Samuel Franklin Cody, American aviation pioneer, 1913 (1934). 'Mr SF Cody: the great Anglo-American pioneer enthroned in the pilot's seat of his cathedral'. Samuel Franklin Cody (1867-1913) was the first man to fly an aeroplane in Britain, on 16 October 1908. From History of British Aviation 1908-1914, Volume II, by R. Dallas Brett [The Aviation Book Club, London, 1934]