He was born on February 23, 1886 in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He attended the John Bevins Moisant aviation school and was taught to fly by Andre Haupert. Kantner built a Bleriot monoplane with a 50 horsepower Gnome engine in which he soloed on June 30, 1911 and was given Fédération Aéronautique Internationale certificate number 65 on October 14, 1911 in Mineola, New York. He was instructor at the Yale group in Buffalo, New York. After World War I he worked as designer and test pilot for Continental motors, Aeromarine, Fairchild and Convair. He retired from Convair in 1961. He died on December 11, 1973.