Before the Wright Brothers
Long before Kitty Hawk made headlines, John Joseph Montgomery — often misremembered as James Montgomery — was already testing the skies in the rolling hills of San Jose.
In 1883, Montgomery became the first person in the Western Hemisphere to make a controlled flight in a heavier-than-air glider, decades before powered flight took off. His early experiments, conducted near Evergreen and Santa Clara University, pushed the boundaries of what seemed possible — not just building gliders, but understanding the aerodynamics that would one day shape aviation.
A brilliant physicist, engineer, and educator, Montgomery designed and flew gliders that demonstrated the principles of controlled flight. His 1905 tandem-wing glider flights in San Jose were among the most advanced of their time — so much so that his work was later recognized by the Smithsonian.
Today, his legacy lives on in places like Montgomery Hill Park, Montgomery Elementary, and even the name of Montgomery Airfield (formerly in use) — quiet reminders that flight history didn’t just happen in North Carolina… it happened right here, in the skies above San Jose.
In 1946, the story of San Jose’s own aviation pioneer, John Joseph Montgomery, took flight on the silver screen in the film Gallant Journey, directed by William A. Wellman and starring Glenn Ford.
The movie dramatized Montgomery’s early glider experiments, many of which took place in the rolling hills of East San Jose and near Santa Clara University — decades before the Wright brothers made history. While the film took some Hollywood liberties, it brought Montgomery’s quiet brilliance and soaring ambition to audiences across the country, placing San Jose’s skies into the national imagination.