Image Credit: Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
Year Erected: 1987
Marker Text: Ben T. Epps - Georgia's First in Flight – helped design and build Georgia’s first successful airplane, which he flew in 1909. He was born in Oconee County, educated in Clarke County, and attended Georgia Tech. A self-taught aviator, aircraft designer, and builder, Epps and his partner Zumpt Huff built the 1909 monoplane in his shop on East Washington Street in Athens. Epps designed and flew a series of new airplanes for nearly 30 years. The 1924 Epps Monoplane weighed only 350 pounds, had a wingspan of 25 feet, and was powered by a two-cylinder motorcycle engine. Designed for the average man, easy to fly, and inexpensive to operate, it would get 25 miles per gallon at 60 miles per hour. Beginning in 1917 and continuing for nearly 20 years, Epps operated a flying service at this location. In 1922, he received permission from Clarke County to build a hangar and use the land as a landing field. In 1937, he died of injuries sustained here after engine failure and the crash of his light biplane on take-off.
Re-erected in 2018 by the Georgia Historical Society
Tips for Finding This Marker: At the Athens Airport terminal, on Ben Epps Drive in Athens.
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