C. Townsend Ludington was an aviation pioneer. His aviation career began when he taught flying at the U.S. Naval Air Station in San Diego during WWI. After the war Ludington was interested in the emerging field of commercial flight and boating. He began pursuing these interests by barnstorming and manufacturing speed boats. In 1930, Ludington and his brother Nicholas started a flying service called Ludington Airlines. It was based out of Philadelphia and provided hourly plane service between the major east coast cities. By 1933 the airline merged with Eastern Air Transport, the precursor to Eastern Airlines. Before WWII Ludington joined up with Roger Griswold and they made one of the first wind tunnels to test wing design and other aviation developments. Throughout the War they continued contract work including supersonic designs for the Air Force and the development of a two-person training glider for the Navy. Ludington retired from active business in 1943 and began writing about aviation for various aviation journals and wrote "Smoke Streams: Visualized Air Flow", used as a basic textbook on aerodynamics. He was also the founder and first president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and founder and associate director of the aviation wing of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.