II 111 I
THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
V
Copyright, 1910, by The Pictorial News Co.
CURTISS' HUDSON UIVEIi FLIGHT OVER THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
THE CURTISS
AVIATION BOOK
BY
GLENN H. CURTISS
AND
AUGUSTUS POST
WITH CHAPTERS BY CAPTAIN PAUL W. BECK, U. S. A.
LIEUTENANT THEODORE G. ELLYSON, U. S. N.
AND HUGH ROBINSON
With Numerous Illustrations from Photographs
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1912, by
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
languages^ including the Scandinavian
October, 1912
TO
MBS. MABEL G. BELL
WHO MADE POSSIBLE THE AERIAL EXPERIMENT ASSOCIATION
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHORS
259861
CONTENTS
PAET I
BOYHOOD AND EARLY EXPERIMENTS
Augustus Post
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE COMING AIRMEN AN INTRODUCTORY CHAP-
TER 3
II BOYHOOD DAYS 8
III BUILDING MOTORS AND MOTORCYCLE RACING . . 18
IV BALDWIN'S BALLOON 29
PAET II
MY FIRST FLIGHTS Glenn H. Curtiss
I BEGINNING TO FLY 37
II FIRST FLIGHTS 41
III THE "JUNE BUG" FIRST FLIGHTS TOR THE SCIEN-
TIFIC AMERICAN TROPHY AND FIRST EXPERI-
MENTS WITH THE HYDROAEROPLANE .... 51
IV FIRST FLIGHTS IN NEW YORK CITY .... 57
PAET III
MY CHIEF FLIGHTS AND THE WORK OF
TO-DAY Glenn H. Curtiss
I THE RHEIMS MEET FIRST INTERNATIONAL AERO-
PLANE CONTEST 65
v
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
II HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION FlRST AMERICAN-
INTERNATIONAL MEET, Los ANGELES .... 80
III FLIGHT DOWN THE HUDSON RIVER FROM ALBANY
TO NEW YORK CITY 91
IV THE BEGINNING OF THE HYDROAEROPLANE . . . 112
V DEVELOPING THE HYDROAEROPLANE AT SAN DIEGO
THE HYDRO OF THE SUMMER OF 1912 . . . 129
PAET IV
THE REAL FUTURE OF THE AEROPLANE
Glenn H. Curtiss, Capt. Beck, Lieut. Ellyson
and Augustus Post
I AEROPLANE SPEED OF THE FUTURE 155
II FUTURE SURPRISES OF THE AEROPLANE HUNTING,
TRAVEL, MAIL, WIRELESS, LIFE- SAVING, AND
OTHER SPECIAL USES 168
III THE FUTURE OF THE HYDRO 187
IV FUTURE PROBLEMS OF AVIATION 193
V THE AEROPLANE AS APPLIED TO THE ARMY
Capt. Paul W. Beck, U. 8. A 205
VI THE AEROPLANE FOR THE NAVY Lieut. Theodore
G. Ellyzon, U. 8. N 219
VII GLIDING AND CYCLE- SAILING A FUTURE SPORT
FOR BOYS, THE AIRMEN OF TO-MORROW
Augustus Post 227
PAET V
EVERY-DAY FLYING FOR PROFESSIONAL
AND AMATEUR Glenn H. Curtiss, Au-
gustus Post and Hugh Bobinson
I TEACHING AVIATORS How AN AVIATOR FLIES . 235
II AVIATION FOR AMATEURS . . 254
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER PAGE
III How IT FEELS TO FLY Augustus Post . . . 263
IV OPERATING A HYDROAEROPLANE HughRoUnson . 272
PAET VI
THE CURTISS PUPILS AND A DESCRIPTION
OF THE CURTISS AEROPLANE AND
MOTORr-Augustus Post
I PUPILS 281
II A DESCRIPTION OF THE CURTISS BIPLANE . . . 287
III THE CURTISS MOTOR AND FACTORY . . 296
ILLUSTRATIONS
CURTISS 7 HUDSON RIVER FLIGHT OVER THE STATUE OF LIB-
ERTY Frontispiece
FACING
PAGE
CURTISS THE BOY AND CURTISS THE MAN 20
CURTISS WINNING WORLD'S MOTORCYCLE RECORDS ... 21
THE BALDWIN ARMY DIRIGIBLE, WITH EARLY CURTISS MOTOR 30
WIND WAGON AND ICE BOAT WITH AERIAL PROPELLER . . 31
THE AERIAL EXPERIMENT ASSOCIATION 38
STARTING TO FLY FIRST PUBLIC FLIGHT IN AMERICA; THE
"JUNE BUG," JUNE, 1908; BALDWIN IN GLIDER . . 39
THE FIRST MACHINES THE "WHITE WING" AND "RED
WING" 52
CURTISS 7 FIRST FLIGHT FOR THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
TROPHY 53
WINNING THE GORDON BENNETT CONTEST IN FRANCE . . 74
PRESIDENT TAFT WATCHING CURTISS FLY, HARVARD MEET,
1910 75
THE ALBANY-NEW YORK FLIGHT START ; OVER WEST POINT 92
THE HUDSON FLIGHT OVER STORM KING 93
THE HUDSON FLIGHT STOP AT POUGHKEEPSIE ; FINISH, AT
GOVERNOR'S ISLAND 106
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HYDRO; THE FIRST HYDRO IN THE
WORLD; DUAL CONTROL HYDRO OF 1911; LANDING IN
HYDRO AT CEDAR POINT, OHIO 107
ELY LANDING ON THE U. S. S. "PENNSYLVANIA" .... 120
CURTISS AND HYDRO HOISTED ON U. S. S. "PENNSYLVANIA";
ELY LEAVING "PENNSYLVANIA" 121
ix
x ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
DIAGRAM OF CUBTISS FLYING BOAT OF 1912 146
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HYDRO THE FLYING BOAT OF SUM-
MER 1912; THE 1911 HYDRO 148
HYDRO FLIGHTS CURTISS OVER LAKE ERIE; WITMER RIDING
THE GROUND SWELLS 149
CAPTAIN BECK AND POSTMASTER-GENERAL HITCHCOCK CAR-
RYING THE MAIL 174
STUDENTS OF AERIAL WARFARE BECK, TOWERS, ELLYSON,
MCCLASKEY; WITH CURTISS AND ST. HENRY . . . 175
ELLYSON LAUNCHES HYDRO FROM WIRE CABLE .... 224
HUGH ROBINSON'S FLIGHT DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI . . . 225
AUGUSTUS POST FLYING; AEROPLANE SHIPMENT .... 264
CURTISS PUPILS J. A. D. MCCURDY RACING AN AUTOMOBILE;
LIEUTENANT ELLYSON ; MR. AND MRS. W. B. ATWATER . 265
CURTISS PUPILS C. C. WITMER, BECKWITH HAVENS, J. A. D.
MCCURDY, CROMWELL DIXON, CHAS. K. HAMILTON,
CHAS. F. WALSH, CHAS. F. WILLARD 282
LINCOLN BEACHEY FLYING IN GORGE AT NIAGARA . . . 283
DIAGRAM OF CURTISS AEROPLANE, SHOWING PARTS . . . 290
DIAGRAM OF CURTISS MOTOR, SHOWING PARTS .... 291
CURTISS MOTORS, OLD AND NEW 300
AT THE AEROPLANE FACTORY, HAMMONDSPORT .... 301
PART I
BOYHOOD AND EARLY EXPERIMENTS
OF GLENN H. CURTISS
BY
AUGUSTUS POST
THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
CHAPTER I
THE COMING AIRMEN AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
THE time lias come when the world is going to
need a new type of men almost a new
race. These are the Flying Men. The great
dream of centuries has come true, and man now
has the key to the sky. Every great invention
which affects the habits and customs of a people
brings about changes in the people themselves.
How great, then, must be the changes to be
brought about by the flying machine, and how
strangely new the type of man that it carries up
into a new world, under absolutely new condi-
tions !
Each year there will be more need of flying
men; so that in telling this story of a pioneer
American aviator, his struggles, failures, and suc-
cesses, it has been the desire to keep in mind not
only the scientific elders who are interested in
angles of incidence, automatic stability and the
like, but also the boys and girls the air pilots
of the future. It is hoped that there will be in
3
4 THE OUKTISS AVIATION BOOK
these introductory chapters for whose writing,
be it understood, Mr. Curtiss is not responsible
a plain unvarnished story of an American boy who
worked his way upward from the making of bicy-
cles to the making of history, an inspiration for
future flights, whether in imagination or aero-
planes, and that even the youngest reader will
gain courage to meet the obstacles and to over-
come the difficulties which Glenn H. Curtiss met
and overcame in his progress to fame.
Here is a man who is a speed marvel who has
beat the world at it. First on land, riding a mo-
torcycle, next in a flying machine, and finally in a
machine that was both water and air craft, which
sped over the surface of the sea faster than man
had ever travelled on that element, and which rose
into the air and came back to land with the speed
of the fastest express train ; a man who traveled
at the rate of one hundred and thirty-seven miles
an hour on land, fifty-eight miles an hour on the
water and who won the first International speed
championship in the air.
More than that, they may see what sort of a
boy came to be the speed champion and to know
some of the traits that go to make the successful
airman, for it is said of the great aviators, as of
the great poets, they are born flying men, and not
developed. The successful flying man and maker
of flying machines, such as Glenn H. Curtiss has
shown himself to be, realises how dangerous is
THE COMING AIRMEN 5
failure, and builds slowly. He builds, too, on his
experience gained from day to day; having in-
finite patience and dogged perseverance. And
yet a great aviator must be possessed of such
marvelous quickness of thought that he can think
faster than the forces of nature can act, and he
must act as fast as he thinks.
He must be so completely in harmony with Na-
ture and her moods that he can tell just when is
the right time to attempt a dangerous experiment,
and so thoroughly in control of himself that he
can refuse to make the experiment when he knows
it should not be made, even though urged by all
those around him to go ahead. He must feel that
nothing is impossible, and yet he must not at-
tempt anything until he is sure that he is ready
and every element of danger has been eliminated,
so far as lies in human power. He must realise
that he cannot change the forces of nature, but
that he can make them do his work when he under-
stands them. Some of these qualities must be in-
bred in the man, but the life-story of Glenn H.
Curtiss shows how far energy, courage, and tire-
less perseverance will go toward bringing them
out.
It is from among the country boys that the best
aviators will be found to meet the demands of the
coming Flying Age. They have been getting
ready for it for a long time long before the days
of Darius Green. Does any one now read "Phae-
6 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
ton Bogers," that story of the inventive boy back
in the eighties, and recall the " wind- wagon"
which was one of his many inventions? There
were many like him then, and there are more like
him now; always tinkering at something, trying
to make it "go," and go fast. And there are
many of these who are building up, perhaps with-
out knowing it, the strong body, the steady brain,
courage, perseverance, and the power of quick
decision the character of the successful airmen
of the future.
The history of aviation is very brief, expressed
in years. In effort it covers centuries. First
come the inventors, a calm, cautious type of men,
holding their ideas so well in trust that they will
not risk their lives for mere display and the ap-
plause of the crowd. Then the exploiters, eager
for money and fame ; men who develop the possi-
bilities of the machines, always asking more and
getting more in the way of achievement with each
new model built. Though covering a period of
less than a half score of years, aviation already
has its second generation of flyers, pupils trained
by the pioneers, young and ambitious, eager to
explore the new element that has been made pos-
sible by their mentors. From the country dis-
tricts, where the blood is red, the brain steady and
the heart strong, will come many an explorer of
the regions of the air. Just as the city boy in de-
veloping the wireless telegraph strings his anten-
THE COMING AIEMEN 7
nae on the housetops and the roofs of the giant sky-
scrapers, so will the country boy develop his
glider or his aeroplane in the pasture lands and
on the steep hillsides of his own particular terri-
tory, and we shall have a race of flying men to
carry on the development of the flying machine
until it shall reach that long dreamed-of and
f ought-f or perfection.
CHAPTER II
BOYHOOD DAYS
GLENN HAMMOND CUETISS was born at
Hammondsport, New York, May 21, 1878.
His middle name shows his connection with the
pioneer family for which the town is named.
Then Hammondsport was a port for canal boats
that came up Lake Keuka ; nowadays it is an air-
port for the craft of the sky. It is a quaint little
town, lying on the shores of a beautiful lake that
stretches away to Penn Yann, twenty miles to the
north. Glenn's old home was called Castle Hill.
It was nearly surrounded by vineyards and fruit
trees. It was once the property of Judge Ham-
mond, who built the first house in Hammondsport.
On this site now stands the Curtiss factories.
All about Hammondsport are the great vine-
yards that have made the town famous for its
wine, for Hammondsport is in the very heart of
the grape-growing section of New York State.
These vineyards give the boys of Hammondsport
a fine opportunity to earn money each year, and
Glenn was always among those who spent the va-
cation time in tying up grape vines, and in gather-
ing the fruit on Saturdays and at other odd times.
8
BOYHOOD DAYS 9
Some of the neighbours ' children picked winter-
green and flowers, and sold them to the summer
excursionists. One time Glenn was invited to go
with them. He sold six bunches for sixty cents.
His mother applied the amount toward a pair of
shoes in order to teach him the use and value of
money. He was then three years old and wore a
fresh white dress and a blue sash.
Glenn was afterwards taught how to prune and
tie vines and gather fruit and at harvest time he
was often seen with pony and wagon making a
fast run to the station to get the last load of
grapes on the train.
With the care of his sister and the work on the
home vineyard, life was not all play, for Glenn
was "The Man of the House," after his father's
death, which occurred when he was four years
old. At this time, he went with his mother and
sister, to live with his grandmother who lived on
the outskirts of the village.
Hammondsport is divided by the main street,
and the boys of the two sections, like the boys in
cities, were always at war. The factional lines
were tightly drawn and many were the combats
between the up-town boys and the low-town boys.
The hill boys had a den in the side of a bank that
sloped down from Grandma Curtiss ' yard, walled
in with stones of a convenient size. This gave
them good ammunition and a great advantage in
time of battle.
10 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
Among the members of the up-town gang were,
"Fatty" Hastings and "Short" Wheeler, "Jess"
Talmadge and "Cowboy" Wixom and Curtley, as
the boys called Curtiss. He was captain of the
band, because he had a sort of ownership of the
den. Thus the war waged until one day they
punctured Craton Wheeler's dog "Pickles,"
which so infuriated the enemy of the lower village
that they were on the point of storming the fort
in the hillside from above, and would no doubt
have done so had they not chanced to trample
upon Grandma Curtiss ' flower beds which caused
this indignant lady to issue forth and put the en-
tire gang to rout. The cave continued to be a
safe refuge for the hillside gang until "Fatty"
Hastings grew too big to squeeze through the en-
trance and sometimes got stuck just as the gang
was ready to sally forth against the enemy, or
blocked the whole crew when they were in retreat.
During the winter months Glenn gave his hand
to making skate-sails, and became very proficient
at it, and when summer came and the boys went
on bird-nesting excursions in the woods, he was
usually the daring one who allowed himself to be
lowered by a rope over the cliff's edge or climbed
to the topmost limbs of the big hickory trees. At
school, mathematics was young Curtiss 's strong
point, and when finally he came to pass his final
examinations in the high school, he topped his
class in that study with a perfect score of one
BOYHOOD DAYS 11
hundred, and in Algebra he stood ninety-nine.
It is reassuring, however, to find that in spelling
he was barely able to squeeze through with a per-
centage of seventy-five. Glenn sometimes slipped
up on the figuring, but the principle was usually
right; he had figured that out beforehand. The
boys of Hammondsport used to say that Glenn
would think half an hour to do fifteen minutes'
work. One wonders what they would have said,
if they had been told that in after years he was to
think and plan and scheme for a year, and then
when he was all ready, to wait hour after hour,
day after day, to accomplish something requiring
a little more than two hours ' time ; like his flight
from Albany to New York, the first great cross-
country flight made in America.
When Curtiss was twelve years old his family
went to live in Kochester, New York, so that his
sister might be able to attend a school for the deaf
at that place. He went on working at Eochester
after school hours and during vacation time, first
as a telegraph messenger, then in the great East-
man Kodak works, assembling cameras. He was
one of the very first boys hired by that establish-
ment to replace men at certain kinds of work, and
while the men had received twelve dollars a week,
Glenn received but four dollars. Before long,
however, he had induced his employers to make
his work a piece-work job, and had improved the
process of manufacture and increased the produc-
12 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
tion from two hundred and fifty to twenty-five
hundred a day. He was thus able to earn from
twelve to fifteen dollars a week. It was while em-
ployed in the camera works at Eochester that
Curtiss saved the life of a companion who had
fallen through the ice on the Erie canal. When
praised for his act of bravery he simply re-
marked: "I pulled him out because I was the
nearest to him."
All during the time that Curtiss was working for
others for wages, he continued to tinker making
things and then taking them apart. Once he told
some of his companions that he could make, out
of a cigar box, a camera that would take a good
picture. Of course they laughed at him and bet
that he couldn't do it. But Glenn did do it, and a
picture of his sister with a book was produced
and is still unf aded, and in good condition, in pos-
session of his family. He constructed a complete
telegraph instrument out of spools, nails, tin, and
wire and this so impressed the lady with whom
the Curtisses boarded that she remarked to one of
her friends that " Glenn Curtiss will make his
mark in the world some day; you mark my
words.'' This particular lady tells of the time
that Glenn used to talk of airships, and he was not
yet sixteen years old. Curtiss was fond of all
sorts of sports, taking part in the games the boys
would get up after school and on Saturdays. He
BOYHOOD DAYS 13
liked to play ball, to run, jump, swim, and to ride
a bicycle.
His time was too much taken up, however, with
more productive efforts, such as the wiring of
dwellings for electric light or telephones, to per-
mit of much time being given to boyish sports.
He was most original and had a keen sense of
humour. He was fond of an argument, and had
one striking characteristic ; once he had made up
his mind as to the why and wherefore of a thing,
he could never be induced to change it. To il-
lustrate this trait ; one day an argument arose be-
tween Glenn and another boy as to whether or not
a whale is a fish, Glenn holding that it could be
nothing but a fish. The other boy finally reen-
f orced his argument by producing a dictionary to
show that a whale is not a fish, whereupon Curtiss
asserted that the dictionary was wrong and re-
fused to accept it as authority.
Curtiss was always eager for speed to get
from one place to another in the quickest time
with the least amount of effort. He was obsessed
with the idea of travelling fast. One of the first
things he remembers, says Curtiss, was seeing a
sled made by one of his father's workmen for his
son beat every other sled that dashed down the
steep snow-clad hills around Hammondsport. He
begged his father to let "Gene" make him a sled
that would go faster than Linn's. "Gene" made
14 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
the sled and Glenn painted it red, with a picture
of a horse on it. Furthermore, he beat every sled
in Hammondsport or thereabouts.
The bicycle became all the rage when Curtis s
was growing into his early teens and nothing was
more certain than that he should have one as soon
as he could earn enough money to buy it. And
when he got it he made it serve his purposes in
delivering telegrams, newspapers, and such like.
He developed speed and staying powers as a rider,
and soon thought nothing of making the trip from
Eochester to Hammondsport to see his grand-
mother, who still lived in the old home in that vil-
lage. The roads of New York were not as good
as they are nowadays, when the automobile forces
improvements of the highways, but Curtiss rode
fast nevertheless. In fact, he managed all his
regular work this way. His idea was first, to
find out just how to do it, and then do it. Then
he would find out how fast a certain task could be
performed, and get through with it at top speed.
