By Vanessa Overholser, staff writer
Dec. 31, 2008 — It was a moment in time that Matthew B. Sellers II made history in the aviation world when he invented the retracting landing gear for airplanes. Sellers’ grandchildren came to the old Olive Hill High School for a reception in his honor to donate artifacts from their grandfather to the historical society.
According to his granddaughter, Barbara Sellers, Matthew B. Sellers was one of many who was not accredited in history as being one who was first in flight.
“In the aviation world, the focus has always been on the Wright Brothers with their first flight in 1903,” Barbara Sellers said. “I’m sure all of you are aware that every history book you pick up today only mentions the Wright Brothers as the first flight, but the truth is that there are about 32 other aviation pioneers that flew before they did.”
He (Sellers) was one of those pioneers. On December 28, 1908, Sellers took flight in the airplane that he built in Grahn. He was one of many who created the idea of full powered flight.
Sellers kept a diary of his work and his results from many of his experiments. It is from those diary entries that the Sellers grandchildren came to know their grandfather and his accomplishments. It was through those entries that they learned about how the invention of the landing gear took flight. Many local residents, through stories handed down over the years, declare that Sellers did make the first flight in history, she said.
“Everyone in Carter County believe he had the first flight before the Wright Brothers,” Sellers said. “They should be proud of him as inventor of the retractable landing gear.”
He kept to himself and stayed out of the public eye. He spent his time studying aerodynamics as he was fascinated by the concept of it, according to Sellers.
He did not have a desire to fly an airplane but needed to in order to test his theories. He was the designer of the first wind tunnel that was ahead of his time and he was the first aviator to determine the lift and drift of arched surfaces in 1908. His diary notes that his first flight was December 28, 1908 was his first flight, she said. Many people believe that he did fly a lot earlier. Stories of his flight have been handed down over the years. His accomplishments included receiving patents on kites and aircraft designs.
Sellers’s grandson, John Blakemore Sellers said he was very pleased to see a great turnout for the reception for his grandfather. He described what it meant to his family having so many people attend the reception.
“It is a culmination of generations. It’s bringing forth a family member that created history and paying their respects due to that family member my grandfather,” he said. “Words can’t describe what kind of person he was. Growing up in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s there really were no resources available to him and he created those resources so that he could see the day that he could fly.”
In reading his diary notes the other day, in 1885 when he was only 14 or 15, he came up with an idea of propelling of kites but more on the lines of a craft that you could propel through the air. He told his uncle of his idea and his uncle did not think too highly of it. So he kept all of his ideas to himself, he said.
“Over the years as a teenager he started trying to figure out how to control a powered craft,” he said. “So in the 1880’s he was already thinking about flying.”
Before Sellers found out about his grandfather’s past, he too pursued the interest in aviation. He studied the mechanics of aviation and went to work on aircraft. He became a geologist.
He said his grandfather had influenced him in his own goals in life. He found out about his grandfather in the 1960’s during a centennial celebration for him at Carter Caves. The event was to celebrate his grandfather’s accomplishments.
Now that he has been educated on his grandfather’s work and the people he surrounded himself with throughout his life, Sellers said his he has better sense of Mathew B. Sellers and what life was like for him in his time in history.
As far as the reception was concerned, Sellers said he felt blessed by all of those people who attended.
Sellers said she was overcome with emotions when she first discovered everyone who came to the event.
“I was overwhelmed. I almost lost it a couple of times. It was very emotional,” she said.
Barbara Sellers will be having her book about her grandfather’s life and accomplishments published by the University of Kentucky. The book is titled, “A Moment in Time: the biography of Mathew B. Sellers aviation pioneer: Inventor of the retractable landing gear.” Her book is slated to come out sometime in 2009.
Madeline Powell represented the Olive Hill Historical Society upon receiving the artifacts during the reception. She was grateful for the generous donation.
“You can’t find words to say how you would feel (about receiving the artifacts). It’s amazing. It really is,” Powell said. “We have a gallery in the hall already with an exhibit of Mathew Sellers and then we have people who have plans on how we will mount the propeller and what we are going to with this in the future.”
She said the display of the newly received artifacts the Sellers family donated will be displayed in a few weeks.
The Sellers grandchildren donated photos, propellers from their grandfather’s plane as well as other artifacts to the Olive Hill Historical Society.
