by

Todd Kyle

    Aden "Bite" Livingston was born on February 8, 1903, in Cedar Falls. Aden attended Lincoln School but, like his brother, did not finish high school. While in school, Aden earned his nickname, "Bite," after he got into a fight with one of his classmates and bit his opponent on the knee, drawing blood. During the 1920s, Aden sold cars at local dealerships before getting into the aviation business. Aden's original pilot's license was signed by Orville Wright. With his brother, John, he ran the Waterloo Airport at Chapman field from 1928 to 1948. While John kept busy racing airplanes, Aden continued to manage the airport while selling Curtis "Jennies".[1] Together, Bite and John Livingston started Iowa’s first airline in 1928. This airline had scheduled service between Waterloo and Des Moines and charged $10 for one way and $18 for a round trip.[2] Livingston also served as an airmail pilot in Iowa. After 1948, "Bite" moved to Omaha, where he became the top salesman for a firm that manufactured the Taylorcraft Airplane. In 1987, at 84, he re-enacted Lincoln Beachy’s first airmail drop in Iowa in his own 1946 Taylorcraft, on the 75th anniversary of this drop.[3] Bite was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame on May 17, 1991. Aden Livingston died in 1995 at 92. 

Endnotes

1."Aden Livingston", The Iowan, Winter Issue, 1989, 44-51. 

2."City up early with Air Thrills, Travel", Waterloo Courier, 20 June 1954, Sec. 10, 13. 

3.CFHSA: Series III Box 7D: John Livingston folder: Waterloo Courier, "Aden Livingston". 

  Bibliography

"Aden Livingston", The Iowan, Winter Issue, 1989, 44-51. 

"City up early with Air Thrills, Travel", Waterloo Courier, June 20, 1954, Section 10, 13. 

CFHSA: Series III Box 7D: John Livingston folder: Waterloo Courier, "Aden Livingston".