The surplus time he devoted to tinkering with
something new.
Grandmother Curtiss finally prevailed upon
him to go back to Hammondsport and live with
her. For a time after his return he assisted a lo-
cal photographer and his experience in photogra-
phy gained at this time has since proved of great
value to him, and, incidentally, to the history of
aviation; for in photographing his experiments
BOYHOOD DAYS 15
Curtiss' pictures have a distinct value, as much
for being taken just at the right instant, as for
their pictorial detail. Following his photo-
graphic employment, Curtiss took charge of a bi-
cycle repair shop. It was a little shop down by
the principal hotel in Hammondsport, but Curtiss
foresaw the popularity and later the cheapness
of the bicycle, and he believed the shop would do
a good business. James Smellie owned the shop,
but Curtiss' mechanical skill soon asserted itself
and he became the practical boss. This was in
1897. George Lyon, a local jeweler, was a com-
petitor of Smellie 's in the bicycle business, and
got up a big race around the valley, a distance of
five miles over the rough country roads. When
Smellie heard of the race he made up his mind
that Curtiss could win it and went about arrang-
ing the equipment of his employe. That race has
passed into the real history of the town of Ham-
mondsport. Everybody in the town and the val-
ley was there, and great was the excitement when
the riders lined up for the start. They started
from a point near the monument in front of the
Episcopal church and within a few moments after
the crack of the pistol they were all out of sight,
swallowed up in the dust clouds that marked their
progress up the valley. After a long interval of
suspense a solitary rider appeared on the home
stretch, hunched down over his handle-bars and
riding for dear life, without a glance to right or
16 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
left. It was Curtiss, who probably has never
since felt the same thrill of pride at the shouts
of the crowd. The next man was fully half a mile
in the rear when Glenn crossed the finish-line.
This was Curtiss ' first bicycle race, but later he
acquired greater speed and experience and rode
in many races at county fairs in the southern part
of New York State. What's more, he won all of
his races. This was good for his bicycle business,
which thrived in the summer, but languished in
the winter. During the dull period Curtiss took
up electrical work, wiring houses, putting in elec-
tric bells, and doing similar work of a mechanical
nature. An incident is told of his mechanical
skill at this time that illustrates his inquisitive
mind. An acetylene gas generator in one of the
stores got out of order one day, and no one in the
store could tell just how to repair it. Curtiss
had never seen a gas generator, but that did not
deter him from going at it. He studied it out in
a little while and then put his finger on the trou-
ble. After that the generator worked better than
ever. A little later he decided to build a gas gen-
erator after his own ideas. He started with two
tomato cans and built it.
This was the first appearance of Curtiss' two
tomato cans. They played an important part in
his subsequent experimental work, figuring all the
way through from this first gas generator to the
carburetor of a motorcycle, and at last to enlarge
BOYHOOD DAYS 17
the water capacity of Charles K. Hamilton's en-
gine on his aeroplane so that he might cool his
engine better in making the record flight from
New York to Philadelphia and return in the same
day. In this first case the two tomato cans de-
veloped into an acetylene gas plant with several
improvements, and his own home and shop were
lighted by it. Later the plant was enlarged so as
to furnish light for several business houses of
Hammondsport.
CHAPTER in
BUILDING MOTORS AND MOTORCYCLE RACING
IN the spring of 1900 Curtiss embarked in the
bicycle business for himself, opening a shop
near his old place of employment. This shop
soon came to be known as the " industrial incu-
bator," because experiments of many kinds were
tried there a hatching-place for all sorts of new
machines. The first one developed was destined
to open up to Curtiss a new field of action, one
that furnished the opportunity for new speed rec-
ords, and enlarged the scope of his activities be-
yond the limits of the little town and the valley,
and spread before him possibilities as wide as the
boundaries of the continent.
Curtiss had ridden a bicycle in races, and got
the utmost speed out of it; but the bicycle, as a
man-propelled vehicle, did not travel fast enough
to suit him. He therefore set about devising
means for increasing its speed possibilities. One
day Smellie, his old employer, came into Curtiss'
shop, tired out and perspiring from his efforts in
pedaling his bicycle up the hill. " Glenn," he
said, "I'm going to give the blamed thing up until
they get something to push it." That was Cur-
18
MOTOES AND MOTOECYCLES 19
tiss' cue, and it promptly became Ms problem
getting something to push it! He determined to
mount a gasoline engine on a bicycle, and at once
began to search for the necessary castings. Fi-
nally he secured them and began the task of
building a motor. Unfortunately, the man who
sold him the castings sent no instructions for
building a motor, so the problem was left to Cur-
tiss and to those who interested themselves in his
work. They studied and planned and made ex-
periments, learning something new about motors
all the while. Eventually, with the assistance of
local mechanics, the castings were " machined"
and the motor assembled.
Curtiss afterward described it as a remarkable
contrivance ; but it did the work. This motor had
a two-inch bore and a two-an-a-half-inch stroke,
and drove the bicycle wheel by a friction roller
pulley. First, Curtiss made the pulley of wood,
then of leather, and finally of rubber. It was
tried first on the front wheel and then on the rear
one, and so numerous were the changes in and
additions to its equipment, that the bystanders
and there was the usual number of these saw
only the humorous side of the thing and declared
that it looked like a sort of Happy Hooligan bi-
cycle with tin cans hung on wherever there was
room. The tomato can again came to the front in
Curtiss' experiments, and now served to fashion
a rough and ready sort of carburetor, filled with
20 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
gasoline and covered over with, a gauze screen,
which sucked up the liquid by capillary attraction.
Thus it vaporized and was conducted to the cylin-
der by a pipe from the top of the can.
Then came the first demonstration of a bicycle
driven by power other than leg muscles, and it at-
tracted almost as much attention in Hammonds-
port as the first bicycle road race which Curtiss
had won some years before. The newfangled
machine, which the village oracle declared could
not be made to go unless the rider put his legs to
work, did not promise much of a success on its
initial trip. Curtiss started off for the post-office,
but had to pedal all the way there, the motor re-
fusing to do its part. Coming from the post-of-
fice, however, it began popping and shoved the
wheels around at an amazing rate, while Curtiss
sat calmly upright and viewed the excited citizens
of Hammondsport as he sped by.
That was the beginning of Curtiss' motorcycle;
but the ambitious inventor did not rest with the
first success. "Work at the " incubator" went on
unceasingly. The young mechanical genius car-
ried on his regular duties during the days but
spent most of the nights in his experiments.
Curtiss would not have said that he worked
nights, but that he spent his evenings in "doping
out" the best way to build something. He has
never changed his habits in this respect. He still
"dopes out" something for the next day or the
(A) POST CARD SENT BY CURTISS TO HIS WIFE, JANUARY 24, 1907
(B) CURTISS MAKING WORLD'S MOTORCYCLE RECORD, ORMOND
BEACH
MOTOES AND MOTORCYCLES 21
next month while "resting" from his daylight du-
ties; though the process would now be expressed
in somewhat more scientific terms. In truth, one
may say that Curtiss worked all the time. In of-
fice or shop hours, like other persons, he did what
he had to do ; while at other times he did what he
wanted to do. Curtiss was different only in that
he wanted to do those things which other people
would call labor. Experimental work was recrea-
tion to Curtiss, and because of this mental atti-
tude he was able to stick at a task day and night
and keep up ^ steam" all the while.
Curtiss seldom planned on paper. Plans
seemed to outline themselves in his active mind,
and when, later, he became an employer of a num-
ber of men, he simply outlined his ideas, describ-
ing just what he wanted to accomplish, and left it
to their ingenuity. Sometimes one of his assist-
ants would ask him a question and after standing
for minutes as if he had not heard, Curtiss would
suddenly reply and outline a task which it would
require all day to carry out. Once Curtiss had
decided that a certain course of action would
bring certain mechanical results, it usually turned
out that way, and because of this and the further
fact that he was as good a workman as he was a
designer, the men he had gathered around him
grew to regard his judgment as final and there-
fore went ahead with absolute confidence as to the
results.
22 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
There was a remarkable spirit of cooperation
in the " industrial incubator. " This spirit con-
tinued through the early years of Curtiss' first
business successes, and it obtains to-day in the big
Curtiss aeroplane and motor factories at Ham-
mondsport. The alertness of the men around
Curtiss, and the atmosphere of cooperation may
be due, in some measure, to the curious interest
they always hold as to what he will do next and
there is certain to be something happening out of
the ordinary. Thus, work with Curtiss seldom
becomes monotonous and without its surprises.
To go back to the first motor Curtiss built; it
was quickly found to be too small, and he secured
another set of castings, as large as he could get.
With these he constructed a motor with a cylin-
der three and a half by five inches, and weighing
a hundred and ninety pounds. This machine
proved to be a terror. It is true that it exploded
only occasionally, but when it did it almost tore
itself loose from the frame. But it drove the mo-
torcycle as fast as thirty miles an hour and gained
such a remarkable reputation in Hammondsport
that a story is still told in the town of the time
Curtiss made his first trip with it, when it carried
him through the village, up over the steep hills,
through North Urbana and as far as Wayne,
where it ran out of gasoline and came to a stop of
its own accord.
Thus Curtiss went ahead with his work to con-
MOTOES AND MOTOBCYCLES 23
struct and improve his motors, and improvement
came with each successive one. The third motor
was better suited to the needs of the bicycle and
furnished better results. Meantime, Curtiss be-
gan to receive inquiries and even some orders,
and business took a decidedly favorable turn.
Judge Monroe Wheeler took a great liking to the
young man, who used to come over to his office to
get the judge's stenographer to typewrite his let-
ters, and helped him to establish credit at the
local bank, and in other ways. Half a dozen fel-
low-townsmen became interested enough in Cur-
tiss' motorcycle experiments to put money into
the business, and within a short time a little fac-
tory was built on the hill back of Grandma Cur-
tiss' house. It was an inconvenient place to put
up a factory, and all the heavy material was
hauled up to it with some difficulty, but the light,
finished product, which in this case could go under
its own power, rolled down the steep grade with-
out trouble. In spite of these little obstacles; in
spite of the fact that Hammondsport is located at
the end of a little branch railroad which seems
to the visitor to run only as the spirit moves the
engineer in spite of every handicap, the business
grew rapidly.
Curtiss was, by this time, happily married and
Mrs. Curtiss helped with the office work at the
factory, which stood then, as it does to-day, at the
very back door of the old Curtiss homestead on
24 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
the hillside. Curtiss used to take out his best
motorcycle in these days and go off alone to all
the motorcycle races held in that section of the
State. Incidentally, he scooped in all the prizes,
for he had the fastest machine, and he was a fin-
ished rider. On Memorial Day in 1903, Curtiss
ventured far afield for an event that brought him
his first notices in the big newspapers of New
York City. He entered and won a hill-climbing
contest at New York City, on Eiverside Drive, and
immediately afterward mounted his wheel, rode
up the Hudson to another race, at Empire City
Track, and won that also. This gave him the
American championship.
Later, at Providence, E. L, he established a
world's record for a single-cylinder motorcycle,
covering a mile in fifty-six and two-fifths seconds.
While this was phenomenal speed, it was as noth-
ing in comparison with the record he was soon to
establish. He built a two-cylinder motor and on
January 28, 1904, at Ormond Beach, Florida, he
rode ten miles in eight minutes fifty-four and
two-fifth seconds, and established a world's record
that stood for more than seven years. Curtiss
was not content even with this. He wanted to
travel faster than man had ever traveled before.
He had built a forty horse-power, eight-cylinder
motor for a customer who wanted it to put in a
flying machine which he was building, and in or-
der to try out the motor Curtiss built an especially
MOTORS AND MOTORCYCLES 25
strong motorcycle, using an automobile tire on
the rear wheel and a motorcycle tire on the front
wheel. On a strong frame the big forty horse-
power motor was mounted. It was not given a
thorough try out at Hammondsport, for it was
winter and snow lay deep on the roads. With the
aid of some of his shopmen, Curtiss took the
freak machine out on the snow-covered roads,
merely for the purpose of seeing if it could be
started as it was geared in the machine. It
proved that it would start all right, and so it was
hurriedly boxed and rushed to the train, which
was actually kept waiting several minutes. Cur-
tiss was going South to make new records, and
even the railroad men on the little branch road
from Hammondsport to Bath, felt an interest in
his undertaking. This, by the way, is typical of
the way things are done at Hammondsport.
When there is need for rushing matters, the men
work night and day without complaint. These
last-moment rushes are often due to the giving of
much thought to the details before commencing
to build, and sometimes because, in building, im-
provements which must be incorporated suggest
themselves. Curtiss' rule, as he expresses it, is:
"What is the need of racing unless you think you
are going to win ; and if you are beaten before you
start, why take a chance?' ' But there are other
considerations for the builder of racing machines
to take into account. If your competitors know
26 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
what you are doing, and they will know, somehow,
if you give them a little time, they will go you one
better. Therefore, this belated activity at the
Curtiss factory is not always without its motive.
Take, for instance, the first big International race
for the Gordon Bennett aviation trophy, which
Curtiss won at Eheims, France, in 1909. In spite
of the fact that Curtiss ' motor was built in a great
hurry, barely giving the necessary time to finish
it and reach Eheims for the race, Bleriot, the
chief French builder of the monoplane type,
changed his motor as soon as he had read a de-
scription of the one Curtiss was to use.
The motorcycle which Curtiss had built and
mounted with the eight-cylinder motor proved to
be a world-beater the fastest vehicle ever built
to carry a man. It was taken to Ormond Beach,
Florida, where it was tried out on the smooth
sandy shore, which stretches for miles, as level as
a billiard table and almost as hard as asphalt.
Here, on January 24, 1907, Curtiss mounted the
heavy, ungainly vehicle and traveled a mile in
twenty-six and two-fifth seconds, at the rate of
one hundred and thirty-seven miles an hour!
This stands to-day as the speed record for man
and machine. Curtiss, without goggles and with
no special precautions in the matter of costume,
simply mounted the seat, took a two-mile running
start before crossing the line, and was off. Bend-
ing so low over the handle-bars that he almost
MOTOES AND MOTOBCYCLES 27
seemed to be lying flat and merged into a part of
the machine itself, he flashed over the mile course
in less time than it takes to read these dozen lines.
This speed trial was the culmination of weeks of
study, work, and experiment. Day after day, and
even at night, Curtiss had schemed and worked;
now to get the weight properly placed and bal-
anced; here to strengthen the frame and over-
come the danger from the torque, and the tendency
to turn the machine over, and finally to obtain
the right sort of tires and to put them on securely.
Ordinary tires, on wiieels revolving at such an
amazing speed, would have been cast off the rims
like a belt off a pulley, by the centrifugal force.
These and a thousand other details were worked
out so thoroughly that the machine, when ready,
required very little testing out. In describing the
trial Curtiss said that he could see nothing but a
streak of grey beach in front of him, a blur of
hills on one side, and the white ribbon of foaming
surf on the other. The great crowd that watched
the smoking, whirring thing that flashed by as if
fired from a great gun, caught but a fleeting
glimpse of Curtiss.
The record could not be accepted as official, be-
cause the motor was too big and powerful to be
classed as a motorcycle engine. It therefore
stands as an absolutely unique performance, un-
equalled, and not even approached as regards
speed, until three years later, when Barney Old-
28 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
field, driving a two hundred horse-power Benz
automobile, covered a mile over the same course
in twenty-seven and thirty-three hundredths sec-
onds.
Curtiss had developed, improved, and exhausted
the motorcycle as far as speed possibilities were
concerned, and was soon to give it up for some-
thing of far greater potential possibilities the
aeroplane.
CHAPTEE IV
BALDWIN'S BALLOON
THOMAS SCOTT BALDWIN was engaged
in building a dirigible balloon in Califor-
nia when he chanced to see a new motorcycle,
the motor of which seemed to be exactly what he
wanted to propel his new airship. He learned
that it was the design and product of a man
named Curtiss, at Hammondsport, N. Y., with
whom he entered into correspondence. The re-
sult was that Captain Baldwin went to Ham-
mondsport for a personal interview with the man
who had turned out the motor.
Baldwin expected to find, as he afterward said,
a big, important-looking manufacturer, and great
was his surprise to find a quiet, unassuming young
man, scarcely more than a youth. The jovial
Baldwin and the unobtrusive Curtiss became
great friends at once. They discussed motors of
all sorts, but particularly motors suitable for diri-
gible balloons, then in the first stage of develop-
ment. When Baldwin asked Curtiss the price of
one of the type then used in the Curtiss motorcy-
cle, he was surprised at its cheapness, and ordered
one on the spot. This was built at once and
29
30 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
proved successful. Later several other motors
were built at the Curtiss factory for Baldwin, each
one showing some improvement, and some of them
designed to meet the increasing demand for a
more powerful motor of light weight for use in
dirigible balloons. As a natural consequence of
Baldwin's success with the use of the Curtiss
motor, it was but a short time until it came to
be the best known motor in America for aero-
nautic work. At the St. Louis World's Fair, in
1904, Captain Baldwin's " California Arrow," the
only successful airship out of all those which
were brought from Europe and every part of
America to contest for big prizes, was equipped
with one of Curtiss' motors. Baldwin's success
at St. Louis was a triumph for Curtiss, and soon
all dirigible balloons operating in this country
were driven by Curtiss motors.
Hammondsport was now to have a new sensation
and to witness an experiment which eventually
led to momentous developments. In order to test
the power of the motors he was building for Cap-
tain Baldwin, and for the purpose of determining
the efficiency of his aerial propeller, Curtiss con-
structed a "wind-wagon," a three-wheel vehicle
with the motor and propeller mounted in the rear
of the driver. When he took this queer contriv-
ance out on the road for its first trial, the town of
Hammondsport turned out to witness the fun.
Consternation among the usually mild-eyed work
Ss
o
< s
f
NEARLY UP IN THE AIR
(A) The wind wagon Curtiss in 1904. (B) Ice boat with aerial propeller
BALDWIN'S BALLOON 31
horses spread throughout the little valley as the
' ' wind- wagon " went scooting up and down the
dusty roads, creating a fearful racket. Before
the start was made an automobile was sent ahead
to clear the way and to warn the drivers of other
vehicles. The automobile, however, was quickly
overhauled, passed, and left far in the rear by
the whirring, spluttering, three-wheeled embry-
onic flying machine.
Protests by farmers, business-men and others
quickly followed this experiment. They argued
that it frightened the horses, made travel on the
roads unsafe, and was "bad for business gener-
ally/' As the machine had served its purpose
with Curtiss, and had given Hammondsport its
little diversion, the famous " wind-wagon " passed
into history, and, like so many other of Curtiss'
experiments, remains only in the memories of
those who were directly interested or those who
watched in idle curiosity.
Other airships were built by Baldwin and Cur-
tiss from time to time, and these were used suc-
cessfully in giving exhibitions throughout the
United States. The work of these two pioneers
of the air had attracted the attention of the United
States Government, in the meantime, and great
was the elation at Hammondsport when an or-
der came from the War Department at Wash-
ington for a big dirigible balloon for the use of
the Signal Corps. Baldwin was commissioned to
32 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
build the balloon and Curtiss the motor to propel
it. This was an important undertaking, and
both Baldwin and Curtiss appreciated the fact.
