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Södertlje (Sweden), 5 March 1867 – † Gulf of Bothnia, 29 June 1918
Freiherr (Baron) Carl Gustav Alexander Cederström was a pioneering Swedish aviator, known as "The Flying Baron". He was also Sweden´s first licensed pilot.
Carl Cederström was born to Anders Cederström and Maria Cecilia Wennerström in Södertälje, Sweden and was baptized in Stockholm. Cederström wanted to be an actor, but finally followed his father's advice, and graduated with a degree in agriculture.
Cederström went to the United States in the 1890s where he tried his hand at being a performer, magician and a cowboy. Tired with agriculture, he soon returned to Sweden, and in 1906, he started Sweden's first car dealership - Bil-Aktiebolaget - in Stockholm. The following year witnessed the construction of the first Swedish racing boat, a 12 m mahogany boat with a 50 hp engine. Carl Cederström was one of three owners of the boat. He was often in the Stockholm archipelago where he drove this boat and mingled with well-known cultural figures.
Very interested in aviation after he witnessed a flight by Louis Blériot in France in 1909, Cederström decided to earn an aviator’s certificate. He attended the Blériot flying school in Pau, France, where he got his certificate in May 1910.
Back in Sweden, he received Swedish Aeronautical Association’s Aviator Certificate No. 1 (the 74th in the world), and soon, he was presenting flying shows in his Blériot aeroplane. He quickly became a major sensation, and was often in the news, known as the "Flying Baron".
In June 1911, Carl Cederström arranged a flying demonstration at the Malmen garrison area outside of Linköping. The following year, he founded there the first aviation school of Sweden, starting with two planes, one automobile and one mechanic. The students included officers from the Army and Navy and in 1913, the army air corps took over the school.
For a while, Cederström worked at the Södertelge Werkstäder factory, supervising plane manufacture. In 1916, he established the Nordisk Aviatik AB near Linköping with designer Lars Fjällbäck. After a trip in the United States, he got the license to build Curtiss aeroplanes. The first production was the NAB 9 that was an improved copy of the Albatross B.II.
Carl Cederström was killed in June 1918 with associate Carl Gustaf Krokstedt when their plane crashed in fog in the Gulf of Bothnia during the delivery of a plane (the NAB 12 twin engine hydroplane) to the Finnish army.
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