[1] As a young man he worked as a hardware dealer, but was also known as a handyman and an avid tinkerer who built his own automobiles and motorcycles out of spare parts.

[2] He served in the Clay Center Kansas National Guard and in that capacity was called to assist in crowd safety at one of the popular flying demonstrations in Topeka in June 1910.

[1] Longren obtained space in Topeka for a small factory and enlisted the help of his brother Ereanius and his friend William Janicke, a fellow mechanic.

[3] The trio built the prototype in complete secrecy, wishing to forestall publicity of any potential failures; they even disassembled the craft and transported it discreetly in boxes to its first flight trial.

[4] A pusher configuration with a 60-hp V8 engine and two ribbed canvas wings, the debut Longren aircraft – eventually designated the Topeka I – flew for the first time in trials beginning on September 2, 1911.

[3] Three days later, in his first public demonstration, Longren piloted the plane through a brief but satisfying circular pattern at 61 metres (200 ft) in the air, for a total distance of about 9.7 kilometres (6 mi).

[1] He also took some time off beginning in 1917 when America entered the First World War – for nearly two years, he served as chief inspector of aircraft at the nation's first military aviation research and development center, McCook Field in Ohio.

Improving upon the day's standard airplane bodyform – essentially a wooden frame with a fabric skin – Longren designed the first semi-monocoque fuselage.

The two halves formed a hard shell, made of strong vulcanized fibrous material and reinforced on both sides with wood veneer.

The advanced design of the AK was remarkable for its day, and presents what Air & Space/Smithsonian calls "the world's first semi-monocoque, truly composite shell fuselage".

[1] He ranks as an early pioneer of aviation, having built and flown his own inventions at a time roughly contemporaneous with the Wright brothers during the heady, pre-World War I era of aeroplane vogue.

[3][12][13] A single example of Longren's aircraft – the 1914 pusher biplane that he crashed in Abilene – remains on permanent exhibit at the Kansas Museum of History.

[15] Kansas is home to Amelia Earhart and Clyde Cessna, and the city of Wichita is celebrated as the "Air Capital of the World", but Longren holds the distinction of being the state's first successful pilot and its first aircraft manufacturer.