It marked the beginning of Governmental and
military interest in aeronautics in this coun-
try, the possibilities of which were already en-
gaging the attention of the military authorities
of Europe. The success of this airship meant
much to both men, and Baldwin and Curtiss
worked all through the winter of 1904-05 to
make it so, Baldwin, meanwhile, having moved to
Hammondsport in order to be in touch with the
Curtiss factory, where all the mechanical parts
of his airships were being made.
In order to meet the specifications drawn up by
the War Department, the big airship was required
to make a continuous flight of two hours under the
power of the motor, and be capable of manoeuvr-
ing in any direction. Curtiss realised that in or-
der to fill these requirements a new type motor
would be needed. He designed and set about
building, therefore, a water-cooled motor, some-
thing which had not been attempted at the Curtiss
factory up to this time, and the success of which
marked a long step in advance. Although Bald-
win had built thirteen dirigibles, all of which had
been equipped with motors built by Curtiss, and
all of which had been operated successfully in ex-
hibitions, the Government contract was his most
ambitious undertaking. About the balloon itself,
BALDWIN'S BALLOON 33
there was never any doubt; the thing that clung
constantly in the minds of these men who were
bending every effort to the conquest of the air,
was : " Will the motor do its work in a two-hours'
endurance test, and will it furnish the necessary
power to drive the big airship at a speed of
twenty miles an hour?" The conditions under
which the trial was to be made were entirely
unique. The motor had to be suspended on a
light but substantial framework beneath the great
gas-bag, and from this framework the pilot and
the engineer had to do their work.
The Army dirigible was completed on time and
its test took place at Washington in the summer
of 1905. Captain Baldwin acted as pilot and Cur-
tiss as engineer. The airship met every specifi-
cation and was accepted by the Government. A
flight of two hours' duration was made over the
wooded hills of Virginia, and this stands to-day
as the longest continuous flight ever made by a
dirigible airship in this country.
PAET H
MY FIRST FLIGHTS
BY
GLENN H. CUETISS
CHAPTER I
BEGINNING TO FLY
IN 1905, while in New York City, I first met Dr.
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the
telephone. Dr. Bell had learned of our light-
weight motors, used with success on the Baldwin
dirigibles, and wanted to secure one for use in
his experiments with kites. We had a very in-
teresting talk on these experiments, and he asked
me to visit him at Bienn Bhreagh, his summer
home near Baddeck, Nova Scotia. Dr. Bell had
developed some wonderfully light and strong tet-
rahedral kites which possessed great inherent sta-
bility, and he wanted a motor to install in one of
them for purposes of experimentation. This kite
was a very large one. The Doctor called it an
" aerodrome." The surfaces not being planes, it
could not properly be described as an aeroplane.
He believed that the time would come when the
framework of the aeroplane would have to be so
large in proportion to its surface that it would be
too heavy to fly. Consequently, he evolved the
tetrahedral or cellular form of structure, which
would allow of the size being increased indefi-
37
38 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
nitely, while the weight would be increased only
in the same ratio.
Dr. Bell had invited two young Canadian engi-
neers, F. W. Baldwin and J. A. D. McCurdy, to
assist him, and they were at Baddeck when I first
visited there in the summer of 1907. Lieutenant
Thomas Selfridge, of the United States Army,
was also there. Naturally, there was a wide dis-
cussion on the subject of aeronautics, and so nu-
merous were the suggestions made and so many
theories advanced, that Mrs. Bell suggested the
formation of a scientific organisation, to be known
as the "Aerial Experiment Association." This
met with a prompt and hearty agreement and the
association was created very much in the same
manner as Dr. Bell had previously formed the
"Volta Association' ' at Washington for develop-
ing the phonograph. Mrs. Bell, who was most
enthusiastic and helpful, generously offered to
furnish the necessary funds for experimental
work, and the object of the Association was offi-
cially set forth as "to build a practical aeroplane
which will carry a man and be driven through the
air by its own power."
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell was made chair-
man; F. "W. Baldwin, chief engineer; J. A. D.
McCurdy, assistant engineer and treasurer; and
Lieut. Thomas Selfridge, secretary; while I was
honored with the title of Director of Experiments
and Chief Executive Officer. Both Baldwin and
STARTING TO FLY
(A) F. W. Baldwin makes first public flight In America. (B) The
Bug," June, 1908. (C) Baldwin in Aerial Association's Glider
June
BEGINNING TO FLY 39
McCurdy were fresh from Toronto University,
where they had graduated as mechanical engi-
neers, and Baldwin later earned the distinction of
making the first public flight in a motor-driven,
heavier-than-air machine. This was accomplished
at Hammondsport, N. Y., March 12, 1908, over the
ice on Lake Keuka. The machine used was Num-
ber One, built by the Aerial Experiment Associa-
tion, designed by Lieutenant Self ridge, and known
as "The Bed Wing." The experiments carried
on at Baddeck during the summer and fall of 1907
covered a wide range. There were trials and
tests with Dr. Bell's tetrahedral kites, with mo-
tors, and with aerial propellers mounted on boats.
Finally, at the suggestion of Lieutenant Selfridge,
it was decided to move the scene of further experi-
ments to Hammondsport, N. Y., where my factory
is located, and there to build a glider. I had pre-
ceded the other members of the Association from
Baddeck to Hammondsport in order to prepare
for the continuance of our work. A few days after
my return I was in my office, talking to Mr. Augus-
tus Post, then the Secretary of the Aero Club
of America, when a telegram came from Dr. Bell,
saying: "Start building. The boys will be down
next week." As no plans had been outlined, and
nothing definite settled upon in the way of imme-
diate experiments, I was somewhat undecided as
to just what to build. We then discussed the sub-
ject of gliders for some time and I finally decided
40 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
that the thing to do was to build a glider at the
factory and to take advantage of the very abrupt
and convenient hills at Hammondsport to try it
out. We therefore built a double-surface glider
of the Chanute type.
As almost every schoolboy knows in this day of
advanced information on aviation, a glider is,
roughly speaking, an aeroplane without a motor.
Usually it has practically the same surfaces as a
modern aeroplane, and may be made to support a
passenger by launching it from the top of a hill
in order to give it sufficient impetus to sustain its
own weight and that of a rider. If the hill is
steep the glider will descend at a smaller angle
than the slope of the hill, and thus glides of a
considerable distance may be made with ease and
comparative safety.
Our first trials of the glider, which we built on
the arrival of the members of the Experiment As-
sociation, were made in the dead of winter, when
the snow lay deep over the hillsides. This made
very hard work for everybody. It was a case of
trudging laboriously up the steep hillsides and
hauling or carrying the glider to the top by slow
stages. It was easy enough going down, but slow
work going up; but we continued our trials with
varied success until we considered ourselves skil-
ful enough to undertake a motor-driven machine,
which we mounted on runners.
CHAPTEB II
FIRST FLIGHTS
IT was my desire to build a machine and install
a motor at once, and thus take advantage of
the opportunity furnished by the thick, smooth
ice over Lake Keuka at that season of the year.
But Lieutenant Selfridge, who had read a great
deal about gliders and who had studied them
from every angle, believed we should continue
experimenting with the glider. However, we
decided to build a machine which we believed
would fly, and in due time a motor was installed
and it was taken down on Lake Keuka to be tried
out. We called it the "Red Wing," and to Lieu-
tenant Selfridge belongs the honour of designing
it, though all the members of the Aerial Experi-
ment Association had some hand in its con-
struction. We all had our own ideas about the
design of this first machine, but to Lieutenant
Selfridge was left the privilege of accepting or
rejecting the many suggestions made from time
to time, in order that greater progress might
be made. A number of our suggestions were
accepted, and while the machine as completed
41
42 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
cannot properly be described as the result of
one man's ideas, the honour of being the final ar-
biter of all the problems of its design certainly
belongs to Lieutenant Selfridge.
Now that the machine was completed and the
motor installed, we waited for favourable weather
to make the first trial. Winter weather around
Lake Keuka is a very uncertain element, and we
had a long, tiresome wait until the wintry gales
that blew out of the north gave way to an intensely
cold spell. Our opportunity came on March 12,
1908. There was scarcely a bit of wind, but it
was bitterly cold. Unfortunately, Lieutenant
Selfridge was absent, having left Hammondsport
on business, and " Casey " Baldwin was selected
to make the first trial. We were all on edge with
eagerness to see what the machine would do.
Same of us were confident, others sceptical.
Baldwin climbed into the seat, took the control
in hand, and we cranked the motor. When we
released our hold of the machine, it sped over the
ice like a scared rabbit for two or three hundred
feet, and then, much to our joy, it jumped into
the air. This was what we had worked for
through many long months, and naturally we
watched the brief and uncertain course of Baldwin
with a good deal of emotion. Rising to a height
of six or eight feet, Baldwin flew the unheard-of
distance of three hundred and eighteen feet,
eleven inches! Then he came down ingloriously
FIEST FLIGHTS 43
on one wing. As we learned afterward, the frail
framework of the tail had bent and the machine
had flopped over on its side and dropped on the
wing, which gave way and caused the machine to
turn completely around.
But it had been a successful flight and we took
no toll of the damage to the machine or the cost.
We had succeeded ! that was the main thing. We
had actually flown the "Bed Wing" three hun-
dred and eighteen feet and eleven inches! We
knew now we could build a machine that would
fly longer and come down at the direction of the
operator with safety to both.
It had taken just seven weeks to build the ma-
chine and to get it ready for the trial ; it had taken
just about twenty seconds to smash it.
But a great thing had been accomplished. We
had achieved the first public flight of a heavier-
than-air machine in America!
As our original plans provided for the building
of one machine designed by each member of the
Association, with the assistance of all the others,
the building of the next one fell to Mr. Baldwin,
and it was called the ' ' White Wing. ' ' The design
of the "Red Wing" was followed in many details,
but several things were added which we believed
would give increased stability and greater flying
power. The construction of the "White Wing"
was begun at once, but before we could complete
it the ice on the lake had yielded to the spring
44 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
winds and we were therefore obliged to transfer
our future trials to land. This required wheels
for starting and alighting in the place of the ice
runners used on the "Red Wing." An old half-
mile race track a short distance up the valley
from the Lake was rented and put in shape for
flights. The place was called "Stony Brook
Farm," and it was for a long time afterward the
scene of our flying exploits at Hammondsport.
It would be tiresome to the reader to be told of
all the discouragements we met with; of the dis-
heartening smashes we suffered; how almost ev-
ery time we managed to get the new machine off
the ground for brief but encouraging flights, it
would come down so hard that something would
give way and we would have to set about the task
of building it up again. We soon learned that it
was comparatively easy to get the machine up in
the air, but it was most difficult to get it back to
earth without smashing something. The fact
was, we had not learned the art of landing an
aeroplane with ease and safety an absolutely
necessary art for every successful aviator to
know. It seemed one day that the limit of hard
luck had been reached, when, after a brief flight
and a somewhat rough landing, the machine
folded up and sank down on its side, like a
wounded bird, just as we were feeling pretty good
over a successful landing without breakage.
Changes in the details of the machine were many
FIKST FLIGHTS 45
and frequent, and after each change there was a
flight or an attempted flight. Sometimes we man-
aged to make quite a flight, and others and more
numerous merely short "jumps" that would
land the machine in a potato patch or a cornfield,
where, in the yielding ground, the wheels would
crumple up and let the whole thing down. Up
to this time we had always used silk to cover the
planes, but this proved very expensive and we de-
cided to try a substitute. An entirely new set of
planes were made and the new covering put on
them. They looked very pretty and white as we
took the rebuilt machine out with every expecta-
tion that it would fly. Great was our surprise,
however, when it refused absolutely to make even
an encouraging jump. For a time we were at a
loss to understand it. Then the reason became
as plain as day; we had used cotton to cover the
planes, and, being porous, it would not furnish the
sustaining power in flight. This was quickly rem-
edied by coating the cotton covering with varnish,
rendering it impervious to the air. After that it
flew all right. I believe this was the first instance
of the use of a liquid filler to coat the surface
cloth. It is now used widely, both in this country
and in Europe.
We had a great many minor misfortunes with
the "White Wing," but each one taught us a les-
son. We gradually learned where the stresses
and strains lay, and overcame them. Thus, little
46 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
by little, the machine was reduced in weight,
simplified in detail, and finally took on some sem-
blance to the standard Curtiss aeroplane of to-
day.
All the members of the Aerial Experiment As-
sociation were in Hammondsport at this time, in-
cluding Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. We had
established an office in the annex which had been
built on the Curtiss homestead, and here took place
nightly discussions on the work of the day past
and the plans for the day to follow. Some of the
boys named the office the "thinkorium." Every
night the minutes of the previous meeting would
be read and discussed. These minutes, by the
way, were religiously kept by Lieutenant Self-
ridge and later published in the form of a bulletin
and sent to each member. Marvellous in range
were the subjects brought up and talked over at
these meetings! Dr. Bell was the source of the
most unusual suggestions for discussion. Usually
these were things he had given a great deal of
thought and time to, and, therefore, his opinions
on any of his hobbies were most interesting. For
instance, he had collected a great deal of informa-
tion on the genealogy of the Hyde family, com-
prising some seven thousand individuals. These
he had arranged in his card index system, in order
to determine the proportion of male and female
individuals, their relative length of life, and other
FIKST FLIGHTS 47
characteristics. Or, perhaps, the Doctor would
talk about his scheme to influence the sex of sheep
by a certain method of feeding; his early experi-
ences with the telephone, the phonograph, the har-
monic telegraph, and multiple telegraphy. At
other times we would do a jig-saw puzzle with
pictures of aeroplanes, or listen to lectures on
physical culture by Dr. Alden, of the village.
Then, for a change, we would discuss, with great
interest and sincerity, the various methods of mak-
ing sounds to accompany the action of a picture,
behind the curtain of the moving-picture show,
which we all had attended. Motorcycle construc-
tion and operation were studied at the factory
and on the roads around Hammondsport. Mc-
Curdy used to give us daily demonstrations of
how to fall off a motorcycle scientifically. He fell
off so often, in fact, that we feared he would never
make an aviator. In this opinion, of course, we
were very much in error, as he became one of the
first, and also one of the best aviators in the coun-
try. Atmospheric pressure, the vacuum motor,
Dr. Bell's tetrahedral construction, and even as-
tronomical subjects all found a place in the
nightly discussions at the "thinkorium."
Of course there were many important things
that took up our attention, but we could not always
be grave and dignified. I recall one evening
somebody started a discussion on the idea of ele-
48 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
vating Trinity Church, in New York City, on the
top of a skyscraper, and using the revenue from
the ground rental to convert the heathen. This
gave a decided shock to a ministerial visitor who
happened to be present.
When summer came on there were frequent mo-
torcycle trips when the weather did not permit of
flying, or when the shop was at work repairing
one of our frequent smashes. " Casey " Baldwin
and McCurdy furnished a surprise one day by a
rather unusual long-distance trip on motorcycles.
" Let's go up to Hamilton, Ontario," said Bald-
win, probably choosing Hamilton as the destina-
tion because he was charged with having a sweet-
heart there.
"All right," answered McCurdy.
Without a moment's hesitation the two mounted
their wheels, not even stopping to get their caps,
and rode through to Hamilton, a hundred and fifty
miles distant, buying everything they required
along the way. They were gone a week and came
back by the same route.
A favourite subject of talk at the "thinkorium,"
at least between McCurdy and Selfridge, was on
some of the effects of the "torque" of a propeller
and whenever this arose we would expect the ar-
gument to keep up until one or the other would
fall asleep.
After the nightly formal sessions of the mem-
bers of the Association the courtesy of the floor
FIEST FLIGHTS 49
was extended to any one who might be present
for the discussion of anything he might see fit
to bring up. Later we would adjourn to Dr.
Bell's room, where he would put himself into a
comfortable position, light his inevitable pipe, and
produce his note books. In these note books Dr.
Bell would write down everything his thoughts
on every subject imaginable, his ideas about many
things, sketches, computations. All these he
would sign, date, and have witnessed. It was
Dr. Bell's custom to work at night when there
were no distracting noises, though there were few
of these at Hammondsport even during the day-
light hours; at night it is quiet enough for the
most exacting victim of insomnia. Dr. Bell often
sat up until long after midnight, but he made up
for the lost time by sleeping until noon. No one
was allowed to wake him for any reason. The
rest of us were up early in order to take advantage
of the favourable flying conditions during the early
morning hours. Dr. Bell had a strong aversion
to the ringing of the telephone bell the great in-
vention for which he is responsible. I occasion-
ally went into his room and found the bell stuffed
with paper, or wound around with towels.
"Little did I think when I invented this thing,"
said Dr. Bell, one day when he had been awakened
by the jingling of the bell, "that it would rise up
to mock and annoy me."
While the Doctor enjoyed his morning sleep we
50 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
were out on " Stony Brook Farm" trying to fly.
We had put up a tent against the side of an old
sheep barn, and out of this we would haul the ma-
chine while the grass was still wet with dew.
One never knew what to expect of it. Sometimes
a short flight would be made; at others, some-
thing would break. Or, maybe, the wind would
come up and this would force us to abandon all
further trials for the day. Then it was back to
the shop to work on some new device, or to repair
damages until the wind died out with the setting
of the sun. Early in the morning and late in
the evening were the best periods of the day for
our experimental work because of the absence of
wind.
On May 22, 1908, our second machine, the
" White Wing," was brought to such a state of
perfection that I flew it a distance of one thousand
and seventeen feet in nineteen seconds, and landed
without damage in a ploughed field outside the old
race track. It was regarded as a remarkable
flight at that time, and naturally, I felt very much
elated.
CHAPTER III
THE "JUNE BUG" FIRST FLIGHTS FOR THE SCIEN-
TIFIC AMERICAN TROPHY AND FIRST EXPERIMENTS
WITH THE HYDROAEROPLANE
FOLLOWING the success of the " White
Wing/' we started in to build another ma-
chine, embodying all that we had learned from our
experience with the two previous ones. Follow-
ing our custom of giving each machine a name to
distinguish it from the preceding one, we called
this third aeroplane the " June Bug." The name
was aptly chosen, for it was a success from the
very beginning. Indeed, it flew so well that we
soon decided it was good enough to win the trophy
which had been offered by The Scientific Ameri-
can for the first public flight of one kilometer, or
five-eights of a mile, straightaway. This trophy,
by the way, was the first to be offered in this
country for an aeroplane flight, and the condi-
tions specified that it should become the property
of the person winning it three years in succession.
The "June Bug" was given a thorough try-out
before we made arrangements to fly for the tro-
phy, and we were confident it would fulfill the
requirements.
51
52 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
The Fourth of July, 1908, was the day set for
the trial. A large delegation of aero-club mem-
bers came on from New York and Washington,
among whom were Stanley Y. Beach, Allan E.
Hawley, Augustus Post, David Fairchild, Chas.
M. Manley, Christopher J. Lake, A. M. Herring,
George H. Guy, E. L. Jones, Wilbur E. Kimball,
Captain Thomas S. Baldwin and many other per-
sonal friends. The excitement among the citizens
of Hammondsport in general was little less than
that existing among the members of the Aerial
Experiment Association, and seldom had the
Fourth of July been awaited with greater im-
patience.
