On Oct. 9, 1911, the Vin Fiz, built by the Wright Brothers and piloted by Calbraith Perry Rodgers with Armour's sponsorship, landed on Harmon Hinck's farm in Middletown. This first transcontinental flight also carried the first Illinois air mail from Peoria to Springfield. In 1926 Charles A. Lindbergh stopped at Middletown en route from Peoria to Springfield. On Jan. 18, 1984, John Petrenh landed his six story AX-7 hot air balloon, the Flying Lightbulb, on Barton's farm, making Middletown the only city where five world records were set in one balloon flight. On Oct. 8, 1986, James R. Lloyd Jr. landed Vin Fiz II on James Glenn's farm, marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the C.P. Rodgers Memorial Skyway flight.