen to the position of general manager. Perhaps most remarkably, in 1914 and 1915 he left American soil entirely, serving as a military aviator for the Mexican government under General Carranza. This extraordinary range of experience—exhibition flying, corporate aviation, test piloting, and foreign military service—marked him as one of the most versatile and adventurous aviators of his generation.

Shaping the Next Generation of Military Aviators

When the First World War drew the United States into aviation training on a massive scale, Bonney found himself in a position to shape the next generation of military fliers. He served as an Army flight instructor at Garden City, New York, where he drilled young pilots in the fundamentals of controlled flight. In parallel, he took on a naval instruction role at Smith's Point, also in New York, extending his teaching to the maritime branch of the armed forces. These dual appointments placed him at the intersection of two of the nation's most critical wartime aviation programs. His prior experience—test flying for the Amas company, serving as a military aviator in Mexico, and his early days with the Wright Exhibition Team—gave him a breadth of practical knowledge that few instructors could match. The Garden City base would later become the site of his most ambitious personal project, the Bonney Gull, suggesting that his time as an instructor there deepened his conviction that existing aircraft design was fundamentally limited and in need of a radical rethink.

The Bonney Gull: A Bird-Inspired Revolution

In 1925, the same year he married Flora MacDonald, Bonney began designing and building in Garden City, New York, what he called the Bonney Gull—a radical departure from conventional aircraft engineering. The plane featured duraluminum folding wings shaped like those of a gull, a side-by-side cockpit, and a body that Time magazine later described as "fat" with "graceful curving wings." Most strikingly, Bonney deliberately abandoned the aileron, the balancing device that every aircraft designer of his era considered indispensable for stability. Instead, he followed what he called the bird principle. The tail could expand and contract, mimicking a blackbird's, to accommodate varying loads. The wings possessed variable camber, allowing them to flatten out like a gull's in level flight. A varying angle of incidence let the wings turn sideways into the wind during landing. It was an audacious attempt to let nature's own aerodynamics replace the mechanical conventions of the age.

A Tragic Maiden Flight and Enduring Memory

On May 4, 1928, Leonard Warden Bonney took to the skies one final time. The Bonney Gull lifted off from Curtiss Field on Long Island for its very first flight, but within seconds of leaving the ground the aircraft nosedived, striking the earth from an altitude of roughly fifty feet. Bonney was killed, ending a life of extraordinary aviation achievement at the age of forty-three. The crash silenced what might have been one of the most original design philosophies in early aviation history. Yet the memory of his work persisted. Silent newsreel footage of the Bonney Gull's flight was preserved by British Pathé, and a 2001 article in Flight Journal revisited the aircraft's story for a new generation of readers. His name also appears in early aviator reference works, a quiet testament to a man who flew for the Wrights, served in Mexico, trained American military pilots, and dared to build a machine that looked more like a living bird than a conventional airplane.