When Independence Day finally dawned it did
not look auspicious for the first official aeroplane
flight for a trophy. Clouds boded rain and there
was some wind. This did not deter the entire
population of Hammondsport from gathering on
the heights around the flying field, under the trees
in the valley and, in fact, at every point of van-
tage. Some were on the scene as early as five
o'clock in the morning, and many brought along
baskets of food and made a picnic of it. The rain
came along toward noon, but the crowd hoisted
its umbrellas or sought shelter under the trees
and stayed on. Late in the afternoon the sky
cleared and it began to look as if we were to have
the chance to fly after all. The " June Bug" was
brought out of its tent and the motor given a try-
,
v
THE FIRST MACHINES
(A) "The White Wing," Baldwin driving, 1908. (B) Selfrldge's "Red Wing"
on the ice, Lake Keuka
THE "JUNE BUG" 53
out. It worked all right. The course was meas
ured and a flag put up to mark the end. Every-
thing was ready and about seven o'clock in the
evening the motor was started and I climbed into
the seat. When I gave the word to "let go" the
"June Bug" skimmed along over the old race
track for perhaps two hundred feet and then rose
gracefully into the air. The crowd set up a
hearty cheer, as I was told later for I could hear
nothing but the roar of the motor and I saw noth-
ing except the course and the flag marking a dis-
tance of one kilometer. The flag was quickly
reached and passed and still I kept the aeroplane
up, flying as far as the open fields would permit,
and finally coming down safely in a meadow, fully
a mile from the starting place. I had thus ex-
ceeded the requirements and had won the Scien-
tific American Trophy for the first time. I might
have gone a great deal farther, as the motor was
working beautifully and I had the machine under
perfect control, but to have prolonged the flight
would have meant a turn in the air or passing
over a number of large trees. The speed of this
first official flight was closely computed at thirty-
nine miles an hour.
Dr. Bell had gone to Nova Scotia, unfortunately,
and, therefore, did not witness the Fourth of July
flight of the "June Bug." The other members,
however, were all present. It was a great day
for all of us and we were more confident than ever
54 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
that we had evolved, out of our long and costly
experiments, a machine that would fly successfully
and with safety to the operator. Lieutenant Self-
ridge was particularly enthusiastic, and I recall
when Mr. Holcomb, special agent for a life in-
surance company, visited the field one day and
heard Selfridge talk about flying.
"You must be careful, Selfridge," said Mr.
Holcomb, "or we will need a bed for you in the
hospital of which I am a trustee."
"Oh, I am careful, all right," replied Selfridge,
but it was only a few days later when he left Ham-
mondsport for Washington, and was killed while
flying as a passenger with Orville Wright at Fort
Meyer.
In Selfridge we lost not only one of the best-
posted men in the field of aeronautics, a student
and a man of practical ideas, but one of our best-
loved companions and co-workers, as well.
Three machines had thus far been built and
flown, first the "Bed Wing," designed by Lieuten-
ant Selfridge; next the "White Wing," by Bald-
win, and last the ' l June Bug, ' ' by me. It was now
McCurdy's turn and he designed a machine which
he named the "Silver Dart." While this was
building we decided to take the "June Bug" down
to the lake, equip it with a set of pontoons, or a
boat, and attempt to fly from the water. It was
my idea that if we could design a float that would
sustain the aeroplane on an even keel and at the
THE "JUNE BUG" 55
same time furnish a minimum of resistance, we
would be able to get up enough speed to rise from
the water. Besides, the lake would afford an ideal
flying place, and, what was more important still,
a fall or a bad landing would not be nearly so
likely to result in injury to the aviator.
Accordingly, we mounted the "June Bug" on
two floats, built something like a catamaran, and
re-named it the "Loon." It required some time
to construct light and strong floats and it was not
until the beginning of November, 1908, that we
were ready for the first attempt to fly from the
water ever made in this or any other country.
The "Loon" was hauled down to the lake from
the aerodrome on a two-wheeled cart, there being
no wheels for rolling it over the ground. I re-
member we had to build a platform on the cart
and to strengthen the wheels to carry the weight
of nearly one thousand pounds which the added
equipment had brought the total weight up to.
This first experimental hydroaeroplane was a
crude affair as compared with the machine in
which I made the first successful flight from and
landing upon the water, more than three years
later at San Diego, Cal. The cleaner lines, the
neat, light-weight boat and the other details of the
Curtiss hydroaeroplane offer as striking a con-
trast to the "Loon" as the modern locomotive of-
fers to the crude, clumsy affairs that now exist
only in the museums. So great is the difference
56 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
that one is inclined to marvel that we had any
success whatever with the first design.
We made many attempts to rise from the water
in the "Loon," but owing to the great weight
were unable to make any real flights, although
the observers on shore were sure that the pon-
toons were sometimes clear of the water. By the
end of November our experiments had convinced
every one of us that we needed more power and
more time than we had at our disposal just then.
The best motor we had at our command was able
to deliver only enough power to drive the "Loon"
at twenty-five miles an hour on the water. This
was not enough to get the machine into the air,
unless assisted by a strong head wind, and we
were not anxious to try flying in a strong wind.
In the meantime McCurdy 's machine, the "Sil-
ver Dart," had been completed and mounted on
wheels. The first flight was made by McCurdy on
December 12, 1908, over the "Stony Brook" flying
field. The "Silver Dart" was practically the
same as the "June Bug." Shortly after this it
was shipped to Dr. Bell's place at Baddeck, Nova
Scotia, where McCurdy and "Casey" Baldwin
used it all through the winter in practice, making
flights from the ice and covering all the country
thereabouts. McCurdy estimates that in his some
two hundred flights in the "Silver Dart," he cov-
ered more than a thousand miles.
CHAPTEE IV
FIRST FLIGHTS IN NEW YORK CITY
AS a result of the winning of the Scientific
American Trophy, the Aeronautical Society
of New York City placed an order in the winter
of 1908-09 for an aeroplane to be demonstrated
at Morris Park Track, New York City, in the
spring.
Plans were outlined for enlarging the Ham-
mondsport factory and work commenced on the
machine ordered by the Aeronautical Society. It
was the plan of this Society to purchase the aero-
plane and have one or more of its members taught
to fly it. The machine was finished in due time,
thoroughly tried out at Hammondsport before it
was shipped to New York, and finally sent to the
old Morris Park Eace Track, where the Aeronaut-
ical Society had arranged for the first public
exhibition ever held in the history of aviation.
There, on June 26, 1909, 1 had the honour of mak-
ing the first aeroplane flights in New York City,
in the machine bought by the Aeronautical So-
ciety.
The Society intended to make Morris Park the
scene of aviation meets and of experiments with
57
58 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
gliders, but the grounds proved too small and I
recommended a change to some other place in the
vicinity of New York City, where there was plenty
of open country and where the danger from un-
expected landings would be minimized. I looked
over all the suitable places around New York City
and finally decided upon Mineola, on Long Is-
land. The Hempstead Plains, a large, level tract
lying just outside Mineola, offered an ideal place
for flying and the Aeronautical Society machine
was brought down there from Morris Park.
There was such a fine field for flying at Mineola
that I decided to make another try for the Scien-
tific American trophy, which I had won on the
previous Fourth of July at Hammondsport with
the "June Bug." I wanted that trophy very
much, but in order to become possessed of it I
had to win it three years in succession, the condi-
tions being changed from year to year to keep
pace with the progress and development of avia-
tion. The second year's conditions required a
continuuous flight of more than twenty-five kilo-
meters (about sixteen miles) in order to have the
flight taken into account in awarding the prize,
which was to go to the person making the longest
official flight during the year.
I believed I could make a fine showing at Hemp-
stead Plains and preparations were made for the
attempt. The aeroplane was put together near
Peter MeLaughlin's hotel and a triangular course
FLIGHTS IN NEW YOEK 59
of one and a third miles was measured off. After
I had made a number of trial flights over the
course I sent formal notice to the Aero Club of
America that all was ready for the official flight,
and the Club sent Mr. Charles M. Manley down as
official representative to observe the trial for the
Scientific American trophy.
On July 17th, 1909, a little more than a year
from the first official flight of the " June Bug" at
Hammondsport, we got out on the field at Mineola
at sunrise, before the heavy dew was off the
grass, and made ready. It was a memorable day
for the residents of that particular section of.
Long Island, who had never seen a flying machine
prior to my brief trial flights there a few days
before. They turned out in large numbers, even
at that early hour, and there was a big delegation
of newspapermen from the New York dailies on
hand. Flying was such a novelty at that time
that nine-tenths of the people who came to watch
the preparations were sceptical while others de-
clared that "that thing won't fly, so what's the
use of waiting 'round." There was much excite-
ment, therefore, when, at a quarter after five
o'clock, on the morning of July 17, I made my
first flight. This was for the Cortlandt Field
Bishop prize of two hundred and fifty dollars,
offered by the Aero Club of America to the first
four persons who should fly one kilometer. It
took just two and a half minutes to win this prize
60 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
and immediately afterward I started for the
Scientific American trophy.
The weather was perfect and everything
worked smoothly. I made twelve circuits of the
course, which completed the twenty-five kilo-
meters, in thirty-two minutes. The motor was
working so nicely and the weather man was so
favourable, that I decided to keep right on flying,
until finally I had circled the course nineteen
times and covered a distance of twenty-four and
seven-tenths miles before landing. The average
speed was probably about thirty-five miles an
hour, although no official record of the speed was
made.
Great was the enthusiasm of the crowd when
the flight ended. I confess that I, too, was en-
thusiastic over the way the motor had worked
and the ease with which the machine could be
handled in flight. Best of all, I had the sense of
satisfaction that the confidence imposed in me by
my friends had been justified.
As the machine built for the Aeronautical So-
ciety had thus met every requirement, I agreed to
teach two members to fly at Hempstead Plains.
Mr. Charles F. Willard and Mr. Williams were
the two chosen to take up instruction, and the
work began at once. Mr. Willard proved an apt
pupil and after a few lessons mastered the ma-
chine and flew with confidence and success, cir-
cling about the country around Mineola.
FLIGHTS IN NEW YOBK 61
These flights at Mineola gave that place a start
as the headquarters for aviators, and it soon be-
came the popular resort for everyone interested
in aviation in and near the city of New York.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN TROPHY
PAET in
MY CHIEF FLIGHTS AND THE WOKK OF
TO-DAY
BY
H. CURTISS
CHAPTEE I
THE RHEIMS MEET FIRST INTERNATIONAL AEROPLANE
CONTEST
PRIOR to the first flights in New York City I
had formulated plans for an improved ma-
chine, designed for greater speed and equipped
with a more powerful motor. I wanted to take
part in the first contest for the Gordon Bennett
Aviation cup at Rheims, France, August 22 to 29,
1909. This was the first International Aviation
Meet held, and much was expected of the French
machines of the monoplane type. Great was my
gratification, therefore, when I received word
from the Aero Club of America, through Mr.
Cortlandt Field Bishop, who was then president,
that I had been chosen to represent America at
Rheims. 1
Without allowing my plans to become known to
the public I began at once to build an eight-cyl-
i It is interesting to note that Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm, the
sole American entrant for the Gordon Bennett Balloon Cup in
1906; Mr. Edgar Mix, the only representative of America in the
balloon contest in 1909, and Mr. Charles Weymann, the only
entrant from America in the Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup race
of 1911, held in England, all won.
65
66 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
inder, V-shaped, fifty horse-power motor. This
was practically double the horse-power I had been
using. Work on the motor was pushed day and
night at Hammondsport, as I had not an hour to
spare. I had kept pretty close watch on every-
thing that had been printed about the prepara-
tions of the Frenchmen for the Gordon Bennett
race and although it was reported that Bleriot,
in his own monoplane, and Hubert Latham, in an
Antoinette monoplane, had flown as fast as sixty
miles an hour, I still felt confident. The speed
of aeroplanes is so often exaggerated in press
accounts that I did not believe all I read about
Bleriot 's and Latham's trial flights.
The motor was finished, but there was no time
to put it in the new machine and try it out before
sailing. It was, therefore, given a short run on
the block, or testing-frame, hurriedly packed, and
the entire equipment rushed to New York barely
in time to catch the steamer for France.
The time was so short between the arrival of
our steamer and the opening of the meet that in
order to get to Eheims in time to qualify, we had
to take the aeroplane with us on the train as per-
sonal baggage. Thanks to the kindness of the
French railway officials, who realised our situa-
tion, and evidently had imbibed some of the pre-
vailing aviation enthusiasm, we arrived at Eheims
in quick time. In those early days of aviation
there was not the keen partisanship for mono-
THE EHEIMS MEET 67
plane or biplane that one finds everywhere to-day ;
nor was there the strong popular feeling in
France in favor of the monoplane that exists to-
day. An aeroplane was simply an aeroplane at
that time, and interesting as such, but naturally
all Frenchmen favored their compatriots who
were entered in the race, particularly Bleriot, who
had just earned world-wide fame by his flight
across the English channel. The Frenchmen, as
well as Europeans in general, fully expected
Bleriot to win with his fast monoplane.
My own personal hopes lay in my motor.
Judge of my surprise, therefore, upon arriving
at Eheims, to learn that Bleriot, who had prob-
ably heard through newspaper reports that I was
bringing over an eight-cylinder motor, had him-
self installed an eight-cylinder motor of eighty
horse-power in one of his light monoplanes.
When I learned this, I believed my chances were
very slim indeed, if in fact they had not entirely
disappeared. The monoplane is generally be-
lieved to be faster than the biplane with equal
power. I had just one aeroplane and one motor;
if I smashed either of these it would be all over
with America's chances in the first International
Cup Eace. I had not the reserve equipment to
bring out a new machine as fast as one was
smashed, as Bleriot and other Frenchmen had.
Incidentally, there were many of them smashed
during the big meet on the Plain of Bethany. At
68 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
one time, while flying, I saw as many as twelve
machines strewn about the field, some wrecked
and some disabled and being hauled slowly back
to the hangars, by hand or by horses. For ob-
vious reasons, therefore, I kept out of the dura-
tion contests and other events, flying only in such
events as were for speed, and of a distance not to
exceed twenty kilometers, which was the course
for the Gordon Bennett contest in 1909.
It is hard enough for any one to map out a course
of action and stick to it, particularly in the face
of the desires of one's friends; but it is doubly
hard for an aviator to stay on the ground waiting
for just the right time to get into the air. It was
particularly hard for me to keep out of many
events at Eheims held from day to day, especially
as there were many patriotic Americans there
who would have liked to see America's only rep-
resentative take part in everything on the pro-
gramme. I was urged by many of these to go out
and contest the Frenchmen for the rich prizes
offered and it was hard to refuse to do this.
These good friends did not realise the situation.
America's chances could not be imperilled for the
sake of gratifying one's curiosity, or national
pride. On top of the urgings of my American
friends to go out and fly and take chances of hav-
ing a whole machine when the day for the Gordon
Bennett should arrive, I was penalised for not
starting in the speed race, the Prix de la Vitesse,
THE EHEIMS MEET 69
the penalty being one-twentieth of the time made
when I should start in this event. However, I
made a number of trial flights and ten official
ones, during the meet, without mishap, except a
sprained ankle. This was the result of running
through growing grain at the time of landing and
being thrown out of the machine. I was also
fortunate in being the only aviator who took part
in this first big meet to land at the hangar after
each flight.
During this period of waiting, and making ex-
planations to enthusiastic Americans who could
not understand why I did not fly all the time, my
mechanician, "Tod" Shriver, 1 attracted a tre-
mendous amount of attention from the throngs
that visited the hangars because he worked in his
shirt sleeves. They thought "Tod" picturesque
because he did not wear the French workman's
i Tod Shriver, or "Slim" as he was known to all American avi-
ators because he was very tall and slender, went to Rheims as
a mechanic before taking up flying himself. He was successful
as an aviator and accompanied Captain Thomas Baldwin to the
Orient in the spring and summer of 1911. This trip created
great excitement among the Chinese, who had never seen the
"foreign devils" fly before. Captain Baldwin tells a story of the
crowd that witnessed the flights in Tokyo, Japan, which he de-
scribes as numbering seven hundred thousand persons! In proof
of this he states that advices received from Japan in the spring of
1912 report that the crowd had not entirely dispersed even at that
time! "Tod" Shriver flew in many places in the United States
and in the winter of 1911 met his death in Porto Rico. He fell
while flying at Ponce. His death was a shock to his many friends.
{Note by AUGUSTUS POST.]
70 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
blouse. Shriver used to say that if he were pic-
turesque in shirt sleeves there were about fifty
million perfectly good Americans across the At-
lantic who formed probably the most picturesque
crowd on earth.
In the try-outs it became evident to the French-
men that my aeroplane was very fast and it was
conceded that the race for the Gordon Bennett
Cup would lie between Bleriot and myself, barring
accidents. After a carefully timed trial circuit of
the course, which, much to my surprise, I made in
a few seconds less than M. Bleriot 's time, and
that, too, with my motor throttled down slightly,
I gained more confidence. I removed the large
gasoline tank from my machine and put on a
smaller one in order to lessen the weight and the
head-resistance. I then selected the best of my
three propellers, which, by the way, were objects
of curiosity to the French aviators, who were
familiar only with the metal blades used on the
Antoinette machine, and the Chauviere, which was
being used by M. Bleriot. M. Chauviere was kind
enough to make a propeller especially fitted to my
aeroplane, notwithstanding the fact that a better
propeller on my machine would lessen the chances
of the French flyers for the cup. However, I
decided later to use my own propeller, and did
use it and won.
August 29 dawned clear and hot. It was agreed
THE EHEIMS MEET 71
at a meeting of the Committee, at which all the
contestants were present, that each contestant
should be allowed to make one trial flight over the
course and that he might choose his own time for
making it, between the hours of ten o'clock in the
morning and six o'clock in the evening. The
other starters were Bleriot, Lefebre, and Latham
for France, and Cockburn for England. As I
have already stated, Bleriot was the favourite be-
cause of his trip across the English channel and
because of his records made in flights at various
places prior to the Kheims meet.
As conditions were apparently good, I decided
to make my trial flight shortly after ten o'clock.
The machine was brought out, the engine given a
preliminary run, and at half past ten I was in
the air. Everything had looked good from the
ground, but after the first turn of the course I
began to pitch violently. This was caused by the
heat waves rising and falling as the cooler air
rushed in. The up and down motion was not at
all pleasant and I confess that I eased off on the
throttle several times on the first circuit. I had
not then become accustomed to the feeling an
aviator gets when the machine takes a sudden
drop. On the second round I got my nerve back
and pulled the throttle wide open and kept it
open. This accounts for the fact that the second
lap was made in faster time than the first. The
72 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
two circuits were made safely and I crossed the
finish line in seven minutes, fifty-five seconds, a
new record for the course.
Now was my chance! I felt that the time to
make the start for the Cup was then, in spite of
the boiling air conditions, which I had found ex-
isted all over the course and made flying difficult
if not actually dangerous. We hurriedly refilled
the gasoline tank, sent official notice to the judges,
carefully tested the wiring of the machine by lift-
ing it at the corners, spun the propeller, and the
official trial was on. I climbed as high as I
thought I might without protest, before crossing
the starting line probably five hundred feet
so that I might take advantage of a gradual de-
scent throughout the race, and thus gain addi-
tional speed. The sun was hot and the air rough,
but I had resolved to keep the throttle wide open.
I cut the corner as close as I dared and banked
the machine high on the turns. I remember I
caused great commotion among a big flock of
birds which did not seem to be able to get out of
the wash of my propeller. In front of the trib-
unes the machine flew steadily, but when I got
around on the back stretch, as we would call it, I
found remarkable air conditions. There was no
wind, but the air seemed fairly to boil. The ma-
chine pitched considerably, and when I passed
above the " graveyard," where so many machines
had gone down and were smashed during the
THE EHEIMS MEET 73
previous days of the meet, the air seemed literally
to drop from under me. It was so bad at one
spot that I made up my mind that if I got over it
safely I would avoid that particular spot there-
after.
Finally, however, I finished the twenty kilo-
meters in safety and crossed the line in fifteen
minutes, fifty seconds, having averaged forty-six
and one-half miles an hour. When the time was
announced there was great enthusiasm among the
Americans present, and every one rushed over to
offer congratulations. Some of them thought
that I would surely be the winner, but of this I
was by no means certain. I had great respect for
Bleriot's ability, and besides, Latham and his
Antoinette might be able to make better speed
than they had thus far shown. In a contest of
this sort it is never safe to cheer until all the
returns are in. I confess that I felt a good deal
like a prisoner awaiting the decision of a jury.
I had done my best, and had got the limit of
speed out of the machine; still I felt that if I
could do it all over again I would be able to im-
prove on the time. Meantime Cockburn, for Eng-
land, had made a start but had come down and
run into a haystack. He was only able to finish
the course in twenty minutes, forty-seven and
three-fifth seconds. This put him out of the con-
test.
Latham made his trial during the afternoon
74 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
but his speed was five or six miles an hour slower
than my record. The other contestants were fly-
ing about thirty-five miles an hour, and were,
therefore, not really serious factors in the race.
It was all up to M. Bleriot. All day long he
tinkered and tested, first with one machine and
then another ; trying different propellers and mak-
ing changes here and there. It was not until late
in the afternoon that he brought out his big ma-
chine, Number 22, equipped with an eight-cyl-
inder water-cooled motor, mounted beneath the
planes, and driving by chain a four-bladed pro-
peller, geared to run at a speed somewhat less
than that of the engine. He started off at what
seemed to be a terrific burst of speed. It looked
to me just then as if he must be going twice as
fast as my machine had flown ; but it must be re-
membered that I was very anxious to have him
go slow. The fear that he was beating me was
father to the belief.
As soon as Bleriot was off Mr. Cortlandt Field
Bishop and Mr. David Wolfe Bishop, his brother,
took me in their automobile over to the judges'
stand. Bleriot made the first lap in faster time
than I had made it, and our hearts sank. Then
and there I resolved that if we lost the cup I
would build a faster aeroplane and come back
next year to win it.
Again Bleriot dashed past the stand and it
seemed to me that he was going even faster than
WINNING THE GORDON BENNET CONTEST IN FRANCE
(A) Curtiss flying at Rheims, (B) The welcome home to Hamtnondsport
Copyright, 1910, by Photo News Co.
"A POSITION HIGHER THAN THE PRESIDENT'S"
President Taft watching Curtiss fly, Harvard Meet, 1910
THE EHEIMS MEET 75
the first time. Great was my surprise, therefore,
when, as he landed, there was no outburst of
cheers from the great crowd. I had expected a
scene of wild enthusiasm, but there was nothing
of the sort. I sat in Mr. Bishop's automobile a
short distance from the judges' stand, wondering
why there was no shouting, when I was startled
by a shout of joy from my friend, Mr. Bishop,
who had gone over to the judges' stand.
"You win! You win!" he cried, all excitement
as he ran toward the automobile. "Bleriot is
beaten by six seconds !"
A few moments later, just at half past five
o 'clock, the Stars and Stripes were slowly hoisted
to the top of the flagpole and we stood uncovered
while the flag went up. There was scarcely a
response from the crowded grand stands ; no true
Frenchman had the heart to cheer. A good,
hearty cheer requires more than mere politeness.
But every American there made enough noise for
ten ordinary people, so that numbers really count-
ed for very little in the deep feeling of satisfaction
at the result of the first great contest in the his-
tory of aviation. Mr. Andrew D. White, accom-
panied by Mrs. Eoosevelt and Miss Ethel Roose-
velt, came over to our car and congratulated me.
Quentin Eoosevelt, who had been in a state of
excitement throughout the day, declared it
"bully," while his brother Archie wanted to be
shown all about the working of the machine. M.
76 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Bleriot himself, good sportsman that he is, was
among the first to extend congratulations to Amer-
ica and to me personally.
There was a reason beyond the mere patriotism
why the Americans felt so happy over the result;
it meant that the next international race would
be held in the United States, and that the best
foreign machines would have to come across the
ocean to make a try for the cup the following
year.
In commenting upon the result the Paris Edi-
tion of the New York Herald said that the race
had rehabilitated the biplane ; that while the light-
ness and bird-like lines of the monoplane had
appealed to the crowd as the ideal representation
of artificial flight, "the American aviator proved
that the biplane not only possessed qualities of
carrying weight and undoubtedly of superior sta-
bility, but that, if need be, it can develop speed
equal to, if not superior to, its smaller rival."
Offers of engagements to fly in Germany and
Italy came pouring in. To accept these meant a
good deal of money in prizes, for it had been
proven that I had the fastest aeroplane in the
world. I accepted some of them, as I had learned
that the conditions for flying at the big meets in
Europe were almost ideal and that there was
a tremendous amount of interest everywhere,
among all classes. A big meet was organized at
Brescia, Italy, and I went there from Eheims.
THE EHEIMS MEET 77
Here I carried my first passenger, the celebrated
Italian poet and author, Gabriele D'Annunzio.
He was wildly enthusiastic over his experience,
and upon being brought back to earth said with
all the emotion of his people : " Until now I have
never really lived! Life on earth is a creeping,
crawling business. It is in the air that one feels
the glory of being a man and of conquering the
elements. There is the exquisite smoothness of
motion and the joy of gliding through space It
is wonderful! Can I not express it in poetry? I
might try."
And he did express it in poetry, a beautiful
work published sometime later.
After winning the Grand Prize at Brescia and
taking a wonderful motor trip over the Alps with
Mr. Bishop, I hurried home to America to look
after my business affairs, about which I had not
had time even to think during the Eheims and
Brescia meets.
NOTE BY AUGUSTUS POST
Delegations of enthusiastic friends met Mr.
Curtiss in New York, among them members of
the Aero Club of America and other representa-
tive organisations. There followed a series of
luncheons and dinners which seemed without end.
Among all these the luncheon given by the Aero
Club of America at the Lawyers' Club was nota-
78 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
ble because every one present showed such a warm
interest in the success of American aeronautics,
and such a firm determination not only to keep
the trophy in this country, but to defend it the
next year in an aviation meet that should be even
greater than that with which Eheims had led the
way.
But the real celebration took place in the little
village of Hammondsport, the place where Mr.
Curtiss was born and reared, and where he knew
every man, woman, and child. The men in the
factory and all his other warm friends got to-
gether and decided that there must be something-
out of the ordinary when he got back to town.
They planned a procession all the way from Bath
to Hammondsport, a distance of ten miles, with
fireworks along the route. But a heavy rain
came on just in time to spoil the fireworks plan,
so they engaged a special train and this passed
through a glow of red fire all the way home from
Bath. At the Hammondsport station there was
a carriage to draw him up the hill to his home,
and fifty men furnished the motive power. There
were arches with " Welcome " in electric lights,
banners, fireworks, and speeches. Through the
pouring rain there was a continuous procession
of his friends and acquaintances townspeople
who had always given him their loyal support and
the men from the shop who had made his success
possible.
THE EHEIMS MEET 79
It was after eleven o'clock when the crowd dis-
persed an almost unholy hour for Hammonds-
port. AUGUSTUS POST.
CHAPTER II
HUDSON-FULTON" CELEBRATION FIRST AMERICAN IN-
TERNATIONAL MEET, AT LOS ANGELES
I WAS not permitted to remain long in Ham-
mondsport, although there was much work
for me to do there in the way of planning im-
provements in the factory, as well as on my aero-
plane, which had now come to be known through-
out the world by reason of winning the Gordon
Bennett Cup. There were tempting offers from
all quarters to give exhibitions with the flying
machine, which up to that time had been seen
in but few places in this country. Some of these
offers were accepted because I could not afford
to reject them. Moreover, it required a great
deal of money to run the shop, and there was no
commercial demand for aeroplanes. They were,
as yet, valuable only as "show machines," to see
which the public was willing to pay goodly sums.
For a long time preparations had been going
on at New York City to celebrate the tri-cente-
nary of the discovery of the Hudson river, and the
centenary of the first steamboat trip on that
stream by Fulton in the Clermont. It had been
80
HUDSON-FULTON CELEBEATION 81
the idea of the originators of the Hudson-Fulton
celebration an idea that was expressed in the
tentative plans published long before the celebra-
tion itself that the new conquest of the air
should be recognised, in some way, at the same
time. At first it was intended that some sort of
airship should accompany the naval parade the
entire length of the Hudson, with a replica of
Hendrik Hudson's Half Moon leading the way,
Kobert Fulton's old steamboat Clermont follow-
ing, and the airship hovering above them thus
furnishing a striking illustration of the wonder-
ful advancement in the means of locomotion in a
hundred years, and signalising the new science
of air navigation. With this end in view the
Celebration Committee engaged the Wright
Brothers and myself to bring aeroplanes to New
York, furnishing us with every facility on Gov-
ernor's Island, in the Lower Bay, from which
point all flights were to be made.
But aerial navigation in the fall of 1909 was
not such a sure and certain thing as all that.
Much depended upon the wind and weather, and
it was soon demonstrated that the best that could
be hoped for at the time of the celebration would
be flights made at such times as the wind would
permit. Day after day the public waited anx-
iously for flights to be made up the Hudson from
Governor's Island, but day after day the wind
blew up or down the Hudson in such blasts that
82 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
it was not deemed safe to attempt a trip. For it
must be remembered that there is scarcely a more
difficult course anywhere in the country than over
the Hudson river in the vicinity of New York.
On both sides of the river, which is a swift-run-
ning stream, rise lofty hills, and at some places
precipitous cliffs called the Palisades. On the
New York side are miles upon miles of lofty apart-
ment houses along Biverside Drive. If the wind
blows across the river, either from the east or
west, dangerous currents and eddies suck down
through the canon-like streets, or over the steep
Palisades, making flying extremely hazardous.
For this reason there has never, even up to this
time (August, 1912), been any flying to speak of
over the Hudson, and for these reasons, the great
river will not become a popular flying course for
aeroplanes until they are so constructed as to be
able to defy the treacherous, puffy wind currents.
The hydroaeroplane, however, may navigate the
course with safety, as it is perfectly safe in one
of these machines to fly within a few feet of the
water where there is the least danger from con-
trary air currents.
So much was printed in the New York news-
papers while we were waiting for propitious
weather that the public was keyed up to expect
great things from the aeroplanes far greater
than the aeroplane could accomplish. Bulletins
were posted by the newspapers from day to day,
HUDSON-FULTON CELEBEATION 83
informing the public that flights would surely be
made " to-day" provided the wind abated. In
the meantime interest was doubly stimulated by
the announcement of a ten-thousand-dollar prize
for the first air-flight over Fulton's course, from
New York to Albany, or from Albany to New
York. One of the paintings made at the time as
an " advance notice," I remember, showed so
many aerial dreadnaughts in the sky, passing
down the river by the Palisades at the same time,
that one was forced to wonder how all of them
were going to find room to navigate. However,
the atmosphere had cleared long before the actual
flight was made down the Hudson, the following
summer.
In spite of the disappointment felt by the pub-
lic at not seeing a fleet of aeroplanes sporting
over the Hudson daily during the Hudson-Fulton
celebration, there were many other things to di-
vert the attention of New York's five millions and
some few hundred thousands of visitors from this
and other countries. The week of pomp and
pageantry culminated in the most wonderful ma-
rine and land parades ever staged in this country,
and seldom, if ever, excelled in the Old World.
The marine parade extended all the way up to
Albany, and at every stopping place there was
a repetition, on a smaller scale, of the scenes of
enthusiasm and general holiday spirit that had
prevailed in the Metropolis. New York City was
84 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
decorated as no one had ever seen it decorated
before, and the great fleet of over a hundred war-
ships that swung at anchor in the Hudson were
visited by thousands by day and were outlined
in myriads of electric lights at night, disguising
their ominous guns in soft shadow and giving
them a peaceful and almost fairy-like appearance.
Then there were the dirigible balloons to com-
mand the attention of the crowds that thronged
Riverside Drive waiting for the aeroplanes.
They, too, were after the rich prize offered by
the New York World. They furnished the only
real contest during the Hudson-Fulton celebra-
tion. There were two of them, one entered by
the intrepid Captain Thomas Baldwin, and the
other by a Mr. Tomlinson. These were housed
in great tents raised within an enclosure at River-
side Drive and One Hundred and Nineteenth
street, behind a high fence, on which was painted
"Hudson-Fulton Flights. " This was the center
of interest for great crowds for days during the
period of waiting. Captain Baldwin, always
popular with the people wherever he goes, was
the centre of interest with the crowds that stood
around the sheds, watching the mild, blunt noses
of the big dirigibles as they bobbed and swayed
with the gusts that swept around Grant's Tomb,
reminding one of the ceaseless weaving of a rest-
less elephant. But the elements seemed to be as
much against the dirigibles as against the aero-
HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION 85
planes. Tomlinson made a start, after a long
wait, but came to grief almost at once, while Cap-
tain Baldwin fared but little better. His trip ex-
tended but a few miles up the river, when he was
forced to come down, thus ending the chances of
the dirigibles.
The aeroplanes were scarcely more fortunate.
October winds around New York are most unruly
things, and at that particular period seemed
worse than usual. "Weather-wise folk learned
after awhile to look out at the flags on the high
buildings; if they stood out straight from the
staff, the people went about their business, know-
ing there would be no flying that day. But every
one kept an ear cocked for the firing of a big
cannon on Governor's Island, the signal that a
flight was about to be made. Even these were
deceiving, for there were so many salutes being
fired by the great fleets in the river and bay, that
no one could tell when to give heed to gun sig-
nals. So the crowds sat along Eiverside Drive,
or depended upon the unhappy and over-worked
policemen for word of the aeroplanes. Some peo-
ple were disposed to hold the policemen person-
ally responsible for the failure of the airships to
fly. " You'd think, " said one of the blue-coated
guardians on Eiverside Drive, "that I was
keepin' 'em back, the way these people go at me.
They blame me and not the wind!"
The wind held out and the week of festivities
86 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
ended ; still there had been no flying. I could not
remain in New York any longer, as I had ac-
cepted an engagement some time before to fly at
St. Louis. I was obliged therefore, much to my
chagrin, and the disappointment of the crowds,
to leave the city without making a flight up the
river, although I did make a short flight over
Governor's Island.
Mr. Wilbur Wright, however, remained in New
York, and during the following week made a mag-
nificent flight up the river from Governor's
Island to Grant's Tomb and return, a distance
of about twenty miles. This gave the larger part
of New York's millions their first glimpse of an
aeroplane in flight.
At St. Louis we gave a very successful meet.
There were flights by Captain Baldwin, Lincoln
Beachey, and Eoy Knabenshue, in their dirigible
balloons, and myself in my aeroplane. The
weather conditions were favourable, and St. Louis
turned out enthusiastic throngs to witness the
exhibitions.
The Pacific Coast, always progressive and quick
to seize upon every innovation, no matter where
it may be developed, had been clamoring for some
time for an aviation meet. The enterprising
citizens of Los Angeles got together and put up
a large sum of money to bring out from Europe
and the eastern part of the United States, a num-
ber of representative aviators for an interna-
THE LOS ANGELES MEET 87
tional meet, the first ever given in this country.
Louis Panlhan, one of the most celebrated French
aviators, was brought over with a biplane and a
monoplane, and there were a number of Ameri-
can entries, including Charles F. "Willard and my-
self. Los Angeles furnished the first opportunity
for a real contest in this country between the
French and American machines, and these con-
tests aroused immense interest throughout the
country.
The importance of the Los Angeles meet to the
aviation industry in this country was very great.
The favourable climatic conditions gave opportuni-
ties for every one to fly in all the events, and the
wide publicity given to the achievements of Paul-
han and others, especially to the new world 's al-
titude record established by the French avia-
tor, stimulated interest throughout the country.
There was cross-country flying such as had not
been seen in this country, brilliant exhibitions of
altitude flying, and speed contests of the hair-
raising variety. Sometimes it takes just such a
public demonstration as the Los Angeles meet
not only to spread the news of the general prog-
ress of mechanical flight, but to show the builders
of aeroplanes themselves just what their machines
are capable of.
It was at the Los Angeles meet, by the way,
that Charles F. Willard coined that apt and pic-
turesque phrase which soon was used the world
88 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
over in describing air conditions. Willard had
made a short flight and on coming down declared
the air "was as full of holes as a Swiss cheese."
This made a great hit with the newspapermen,
who featured it, using it day after day in their
stories until it went the rounds of the press of
the world. There were special articles written
on "holes in the air," and interviews of promi-
nent aviators to determine how it feels to fall
into "a hole in the air."
The expression was more picturesque than ac-
curate, for it is not necessary to explain, in this
advanced stage of aviation, that there are no
"holes" in the atmosphere. If there were a hole
in the atmosphere, a clap of thunder would result,
caused by the rushing in of the surrounding air
to fill the vacuum. The only holes in the air are
the streaks that follow a rifle bullet or a flash of
lightning. The real cause of the conditions de-
scribed by Willard, and which has since probably
been responsible for the death of several well
known aviators, is a swift, downward current of
air, rushing in to fill a vacuum that follows a
rising current from a heated area. The hot air
rises and the cool air rushes down to take its
place. An aeroplane striking one of these de-
scending currents drops as if the entire atmos-
pheric support had been suddenly removed, and
if it be not high enough, may strike the ground
with fatal results to the aviator. Every experi-
THE LOS ANGELES MEET 89
enced airman has met these conditions. They
are especially noticeable over water, streaks of
calm water showing where the up-currents are
just starting, and waves or ripples where the
down-currents strike the surface.
The representative of the Aero Club of America
at the Los Angeles meet was Mr. Cortlandt Field
Bishop, of New York, who had been at Rheims the
previous summer when I won the Gordon Bennett
Cup and who had been of inestimable assistance to
me at that time. Mr. Bishop had his oft-expressed
wish to fly gratified at Los Angeles. He was
taken up by Louis Paulhan several times, and
Paulhan also took Mrs. Bishop for her first aerial
ride. Great crowds came out at the Los Angeles
meet, and they for the first time in the history of
aviation in this country expected the aviator to
fly and not to fall. Paulhan did some wonderful
cross-country flying, and as a climax to the week
of aerial wonders, he established a world's alti-
tude record by ascending 4,165 feet. This was
regarded as marvellous at that time. Since then
the mark has been successively raised by Brook-
ins, Hoxsey, Le Blanc, Beachey, Garros and
others. Legagneux now (September, 1912) holds
the record at 18,760 feet.
Interest in aviation was keen following the Los
Angeles meet and I decided to try for the New
York World's ten-thousand-dollar prize, which
was still open, for a flight down the Hudson from
90 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Albany to New York City. Notwithstanding all
the natural obstacles in the way of the accom-
plishment of the undertaking, the conditions were
so fair as to stops, time-limit, etc., and it was so
obviously a prize offered to be won, that I con-
sidered it worth a serious effort.
I fully realised that the flight was much greater
than anything I had yet attempted, and even more
difficult than Bleriot's great flight across the
English channel from France to England, news
of which was still ringing throughout the
world, and even greater than the projected flight
from London to Manchester, England, and for
which a prize of fifty thousand dollars had been
offered. Although the course covered about the
same distance as the London-Manchester route,
there was not the difficulty of landing safely, over
the English route. The Hudson flight meant one
hundred and fifty-two miles over a broad, swift
stream, flowing between high hills or rugged
mountains the entire distance and with seldom a
place to land ; it meant a fight against treacherous
and varying wind currents rushing out unawares
through clefts in the mountains, and possible mo-
tor trouble that would land both machine and avi-
ator in the water with not much chance of escape
from drowning, even if uninjured in alighting.
CHAPTER III
FLIGHT DOWN THE HUDSON RIVER FROM ALBANY TO
NEW YORK CITY
TO fly from Albany to New York City was
quite an undertaking in the summer of 1910.
I realised that success would depend upon a de-
pendable motor and a reliable aeroplane. In
preparation for the task, therefore, I set the fac-
tory at Hammondsport to work to build a new
machine. While awaiting the completion of the
machine, I took a trip up the Hudson from New
York to Albany to look over the course and to se-
lect a place about half way between the two cities
where a landing for gasoline and oil might be
made, should it become necessary.
There are very few places for an aeroplane to
land with safety around New York City. The
official final landing place, stipulated in the condi-
tions drawn up by the New York World, was to be
Governor's Island, but I wanted to know of an-
other place on the upper edge of the city where
I might come down if it should prove necessary.
I looked all over the upper end of Manhattan Is-
land, and at last found a little meadow on a side
hill just at the junction of the Hudson and Har-
91
92 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
lem rivers, at a place called Inwood. It was
small and sloping, but had the advantage of being
within the limits of New York City. It proved
fortunate for me that I had selected this place,
for it later served to a mighty good advantage.
There was quite a party of us aboard the Hud-
son river boat leaving New York City one day in
May for the trip to Albany. As an illustration
of the scepticism among the steamboat men, I
remember that I approached an officer and asked
several questions about the weather conditions
on the river, and particularly as to the prevailing
winds at that period of the year. Incidentally, I
remarked that I was contemplating a trip up the
river from New York to Albany in an aeroplane
and wanted to collect all the reliable data possible
on atmospheric conditions. This officer, whom I
afterward learned was the first mate, answered
all my questions courteously, but it was evident
to all of us that he believed I was crazy. He took
me to the captain of the big river boat and intro-
duced me, saying: " Captain, this is Mr. Curtiss,
the flying machine man; that's all I know," in a
tone that clearly indicated that he disclaimed all
responsibility as to anything I might do or say.
The captain was very kind and courteous, ask-
ing us to remain in the pilot house, where we
might get a better view of the country along the
way, and displaying the keenest interest in the
project. He answered all our questions about
Copyright, 1910, by The PirtorUl News Co.
THE ALBANY-NEW YORK HUDSON FLIGHT
(A) Start of the flight at Albany. Mrs. Curtiss and Augustus Post standing
by Curtiss. (B) Over West Point Military Academy "The new kind of invader"
Copyright, 1910, by The Pictorial News Co.
THE HUDSON PLIGHT
Over Storm King
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 93
the winds along the Hudson and seemed to enter
heartily in the spirit of the thing until we ap-
proached the great bridge at Poughkeepsie and I
began to deliberate whether it would be better to
pass over or beneath it in the aeroplane. Then
it seemed really to dawn upon the captain for the
first time that I was actually going to fly down
the river in an aeroplane. He apparently failed
to grasp the situation, and thereafter his answers
were vague and given without interest. It was
"Oh, yes, I guess so," and similar doubtful ex-
pressions, but when we finally left the boat at Al-
bany he very kindly wished me a safe trip and
promised to blow the whistle if I should pass his
boat.
Albany afforded a better starting place than
New York, because there were convenient spots
where one might land before getting well under
way, should it become necessary. This was not
true of the situation at New York City. As to
the advantage of prevailing winds, it seemed to
be in favour of Albany as the starting place, and
I finally decided to have everything sent up to the
capital city. On my way up I had stopped at
Poughkeepsie, in order to select a landing place,
as at least one stop was deemed necessary to take
on gasoline and to look over the motor. We vis-
ited the State Hospital for the Insane, which
stands on the hill just above Poughkeepsie, and
which seemed to be a good place to land. Dr.
94 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Taylor, the superintendent, showed us about the
grounds, and when told that I intended stopping
there on my way down the river in a flying ma-
chine, said with much cordiality: "Why, cer-
tainly, Mr. Curtiss, come right in here; here's
where all the flying machine inventors land. ' '
Notwithstanding the Doctor's cordial invita-
tion to "drop in on him," we went to the other
side of Poughkeepsie, and there found a fine open
field at a place called Camelot. I looked over the
ground carefully, locating the ditches and fur-
rows, and selected the very best place to make a
safe landing. Arrangements were made for a
supply of gasoline, water, and oil to be brought
to the field and held in readiness. It was fortu-
nate that I looked over the Camelot field, for a
few days later I landed within a few feet of the
place I had selected as the most favoured spot
near Poughkeepsie. This is but one thing that
illustrates how the whole trip was outlined before
the start was made, and how this plan was fol-
lowed out according to arrangement.
I shall always remember Albany as the starting
place of my first long cross-country flight. My
machine was brought over from Hammondsport
and set up ; the Aero Club sent up its official rep-
resentatives, Mr. Augustus Post and Mr. Jacob
L. Ten Eyck, and the newspapers of New York
City sent a horde of reporters. A special train
was engaged to start from Albany as soon as I
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 95
got under way, carrying the newspapermen and
the Aero Club representatives, as well as several
invited guests. It was the purpose to have this
train keep even with me along the entire trip of
one hundred and fifty- two miles, but as it turned
out, it had some trouble in living up to the sched-
ule.
The aeroplane, christened the " Hudson Flier,"
was set up on Eensselaer Island. It was now
up to the weather man to furnish conditions I
considered suitable. This proved a hard task,
and for three days I got up at daybreak, when
there is normally the least wind, ready to make
an early start. On these days the newspapermen
and officials, not to mention crowds of curious
spectators, rubbed the sleep out of their eyes be-
fore the sun got up and went out to Eensselaer
Island. But the wind was there ahead of us and
it blew all day long. The weather bureau prom-
ised repeatedly, "fair weather, with light winds,"
but couldn't live up to promises. I put in some
of the time in going over every nut, bolt, and turn-
buckle on the machine with shellac. Nothing was
overlooked; everything was made secure. I had
confidence in the machine. I knew I could land
on the water if it became necessary, as I had af-
fixed two light pontoons to the lower plane, one
on either end, and a hydro-surface under the front
wheel of the landing-gear. This would keep me
afloat some time should I come down in the river.
96 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
We bothered the life out of the weather ob-
server at Albany, but he was always very kind
and took pains to get weather reports from every
point along the river. But the newspapermen
lost faith; they were tired of the delay.
I have always observed that newspapermen,
who work at a high tension, cannot endure delay
when there is a good piece of news in prospect.
One of those at Albany during the wait, offered
to lay odds with the others that I would not make
a start. Others among the journalists believed I
was looking for free advertising, and when an-
other of the advertised starters for the World
prize reached Albany he was greeted with:
4 'Hello, old man, are you up here to get some free
advertising, too?" One of the Poughkeepsie pa-
pers printed an editorial about this time, in which
it said: "Curtiss gives us a pain in the neck.
All those who are waiting to see him go down the
river are wasting their time." This was a fair
sample of the lack of faith in the undertaking.
The machine was the centre of interest at Al-
bany during the wait. It seemed to hold a fas-
cination for the crowds that came over to the is-
land. One young fellow gazed at it so long and
so intently that he finally fell over backwards
insensible and it was some time before he was
restored to consciousness. Then one of the news-
papermen dashed a pail of water over him and at
once sent his paper a column about it. They had
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 97
to find something to write about and the country-
man, the flying machine, and the fit made a com-
bination good enough for almost any newspaper-
man to weave an interesting yarn about.
Our period of waiting almost ended on Saturday
morning, May 30th. The "Hudson Flier" was
brought out of its tent, groomed and fit ; the spe-
cial train provided by the New York Times to fol-
low me over the New York Central, stood ready,
with steam up and the engineer holding a right-
of-way order through to New York. The news-
papermen, always on the job, and the guests were
watching eagerly for the aeroplane to start and
set out on its long and hazardous flight.
Then something happened the wind came up.
At first it did not seem to be more than a breeze,
but it grew stronger and reports from down the
river told of a strong wind blowing up the river.
This would have meant a head gale all the way to
New York, should I make a start then. Every-
thing was called off for the day and we all went
over and visited the State Capitol. The newspa-
permen swallowed their disappointment and
hoped for better things on the morrow.
Sunday proved to be the day. The delay had
got somewhat on my nerves and I had determined
to make a start if there was half a chance. The
morning was calm and bright a perfect summer
day. News from down the river was all favour-
able. I determined it was now or never. I sent
98 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Mrs. Curtiss to the special train and informed the
World representative and the Aero Club officials
that I was ready to go. Shortly after eight
'clock the motor was turned over and I was off !
It was plain sailing after I got up and away
from Eensselaer Island. The air was calm and
1 felt an immense sense of relief. The motor
sounded like music and the machine handled per-
fectly. I was soon over the river and when I
looked down I could see deep down beneath the
surface. This is one of the peculiar things about
flying over the water. When high up a person
is able to see farther beneath the surface.
I kept a close lookout for the special train,
which could not get under way as quickly as I had,
and pretty soon I caught sight of it whirling along
on the tracks next to the river bank. I veered
over toward the train and flew along even with
the locomotive for miles. I could see the people
with their heads out the windows, some of them
waving their hats or hands, while the ladies
shook their handkerchiefs or veils frantically. It
was no effort at all to keep up with the train,
which was making fifty miles an hour. It was
like a real race and I enjoyed the contest more
than anything else during the flight. At times I
would gain as the train swung around a short
curve and thus lost ground, while I continued on
in an air line.
All along the river, wherever there was a vil-
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 99
lage or town, and even along the roads and in
boats on the river, I caught glimpses of crowds
or groups of people with their faces turned sky-
ward, their attitudes betokening the amazement
which could not be read in their faces at that dis-
tance. Boatmen on the river swung their caps in
mute greeting, while now and then a river tug
with a long line of scows in tow, sent greetings
in a blast of white steam, indicating there was the
sound of a whistle behind. But I heard nothing
but the steady, even roar of the motor in perfect
rhythm, and the whirr of the propeller. Not even
the noise of the speeding special train only a few
hundred feet below reached me, although I could
see every turn of the great drive-wheels on the
engine.
On we sped, the train and the aeroplane, repre-
senting a century of the history of transporta-
tion, keeping abreast until Hudson had been past.
Here the aeroplane began to gain, and as the
train took a wide sweeping curve away from the
bank of the river, I increased the lead perceptibly,
and soon lost sight of the special.
It seemed but a few minutes until the great
bridge spanning the Hudson at Poughkeepsie,
came into view. It was a welcome landmark, for
I knew that I had covered more than half the jour-
ney from Albany to New York, and that I must
stop to replenish the gasoline. I might have gone
on and taken a chance on having enough fuel, but
100 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
this was not the time for taking chances. There
was too much at stake.
I steered straight for the centre of the Pough-
keepsie bridge, and passed a hundred and fifty
feet above it. The entire population of Pough-
keepsie had turned out, apparently, and resem-
bled swarms of busy ants, running here and there,
waving their hats and hands. I kept close watch
for the place where I had planned to turn off the
river course and make a landing. A small pier
jutting out into the river was the mark I had
chosen beforehand and it soon came into view. I
made a wide circle and turned inland, over a
clump of trees, and landed on the spot I had
chosen on my way up to Albany. But the gaso-
line and oil which I had expected to find waiting
for me, were not there. I saw no one for a time,
but soon a number of men came running across
the fields and a number of automobiles turned off
the road and raced toward the aeroplane. I
asked for some gasoline and an automobile hur-
ried away to bring it.
I could scarcely hear and there was a continual
ringing in my ears. This was the effect of the
roaring motor, and strange to say, this did not
cease until the motor was started again. From
that time on there was no disagreeable sensation.
The special train reached the Camelot field
shortly after I landed and soon the newspaper-
men, the Aero Club officials, and the guests came
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 101
climbing up the hill from the river, all eager to
extend their congratulations. Henry Kleckler,
acting as .my mechanic, who had come along on
the special train, looked over the machine care-
fully, testing every wire, testing the motor out,
and taking every precaution to make the re-
mainder of the journey as successful as the first
half. The gasoline having arrived, and the tank
being refilled, the special train got under way;
once more I rose into the air, and the final lap of
the journey was on.
Out over the trees to the river I set my course,
and when I was about midstream, turned south.
At the start I climbed high above the river, and
then dropped down close to the water. I wanted
to feel out the air currents, believing that I would
be more likely to find steady air conditions near
the water. I was mistaken in this, however, and
soon got up several hundred feet and maintained
about an even altitude of from five hundred to
seven hundred feet. Everything went along
smoothly until I came within sight of West Point.
Here the wind was nasty and shook me up con-
siderably. Gusts shot out from the rifts between
the mountains and made extremely rough riding.
The worst spot was encountered between Storm
King and Dunderberg, where the river is narrow
and the mountains rise abruptly from the water's
edge to more than a thousand feet on either side.
Here I ran into a downward suction that dropped
102 THE CTJBTISS AVIATION* BOOK
me in what seemed an interminable fall straight
down, but which as a matter of fact was not more
than a hundred feet or perhaps less. It was one
of Willard's famous "holes in the air." The at-
mosphere seemed to tumble about like water
rushing through a narrow gorge. At another
point, a little farther along, and after I had
dropped down close to the water, one blast tipped
a wing dangerously high, and I almost touched
the water. I thought for an instant that my trip
was about to end, and made a quick mental calcu-
lation as to the length of time it would take a
boat to reach me after I should drop into the
water.
The danger passed as quickly as it had come,
however, and the machine righted itself and kept
on. Down by the Palisades we soared, rising
above the steep cliff s that wall the stream on the
west side. Whenever I could give my attention
to things other than the machine, I kept watch
for the special train. Now and then I caught
glimpses of it whirling along the bank of the
river, but for the greater part of the way I out-
distanced it.
Soon I caught sight of some of the sky-scrap-
ers that make the sky-line of New York City the
most wonderful in the world. First I saw the tall
frame of the Metropolitan Tower, and then the
lofty Singer building. These landmarks looked
mighty good to me, for I knew that, given a few
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 103
more minutes' time, I would finish the flight. Ap-
proaching Spuyten Duyvil, just above the Harlem
river, I looked at my oil gauge and discovered
that the supply was almost exhausted. I dared
not risk going on to Governor's Island, some fif-
teen miles farther, for once past the Harlem river
there would be no place to land short of the is-
land. So I took a wide sweep across to the Jersey
side of the river, circled around toward the New
York side, and put in over the Harlem river, look-
ing for the little meadow at Inwood which I had
picked out as a possible landing place some two
weeks before.
There I landed on the sloping hillside, and
went immediately to a telephone to call up the
New York World. I told them I had landed
within the city limits and was coming down the
river to Governor's Island soon.
I got more oil, some one among the crowd, that
gathered as if by magic, turned my propeller, and
I got away safely on the last leg of the flight.
"While I had complied with the conditions govern-
ing the flight by landing in the city limits, I
wanted to go on to Governor's Island and give
the people the chance to see the machine in flight.
From the extreme northern limits of New York
to Governor's Island, at the southern limits, was
the most inspiring part of the trip. News of the
approach of the aeroplane had spread throughout
the city, and I could see crowds everywhere.
104 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
New York can turn out a million people probably
quicker than any other place on earth, and it cer-
tainly looked as though half of the population
was along Eiverside Drive or on top of the thou-
sands of apartment houses that stretch for miles
along the river. Every craft on the river turned
on its siren and faint sounds of the clamour
reached me even above the roar of my motor. It
seemed but a moment until the Statue of Lib-
erty came into view. I turned westward, circled
the Lady with the Torch and alighted safely on
the parade ground on Governor's Island.
General Frederick Grant, commanding the De-
partment of the East, was one of the first officers
who came up to extend congratulations and to
compliment me on the success of the undertak-
ing. From that moment I had little chance for
anything except the luncheons and dinners to
which I was invited. First came the luncheon at
the Astor House given by the New York World,
and then the big banquet at the Hotel Astor, pre-
sided over by Mayor Gaynor and attended by
many prominent men interested in aviation.
The speeches were all highly laudatory, of course,
and there were many predictions by the orators
that the Hudson river would become a highway
for aerial craft, as it had for steam craft when
Fulton first steered the old Clermont from New
York to Albany.
On the trip down from Albany I carried a letter
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 105
from the mayor of that city to Mayor Gaynor,
and delivered it in less time than it would have
taken the fastest mail train. My actual flying
time was two hours, fifty-one minutes, the dis-
tance one hundred and fifty- two miles, and the
average speed fifty-two miles an hour.
From Albany to Poughkeepsie is eighty-seven
miles, and by making this in a continuous flight I
had, incidentally, won the Scientific American
trophy for the third time. It now became my
personal property, and its formal presentation
was made at the annual dinner of the Aero Club
of America for that year.
NOTE BY AUGUSTUS POST
The newspapers made much of Mr. Curtiss'
flight, drawing comparisons between the Hudson
river course and the flight made by Bleriot
across the English channel, and the trip of Paul-
han from London to Manchester, which he had
just accomplished a flight of about the same dis-
tance, for which he received fifty thousand dollars
from the London Daily Mail.
The New York Times offered a large prize for
a flight from New York to Philadelphia and re-
turn, immediately afterward, which Charles K.
Hamilton won, and also offered a prize of twenty-
five thousand dollars for a flight between New
York and Chicago, which was never won. Mr.
W. E. Hearst was also moved to offer fifty thou-
106 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
sand dollars for a flight between New York and a
point on the Pacific Coast, the offer standing open
for one year. This flight was accomplished by
Calbraith P. Eodgers, but was not concluded with-
in the time limit.
There was, naturally, an outburst of editorial
comment from newspapers all over the United
States, not only long and scholarly leaders, but
brief, snappy paragraphs that make the press of
this country an interesting record of public feel-
ing and sentiment on all extraordinary achieve-
ments. For instance, the St. Louis Times spoke
of the passing of the new aerial menace over West
Point where cadets were studying the history of
military science along ancient lines, and the Chi-
cago Inter-Ocean chuckled over how this latest
achievement " would jar old Hendrik Hudson."
The Newark News declared that "the Indian
canoe, the Half mo on, the Clermont and the Cur-
tiss biplane each represented a human achieve-
ment that marked an epoch, " while the Provi-
dence News believed that " valuable as was as-
tronomer Halley's naming of a comet, Mr. Curtiss
has accomplished something of more practical
value to the world" and the York Gazette com-
pared the flight down the Hudson Valley by the
aeroplane, to the conquest of the North Pole.
There were other interesting points of view
taken by the press, the Birmingham News, for in-
stance, expressing the opinion that the New York
Copyright, lylu, by Tlie Pictiri:.l News Co.
THE HUDSON PLIGHT
(A) Stop at Poughkeepsie. (B) Finish, at Governor's Island
THE EVOLUTION OP THE HYDRO
(A) The first hydro In the world the "June Bug" on pontoons, Hammonds-
port, November 5, 1908. (B) Developing Hydro at San Diego Curtlss and
Ellyson In hydro of winter, 1911 ; dual control either of two military aviators
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 107
World was extravagant, as "it had paid $10,-
000.00 for Curtiss' ticket from Albany to New
York, when it might have brought him down by
train for $4.65." The Battle Creek Enquirer
said that Mr. Curtiss ought to go into politics,
for "a man who can soar as high, stay up as long,
travel as far, light as safely, all on wind, would
have the rest of them tied to the post." But the
Savannah News intimated that nobody could
blame Mr. Curtiss from flying away from the Al-
bany Legislature at the rate of a mile a minute.
The Birmingham Age-Herald declared that the
way was paved for other and greater flights, even
across the Atlantic ocean, and indeed, the ocean
flight now seemed to the press a not far distant
possibility. The Rochester Chronicle-Democrat
argued that the bench and bar would now have an
opportunity for the exercise of all their legal
ability to settle the question "who owns the air!"
But it was left to the Houston Post to break into
poetry in the following outburst of local pride:
"The wonder is that Curtiss did
Not pass New York and onward whiz
Southwest by south, half south, until
He got where Houston, Texas, is."
But perhaps the most characteristic comments
were those like that of the New York Evening
Mail:
" In erery newspaper that you picked up yes-
108 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
terday you read a thrilling account of the great
achievement of Glenn H. Curtiss. The detailed
description of his wonderful flight stirred every
emotion in you. Chills ran up your spine and
tears of joy came to your eyes as you read on and
on of the courage of the man who propelled his
airship at a speed of fifty-three miles an hour at
a height of a thousand feet above the earth. He
realised all of the time that a broken bolt or some
little thing gone wrong might dash him to death."
It is of course quite impossible to give even a
small proportion of the bright comments that
were made by the newspapers not only of this
country, but even by the foreign press. The New
York Times sent a special train to follow the
flight, on which I rode as the representative of
the Aero Club of America. Here is my report in
the Times:
"7:02 A. M. Mr. Curtiss started from Van Rensselaer Island,
Albany. Jacob L. Ten Eyek official starter for Aero
Club of America.
7:03 Passed over the city limits of Albany.
7:20 New Baltimore.
7:26 Twenty-one miles. The Times special train caught up
with aeroplane.
7:27 Milton Hook brick yards. Wind still. Aeroplane fly-
ing about 45 miles per hour. Passed lighthouse on west
side of Hudson River.
7:32 Stockport. Twenty- four miles.
7:35 Hudson. Twenty-nine miles. Aeroplane flying high.
Catskill Mountain houses could be seen in the distance.
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 109
Machine flying steady, water was calm, small ripples
along the surface.
7:36 Thirty miles. The Times special train passed through
tunnel parallel with 'plane.
7 'A0y 2 Tower 81, New York Central Railroad. Greensdale
ferry.
7:41 Catskill on west shore of Hudson River. Flying high.
7:44% Water trough in centre of track. Train equal with
'plane. Linlithgo Station.
7:46 Germantown steamer dock. Aeroplane flying well.
7:48 Passed old steamboat on west side of the river. Ger-
mantown Station. Aeroplane pitched when foot oil pump
was used. Slight ripples on the water.
7 :51 The Times special train running parallel with aeroplane.
7:53 Tivoli. Forty-four miles. Aeroplane 1,000 feet high.
Wind slightly from the west.
7:58 Barrytown. Forty-nine miles. Aeroplane about 800
feet high, descending a little lower until about 400 feet
high.
8:03 Kingston. Brick yards on west shore of river. Mr.
Curtiss is flying very near The Times special train, within
perhaps 100 yards.
8:04 Aeroplane turns toward west. Heads a little more
into the wind and crosses to the west side of the river at
high speed.
8:05 Private yacht dock on east side of river. Aeroplane
flying high again.
8:06 Rhineclifl: Ferry. Fifty-four miles. Aeroplane has
been flying one hour and four minutes. Seems to be
flying well.
8 :08 Passing Tower 67, New York Central Railroad.
8:08% The Times special train passed through tunnel. Mr.
Curtiss goes back to west side of river, flying over ice-
houses.
8:11 Passed lighthouse in middle of river. The aeroplane
seems to be rising and falling slowly on the varying cur-
110 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
rents of air. River is very wide at this point. There are
large stone crushers on the west shore, and a large stone
building of an institution on the bank of the river.
8:12 Staatsburg. Sixty miles.
8 :16 Aeroplane now is passing over a large white house, some
private residence on the west shore of the river. Aero-
plane is flying past freight train on the West Shore Rail-
road.
8 :18 Hyde Park Station. Sixty-four miles. The Times spe-
cial train passing water trough in centre of railway track.
Passing Insane Asylum at Poughkeepsie.
8:20 Passing upper portion of Poughkeepsie. 'Plane over
river.
8:24 Passing Poughkeepsie Bridge. Aeroplane about 200
feet above it.
8:25V The Times special train goes through Poughkeepsie
Station.
8:30 The Times special train arrives at Gill's Mill Dock,
opposite landing place of Mr. Curtiss. Aeroplane landed
according to Mr. Curtiss's watch on his machine at 8:26.
I left special train and went to the field where Mr. Cur-
tiss had landed, arriving a few minutes later. The tanks
of the machine were filled with eight gallons of gasoline
and one gallon and a half of oil. The machine was exam-
ined carefully and found to be in good order, one wire
being stayed to prevent vibration. George Collingwood
took The Times special train party to New Hamburg
Station.
9:26 Mr. Curtiss started for New York from field on prop-
erty of Mr. Gill.
9 :31 Camelot.
10:02 West Point. Aeroplane passed over Constitution Is-
land at an altitude of about 400 feet above the land.
10 :06 Manitou.
10:15 Ossining. Aeroplane flying on west side of the river.
THE HUDSON FLIGHT 111
10:25 Dobbs Ferry.
10:30 Yonkers. Aeroplane flying about level with top of
Palisades.
10:35 Landed 214th Street. Inwood. After passing down
river to Dyckman Street and returning to Spuyten Duyvil
and passing over drawbridge the aeroplane landed upon
the property of the Isham estate.
11:42 Mr. Curtiss left his landing place, flying again over
the drawbridge, out over the Hudson River, turned south.
12:00 M. Passed New York City and landed at Governor's
Island at noon.
"Mr. Curtiss also entered for the Scientific American trophy
and the first flight from Albany to the landing place at Pough-
keepsie, the exact distance of which is to be determined later,
will count as a record for this event, and if not exceeded in
the year will stand as Mr. Curtiss's trial for this trophy.
"The figures as finally corrected show that Mr. Curtiss was
in the air on the first leg of his flight from Albany to the Gill
farm near Poughkeepsie 1 hour and 24 minutes ; from the Gill
farm to the Isham estate at 214th Street 1 hour and nine min-
utes, and from 214th Street to Governor's Island 18 minutes,
making a total flying time for the 150 miles of 2 hours and 51
minutes.
''Figured on the basis of 150 miles for the entire flight, Mr.
Curtiss is shown to have maintained an average speed of 52.63
miles per hour." A. P.
CHAPTEE IV
THE BEGINNING OF THE HYDROAEROPLANE
THE Albany Flight was a great stimulus
to aeronautics in this country. Prizes were
at once offered in several different places by sev-
eral different newspapers, and a great many
cities wanted to have public flights made and par-
ticularly wanted flights to be made over water.
At Atlantic City I flew over the ocean, making
a record for fifty miles over water on a measured
course. It was here at the same time that Wal-
ter Brookins made a world's altitude record of
over six thousand feet in a standard Wright ma-
chine. Later I flew from Cleveland to Cedar
Point, near Sandusky, Ohio, a distance of sixty
miles over the waters of Lake Erie, and returned
next day in a rain storm.
After making flights in Pittsburgh, Pa., I
thought that a successful meet could be held in
New York City, so I arranged to have all of our
forces gathered together at Sheepshead Bay race
track, near Brighton Beach, N. Y., and during the
week of August 26, 1910, we had an aeroplane
meet at which Messrs. J. C. Mars, Charles F. Wil-
lard, Eugene B. Ely, J. A. D. McCurdy, and Au-
112
BEGINNING THE HYDRO 113
gustus Post made flights and this meet was so
successful that it was continued for a second
week. Mr. Ely flew to Brighton Beach and took
dinner and then flew back. Mr. Mars flew out
over the Lower Bay and we had all five of the
machines in the air at one time on several occa-
sions a record for New York at that time. It
was here that Mr. Post made a Bronco Busting
Flight over the hurdles at the Sheepshead Bay
track, landing safely after putting his machine
through all manner of thrilling manoeuvres.
The Harvard Aeronautical Society had ar-
ranged a meet at Boston, Mass., which followed
directly after this one, and Claude Grahame-
White, the famous English aviator, who was later
to win the Gordon Bennett cup at Belmont Park,
came over from England, bringing his fast Bler-
iot monoplane with him. A special race was ar-
ranged between Mr. White in his Bleriot and my
racing biplane. The meet was a great success,
and but a very small margin separated Mr.
White's Bleriot and my machine when we tried
out our best speeds.
Then came a meet at Chicago, 1 after which it
i NOTE BY AUGUSTUS POST
While flying in the Chicago meet we had four machines in
the air at once. I was a novice at flying then but entered the
air while the other fellows were flying around.
Circling the track I was just passing the grand stand when
Willard swooped down in front of me having passed right over
my head.
114 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
was arranged that three machines should start to
fly from Chicago to New York for the New York
Times' prize of $25,000. A team was made up
and Mr. Ely was chosen to make the attempt to
fly to New York. This was a very ambitious un-
dertaking for this period in the history of avia-
tion in America, for the longest flight that up to
this time had been made in this country was be-
tween New York and Philadelphia, one hundred
and eighty miles ; while the distance between Chi-
cago and New York was fully one thousand miles
and landings were very difficult to accomplish in
the broken country along the way. Mr. Ely
made a good attempt, but there was not sufficient
time to complete the trip as flights had already
been arranged at Cleveland, Ohio, and in order to
go there, this attempt was given up.
The Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup race was the
I clung on to the steering post and held the wheel as firmly
as I could while to my great consternation the machine rocked
and swayed fearfully in the back draft from Willard's propeller.
He kept doing the Dutch Roll and the Coney Island Dip right
in front of me, which made it all the worse, as the wash of the
propeller wake would strike above and below my machine as he
pitched up and down in front of me. I stood it as best I could,
hardly daring to breathe but holding my course and balancing
with all my might, until Willard turned off, and then after a
bit I made a good landing. When Willard came down he rushed
up to me and grabbed me by the hand and said, "Oh, Post! will
you ever forgive me for that? I ought to have known better
than to back-wash you but you know I thought you were Ely,
and I wanted to scare him!" A. P.
BEGINNING THE HYDRO 115
next thing to arouse the interest of patriotic
Americans and the Aero Club of America had
been busy with arrangements for a big meet to
be held at Belmont Park, near New York. This
was the largest undertaking that the club had up
to this time attempted and they taxed every pos-
sible resource, with the splendid result of secur-
ing all the foremost fliers of Europe, as well as of
America, to participate.
I had built a machine for the trials which I
thought would be very fast and had constructed it
as a type of monoplane in order to cut down the
head resistance to the very least possible point.
America was represented by Anthony Drexel, Jr.,
in a Bleriot; by the Wright Brothers, who had
constructed a racing machine by putting a pow-
erful motor in a small machine which was about
one-half the size of their regular model, and by
Mr. Charles K. Hamilton, who flew a Curtiss type
machine, but with a large power motor of an-
other make. Mr. Grahame- White won the race
in his Bleriot, although Mr. Alfred Leblanc, rep-
resenting France, made remarkable time, but on
the last lap ran into a telegraph pole on one of
the turns and smashed his machine and had a
most miraculous escape from being killed.
I did not try out my monoplane, although my
regular type was the speediest standard biplane
at the meet and was very well handled by Ely,
116 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Mars, Willard, and McCurdy who flew in the con-
tests. I had given up public flying in contests at
this time.
A new line of thought or to express it more
accurately, the following out of a very old one
was taking my interest and a great part of my
time. The experiments I had in mind involved
the problem of flying from the water and alight-
ing on the water.
The season of 1910 was now far advanced
and it was time to make plans for the winter.
Flying meets were to be held at Los Angeles
again, and also at San Francisco, and California
seemed the best place to go, for the weather there
would be most favourable not only for winter fly-
ing, but also for carrying on the experiments
which I had in mind. Meantime, when it seemed
as if all the paths were open to the aeroplane over
the land, and it was only a question of develop-
ment, not of pioneering, it was suggested to me
by the New York World to launch an aeroplane
from the deck of a ship at sea and have it fly back
to shore carrying messages.
The Hamburg American Steamship Company
offered their ocean liner Pennsylvania for this
test, and I sent a standard Curtiss biplane to be
operated by J. A. D. McCurdy. The ship was
fitted with a large platform, erected on the stern,
a platform sloping downward, and wide enough
to allow an aeroplane set up on it to run down
BEGINNING THE HYDEO 117
so that it could gather headway for its flight.
The plan was to take McCurdy and the aeroplane
fifty miles out to sea on the outward voyage from
New York, and then launch them from the plat-
form.
A mishap at the last moment upset all the well-
laid plans. In trying out the motor just as the
Pennsylvania was about to leave her dock at Ho-
boken, an oil can, carelessly left on one of the
planes by a mechanic, was knocked off and fell
into the whirling propeller. The result was a
broken propeller, and as the ship could not delay
its sailing long enough for us to get another, the
attempt was abandoned.
In the meantime, however, the Navy became in-
terested in the sea experiments and offered the
armoured cruiser Birmingham, then at Hampton
Eoads, to be fitted up with a similar platform for
launching an aeroplane. This was accepted and
Eugene Ely, who was flying in a meet at Balti-
more and already in the vicinity of Norfolk, took
his Curtiss biplane over to the Birmingham for
the test, fired with enthusiasm by McCurdy 's
attempt. On November 14 the Birmingham,
equipped with a platform for starting the aero-
plane, awaited good weather for the flight. The
good weather did not come and after waiting im-
patiently on board for some time, Ely determined
to risk a start, even though there was a strong
wind coming off shore carrying a heavy mist that
118 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
made it almost impossible to see more than half
a mile. The ship was at anchor, but starting tip
his motor he flew off with the greatest ease,
slightly touching the water with the wheels of his
machine, but quickly rising and flying straight to
shore, where he landed without difficulty.
This flight attracted world-wide attention, es-
pecially among the officers of the navies of the
world. It was the first demonstration of the
claims of the aeronautical enthusiasts of the navy
that an aeroplane could be made that would be
adaptable to the uses of the service, and it ap-
peared to substantiate some of the things claimed
for it.
When I found that business would bring me to
California during the winter, and probably would
keep me there for several months, I decided to
grasp the opportunity to do the development work
I had long wanted to do, and at the same time to
request the honour of instructing representative
officers of the Army and Navy in the operation of
the aeroplane. I believed the time had arrived
when the Government would be interested in any
phase of aviation that promised to increase the
usefulness of the aeroplane for military service.
So, on November 29, 1910, 1 sent letters to both
Secretary Dickinson of the "War Department and
to Secretary Meyer of the Navy Department, in-
viting them to send one or more officers of their
respective departments to Southern California,
BEGINNING THE HYDRO 119
where I would undertake to instruct them in avia-
tion. I made no conditions. I asked for and re-
ceived no remuneration whatsoever for this serv-
ice. I consider it an honour to be able to
tender my services in this connection. Other
governments had already organised their aero-
nautical military branches and instructed men to
fly, and it seemed to me that our own Government
would do likewise were the opportunity afforded
the officers to familiarise themselves with the
aeroplane.
The invitations to the War and Navy Depart-
ments were written just prior to my departure
for the Pacific Coast, and three weeks later I was
notified that the Secretary of the Navy had ac-
cepted, and that they would detail officers for in-
struction.
It began to look, even to the doubters, as if an
aeroplane could be made adaptable to the uses
of the Navy, as the aeronautic enthusiasts of the
service had claimed. The experiment begun
would have to be completed, however, by flying
from shore to the vessel, and for this opportunity
we were eager. The chance came when we were
all at San Francisco and another Pennsylvania,
this time the big armoured cruiser, was in the
bay. Rear Admiral Thomas, and Captain Pond,
in command of the Pennsylvania, readily con-
sented to assist in these further experiments.
The Pennsylvania went to Mare Island to be out-
120 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
fitted, Ely and I going there to tell the Navy offi-
cials at the station just what would be required
for such a hazardous test.
The platform was like that built on the Bir-
mingham, but in the case of a flight to, instead of
from, a ship the serious problem is to land the
aeroplane on the deck and to stop it quickly be-
fore it runs into the masts of the ship, or other
obstructions. The platform was built over the
quarterdeck, about one hundred and twenty-five
feet long by thirty feet wide, with a slope toward
the stern of some twelve feet. Across this run-
way we stretched ropes every few feet with a
sand bag on each end. These ropes were raised
high enough so they could catch in grab-hooks
which we placed under the main centrepiece of the
aeroplane, so that catching in the ropes the heavy
sand bags attached would drag until they brought
the machine to a stop.
To protect the aviator and to catch him in case
he should be pitched out of his seat in landing,
heavy awnings were stretched on either side of
the runway and at the upper end of it.
When all arrangements had been completed,
and only favourable weather was needed to carry
out the experiment, I was obliged to leave for San
Diego, and, therefore, was unable to witness the
flight. I regarded the thing as most difficult of
accomplishment. Of course, I had every faith in
Ely as an aviator, and knew that he would arrive
f
TWO FAMOUS MILITARY TEST FLIGHTS
(A) Curt Iss and hydro hoisted on U. S. S. "Pennsylvania," at San Diego.
/ (B) Ely leaving "Pennsylvania," San Francisco harbor
BEGINNING THE HYDEO 121
at the ship without trouble, but I must confess
that I had misgivings about his being able to come
down on a platform but four feet wider than the
width of the planes of the aeroplane, and to bring
it to a stop within the hundred feet available for
the run.
Ely rose from the Presidio parade grounds,
flew out over the bay, hovered above the ship for
an instant, and then swooped down, cutting off
his power and running lightly up the platform,
when the drag of the sand bags brought him to a
stop exactly in the centre, probably one of the
greatest feats in accurate landing ever performed
by an aviator. As I have said, the platform was
only four feet wider than the planes of the Cur-
tiss biplane that Ely used, yet the photograph
taken from the fighting top of the ship shows the 1
machine touching the platform squarely in the
centre. When one stops to think that the aero-
plane was travelling about forty miles an hour
when it touched the deck and was brought to a
stop within a hundred feet, the remarkable pre-
cision of the aviator will be appreciated.
Not only was there not the least mishap to him-
self or to the machine in landing, but as soon as
he had received a few of the many excited con-
gratulations awaiting him, he started off again
and flew back the ten miles to the camp of the
30th Infantry on the Aviation Field, where wild
cheers greeted the man and the machine that had
122 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
for the first time linked the Army and the Navy.
For this is what, in the wars of the future, or
even in the preservation of the future 's peace, the
aeroplane is certainly going to do, joining as noth-
ing else can the two branches of the service.
I don't think there has ever been so remark-
able a landing made with an aeroplane as Ely's,
and probably never so much store put by the mere
act of coming down in the right place. A few
feet either way, a sudden puff of wind to lift the
aeroplane when it should descend, or any one of
a dozen other things, might have spelled disaster
for the whole undertaking, deprived the daring
aviator of a well earned success, and the world
of a remarkable spectacular demonstration of
practical aviation.
On the day of the test I was in San Diego and
awaited news from San Francisco with a good
deal of impatience. When at last the Associated
Press bulletin announced that Ely had landed
without mishap I first felt a great relief that
there had been no accident to mar the success of
the thing, and then a sense of elation that we had
taken another long step in the advancement of
aviation.
Early in January I went to Southern Califor-
nia to establish an experimental station, and at
the same time to instruct the officers of the Army
and Navy whom I had invited the War and Navy
Departments to assign for that purpose. A part
BEGINNING THE HYDBO 123
of our experiments were along the line of a new
i t amphibious ' ' machine that had been on my mind
ever since my first experiments in Hammonds-
port.
I believed that with the proper equipment for
floating and attaining a high speed on the water,
an aeroplane could be made to rise as easily as
it could from the land. 1 I had carried these ex-
periments just far enough in Hammondsport to
convince me that the thing was feasible, when I was
obliged to discontinue them to take up other busi-
ness. I knew it would be safer to land on the
water than on land with the proper appliances,
and that it would be easier to find a suitable land-
ing place on water, for the reason that it always
i NOTE BY AUGUSTUS POST
An interesting story is told of how the hydroaeroplane came
to be invented.
During the period when he was planning a new series of ex-
periments, Mr. Curtiss, accompanied by Mrs. Curtiss, attended
a New York theatre in which there was being presented a play
much talked about just then. The curtain went up on the first
act, and the noted aviator was apparently enjoying the show
when, just as the scene was developing one of its most inter-
esting climaxes, he turned to Mrs. Curtiss and said: "I've got
it." On the theatre program he had sketched what ultimately
became the design of the hydroaeroplane.
This is like a time when Mr. Curtiss was standing one day
by the side of one of his motorcycles talking with a customer.
He kept turning one of the grips of the handle-bar with his
fingers while talking and after finishing the conversation went
into his office and developed the idea of a handle-control which
had come to him while apparently absorbed in conversation.
A. P.
124 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
affords an open space, while it is often difficult to
pick a landing place on the land. So, when I
made preparations for my flight from Albany to
New York City, I fitted pontoons beneath the
chassis of my machine and a hydro-snrf ace under
the front wheel. I wanted to be prepared for
alighting on the water should anything go amiss.
As a matter of fact, the river course was the only
feasible one for this flight, as there were moun-
tains and hills for almost the entire distance.
It was while on that trip that I decided to build
an aeroplane that would be available for starting
or landing on the water. I don't know that I had
the idea of its military value when I first planned
it; but it came to me later that such a machine
would be of great service should the Navy adopt
the aeroplane as a part of its equipment. I
thought the next step from pontoons, to float an
aeroplane safely on the water, would be a perma-
nent boat so shaped that it could get up speed
enough so the whole machine could rise clear of
the water and fly in the air.
It was important to find a location where it
would be possible to work along the lines I had
mapped out a place where I might be free from
the pressing calls of business and the hampering
influence of uncertain climatic conditions. In
short I wanted a place with the best climate to
be found in this country, with a field large enough
and level enough for practice land flights by be-
BEGINNING THE HYDBO 125
ginners, and with a convenient body of smooth
water for experiments with a machine that would
start from or land upon water.
Above all, I wanted a place not easy of access
to the curious crowds that gather wherever there
is anything novel to be attempted; for a flying
machine never loses its attraction to the curious.
Mankind has been looking for it ever since the
beginning of the world, and now that it is actually
here he can't get away from it, once it is in sight.
A machine that has actually carried a man
through the air takes on a sort of individuality
all its own that acts as a magnet for the inquiring
mind. Once people have really seen an aero-
plane fly, they want to know what makes it fly
and to come into personal contact with the ma-
chine and the man who operates it.
San Diego was brought to my attention as af-
fording every advantage for experimental work
in aviation. A study of the weather bureau rec-
ords here showed a minimum of wind and a max-
imum of sunshine the year round. I visited that
city in January, 1911, and after a thorough inspec-
tion of the grounds offered as an aviation field,
decided to make that city the headquarters for
the winter and to carry on the experimental and
instructional work there.
North Island, lying in San Diego Bay, a mile
across from the city, was turned over to me by
its owners, the Spreckels Company. It is a flat,
126 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
sandy island, about four miles long and two miles
wide, with a number of good fields for land flights.
The beaches on both the ocean and bay sides are
good, affording level stretches for starting or
landing an aeroplane. Besides, the beaches were
necessary to the water experiments I wished to
make. North Island is uninhabited except by
hundreds of jack rabbits, cottontails, snipe, and
quail. It joins Coronado Island by a narrow
sand spit on the south side, which is often washed
by the high tides. Otherwise the two islands
are separated by a strip of shallow water a mile
long and a couple of hundred yards wide, called
Spanish Bight. Thus the island on which we
were to do our experimenting and training was ac-
cessible only by boat and it was a comparatively
easy matter to exclude the curious visitor when-
ever we desired to do so. There was no particu-
lar reason for excluding the public other than the
desire to work unhampered by crowds, which is
always a distracting influence.
In the meantime Lieutenant Theodore GL Elly-
son of the submarine service, then stationed at
Newport News, Virginia, had been detailed by the
Navy Department to report to me in California
for instruction in aviation. He had joined me in
Los Angeles, where, though there are all the
climatic requirements, and good fields for prac-
tice flights, the ideal body of smooth water for
experiments on that element was lacking. The
BEGINNING THE HYDRO 127
War Department responded later, instructing
General Bliss, commanding the Department of
California at San Francisco, to detail as many
officers as could be spared to go to San Diego for
instruction in the art of flying.
There was much eagerness among the officers
of the Department of California and I was in-
formed that some thirty applications were made
for the detail. Lieutenant (now Captain) Paul
W. Beck, of the Signal Corps, located at the Pre-
sidio, San Francisco, and Lieutenant John C.
Walker, Jr., of the 8th Infantry, Monterey, Cal.,
were named at once, and later Lieutenant C. E.
M. Kelly, 30th Infantry, San Francisco, was
added to the Army's representation. This made
a list of four officers, three from the Army and
one from the Navy, and with these I began work.
In February, however, the Navy Department des-
ignated Ensign Charles Pousland of the destroyer
Preble, at San Diego, to join Lieutenant Ellyson
as a Navy pupil in aviation.
There are a dozen good landing or starting
fields on North Island, but we chose the one on
the south side, which gave us easy access to the
smooth shallow water of Spanish Bight. A field
was cleared of weeds and sagebrush, half a mile
long by three or four hundred yards wide. Sheds
to house the machines were built by the Aero
Club of San Diego, and landings put in for the
small boats that carried us to and from the city.
128 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
The Spreckels Company gave us every assistance
in fitting the place up, and the people of San Di-
ego, anxious to make the island the permanent
home of an aviation experimental station and
school, were prompt to lend a hand and to im-
press upon us the climatic advantages of their
city.
I have asked Lieutenant Ellyson to write his
own story of the work on North Island, and it is
to be found in another part of this book.
CHAPTEE V
DEVELOPING THE HYDROAEROPLANE AT SAN DIEGO
THE HYDRO OF THE SUMMER OF 1912
JANUAEY had nearly passed before the first
machine was ready. Although this proved
unsuccessful, I was not discouraged and learned
a good deal about what sort of a float was neces-
sary to support the aeroplane and how it acted
when under way over the water. Nearly every
day for over two weeks we dragged the machine
down to the edge of the water, launched it on the
smooth surface of San Diego Bay, and drew it
out again after testing out some new arrangement
of floats and surfaces. We kept it in a hangar,
or shed, on the beach, and there we would sit and
study and change and plan how to improve the
float.
We were in the water almost all day long; no
thought was given to wet clothing and cold feet.
We virtually lived in our bathing suits. The
warm climate aided us, but there were some chilly
days. Discomfort and failure did not deter the
Army and Navy officers, who watched and worked
like beavers, half in and half out of the water.
On the 26th of January the first success came.
That day the aeroplane first rose from the water
129
130 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
and succeeded in alighting gently and without ac-
cident after the flight. A page was added to
aviation history, which extended its domain and
opened the lakes, rivers, and seas to the hitherto
land-locked flying machine. It was no more a land
bird, but a water fowl as well.
The machine was crude, and there remained
many things to be improved, but the principle was
correct. We kept adjusting the equipment, add-
ing things and taking them off again to make some
improvement; perhaps the float was too heavy,
or leaked, or the spray would fly up and chips
would be knocked out of the whirling propeller,
which the drops of water would strike like shot
out of a gun. The least projection on the floats
would send up spray while travelling at such high
speed as was made through the water. The bal-
ance of the machine was as troublesome as any-
thing, because the push of the propeller would
give it a tendency to dive if the floats were not
properly adjusted.
When we brought the machine out on the 26th
day of January I felt that we ought to get some
results. There were no crowds of people present
and there was no announcement of what was
about to happen. I had not expected to make a
flight, but climbed into the aviator's seat with a
feeling that the machine would surely rise into
the air when I wished, but that I would only try
it on the water to see how the new float acted.
DEVELOPING THE HYDKO 131
Lieutenant Ellyson spun the propeller and I
turned the machine into the wind. It ploughed
through the water deeply at first, but gathered
speed and rose higher and higher in the water
and skipped more and more lightly until the float
barely skimmed the surface of the bay. So intent
was I in watching the water that I did not notice
that I was approaching the shore and to avoid
running aground I tilted the horizontal control
and the machine seemed to leap into the air like
a frightened gull. So suddenly did it rise that it
quite took me by surprise.
But I kept the machine up for perhaps half a
mile, then turned and dropped lightly down on
the water, turned around and headed back to the
starting point. The effect of that first flight on
the men who had worked, waited, and watched for
it was magical. They ran up and down the beach,
throwing their hats up into the air and shouting
in their enthusiasm.
I now headed about into the bay, in the direction
of San Diego, and rose up into the air again even
more easily than the first time. I flew for half
a mile and turned twice to see how the machine
would act in the air with the clumsy-looking float
below it. The naval repair ship Iris caught sight
of me as I went flying by and sent its siren blast
far out over the water, and all the other craft blew
their whistles, until it seemed as if all San Diego
knew of the achievement. Satisfied that it was
132 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
all right, I landed within a few yards of the shore,
near the hangar.
We made flights nearly every day after this,
taking the Army and Navy officers as passengers.
I found the machine well adapted for passenger
work and it became very popular. While experi-
menting we kept changing things from day to
day, adding and taking off, lightening the machine,
or adding more surface. We tried putting on an
extra surface, making a triplane, and got remark-
able lifting power. We changed the floats and
finally made one long, flat-bottomed, scow-shaped
float, twelve feet long, two feet wide, and twelve
inches deep. It was made of wood, the bow being
curved upward the full width of the boat and at
the stern being curved downward in a similar
manner. This single float was placed under the
aeroplane so that the weight was slightly to the
rear of the centre of the float, causing it to slant
upward, giving it the necessary angle for hydro-
planing on the surface of the water.
I will confess that I got more pleasure out of
flying the new machine over water than I ever got
flying over land, and the danger, too, was greatly
lessened.
I then decided upon a test which I had been in-
formed the Navy regarded as very important.
In fact, I had been told that the Secretary of the
Navy regarded the adaptability of the aeroplane
to navy uses as depending very largely on its
DEVELOPING THE HYDEO 133
ability to alight on the water and be hoisted
aboard a warship. With the hydroaeroplane I
had developed, I had no doubts about being able
to do this, without any platform or preparation
on board the vessel.
So, on February 17, at San Diego, I sent word
over to Captain Charles F. Pond, commanding the
armoured cruiser Pennsylvania, then in the har-
bour, that I would be pleased to fly over and be
hoisted aboard whenever it was convenient to him.
He replied immediately, "come on over." The
Pennsylvania is the ship that Ely landed on at
San Francisco in his memorable flight, and it was
Captain Pond who at that time gave over his ship
and lent every assistance in his power to make
the experiment the success it was. He lent his
aid to this second experiment as willingly as he
did to the first.
There were no special arrangements necessary
for this test. All that would be needed to get
the aeroplane and its operator on board would
be to use one of the big hoisting cranes, just as
they are used for handling the ship's launches.
The hydroaeroplane was launched on Spanish
Bight, and in five minutes I was on the way.
The machine skimmed over the water for a hun-
dred yards and then rose into the air. In two
or three minutes I was alongside the cruiser, just
off the starboard quarter. There was a strong
tide running and when I shut off the propeller
134 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
the aeroplane drifted until a rope thrown from
the ship was made fast to one of the planes by
Lieutenant Ellyson of the Navy. It was drawn
in close to the side of the ship, where a boat crane
was lowered and I hooked it in a wire sling at-
tached to the top of the planes. I then climbed
up on top of the aeroplane and slipped my leg
through the big hook of the crane, not caring to
trust too much weight to the untested sling.
In five minutes from the time I landed on the
water alongside the ship, the hydroaeroplane re-
posed easily on the superstructure deck of the big
cruiser, just forward of the boat crane. It had
been the easiest sort of work to land it there, and
thus one more of the problems that stood in the
way of a successful naval aeroplane was over-
come.
The rest of the experiment was performed with
equal promptness and ease. After a stay of ten
minutes on the cruiser, the aeroplane was dropped
overboard by the big boat crane, the propeller was
cranked by one of the military pupils in aviation,
and I got under way for the return trip to the
island. Two minutes later I brought the hydro-
aeroplane to a stop a few yards away from the
hangar on the beach. The entire time taken from
the moment I left North Island for the cruiser to
the moment I landed on the water at the hangar
on my return was less than half an hour, and yet
within this brief space had been written one of
DEVELOPING THE HYDEO 135
the most interesting chapters in the history of
naval aviation.
I regard this experiment as one of the most in-
teresting, from my idea of a military experiment,
that had been attempted up to that time, for the
reason that no special equipment was needed on
board the ship. Obviously the objections to the
landing of an aeroplane on deck from a flight had
to be overcome, and this could be done with a ma-
chine that could land on the water and be picked
up. For a flight from the ship, all that was neces-
sary was to drop it over the side and watch it rise
from the water into the air. Such a machine
could be "knocked down" and stored in a very
small space when not in use; and when wanted
for a flight, it could be brought out and set up in
a short time on deck.
An aeroplane sent from a scout ship on a scout-
ing flight must, to be efficient, be able to carry a
passenger, especially if it be sent for any purpose
other than as a messenger, where speed would be
the first consideration. But if sent to seek infor-
mation as to an enemy's position, to take observa-
tions and make maps of the surrounding country,
or with any of a dozen other objects in view where
a trained observer would be necessary, it seems to
me it should be equipped to carry at least two, and
possibly three, persons the aviator and two pas-
sengers. There were many machines capable of
carrying one or more passengers on land flights,
136 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
so I set about equipping one to carry passengers
on water flights.
This I first succeeded in doing on February 23,
when I took up Lieutenant T. G. Ellyson of the
Navy, in the hydroaeroplane. We rose from the
water without difficulty, flew over San Diego Bay
and returning, alighted on the water with perfect
ease.
This was all very well and good where a flight
was to be made from the water and back to the
water; but I believed we should go further and
provide a machine that would be able to go from
one to the other from water to land and land
back to water before it could be said that all the
difficulties of making the aeroplane adaptable to
both Army and Navy uses had been overcome.
This was of comparatively easy accomplishment,
and on Sunday, February 26, I made the first
flight from water to land and from land back to
water. Starting from North Island, on the wa-
ters of Spanish Bight, I flew out over the ocean
and down the beach to a point near Coronado Ho-
tel, where I came down on the smooth sand of the
beach. Eeturning, the machine started from the
beach and came back to the water on Spanish
Bight whence I had started.
With these achievements it seems to me the aer-
oplane has reached the point of utility for mili-
tary purposes either for the Army or Navy. It
now seems possible to use it to establish commu-
DEVELOPING THE HYDBO 137
nication between the Navy and Army, when there
are no other means of communication. That is,
a warship could launch an aeroplane that can fly
over sea and land and come to earth on whichever
element affords the best landing. Having ful-
filled its mission on shore it could start from
the land, and, returning to the home ship, land
at its side and be picked up, as I was picked
up and hoisted aboard the Pennsylvania at San
Diego.
Here let me call attention to the splendid field
that California offers for the development of avi-
ation, with its climate, permitting aviation to be
pursued all the year, and its large winter tourist
population with wealth and leisure to devote to
furthering the art of flight. In California even
the legislature recognises the increasing popu-
larity of flying, and it has given careful attention
to the formation of laws to protect the aeroplane
and the aviator.
There remained one thing further to accomplish
complete success with the hydroaeroplane, and
that was to devise a method of successfully launch-
ing the machine from a ship without touching the
water and without resorting to any cumbersome
platform or any other launching apparatus that
would interfere with the ship 's ordinary working.
To accomplish this would solve the principal ob-
stacle that stood in the way of using the hydro-
aeroplane at sea.
138 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson, of the United
States Navy, had been working out a plan for
doing this and it was not until September, 1911,
that the experiment was finally completed at
Hammondsport, where operations were continued
after breaking up the camp at San Diego, late in
the spring.
A platform sixteen feet high was erected on
the shore of Lake Keuka and a wire cable two
hundred and fifty feet long was stretched from
the platform to a spile under water out in the
lake. The hydroaeroplane was set on this wire
cable near the platform on which the men stood
to start the propeller. A groove was made along
the bottom of the boat in which the cable fitted
loosely, to guide it as it slid down, until sufficient
headway was obtained to enable the wings of the
aeroplane to support the weight of the machine.
A trial of this method of launching was entirely
successful. The machine started down the cable
gathering headway and we all watched it grace-
fully rise into the air and fly out over the lake.
This launching from a wire -is the last step in the
development of handling the aeroplane and it is
hardly possible to foresee all the many important
applications which will be made in the future of
this type of machine, since a cable can be easily
stretched from the bow of any vessel, which can
then steam into the wind, easily enabling an aero-
plane to be launched in almost any weather, while
DEVELOPING THE HYDEO 139
it can without difficulty land under the lea of the
vessel and be hoisted on board again.
As the wireless has almost revolutionised ocean
navigation by furnishing a means of constant
communication between steamers, perhaps the
hydroaeroplane will be able to bring passengers
back to shore or take them from shore to a ship
on the high sea, or enable visits to be made be-
tween ships that pass on the ocean. Great, pow-
erful hydroaeroplanes may be able to cross the
ocean itself at high speed, and they will no doubt
add greatly to the safety of ocean travel, as well
as furnish the Navy with an arm of destruction
much more far-reaching than its most effective
guns or torpedoes.
Frank Coffyn in May, 1912, took a belated
passenger from the Battery, New York City, out
to a steamer as it was steaming out of the lower
bay and landed him safely aboard a hint of
future possibilities.
We had a curious opportunity to prove how
the hydroaeroplane can be an arm of preservation
as well as destruction, when at the Chicago meet
of 1911. Simon, dashing over the lake, dropped
in his machine. Hugh Eobinson had been putting
a hydroaeroplane through its evolutions, to the
great interest of the crowd, who evidently
thought it a sort of freak machine, but when Si-
mon fell Eobinson was after him instantly, and
for the first time in the history of the world, a
140 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
man flew through the air from dry land, alighted
on the water beside a man in distress, and before
anything else could get there, invited him to fly
back to shore with him. As there were boats
close at hand, the offer was not needed, but the
value of the land-air-water machine had been
proved, for it had left its hangar and flown a mile
from shore in a little more than a minute.
The hydroaeroplane can already fly sixty miles
an hour, skim the water at fifty miles, and run
over the earth at thirty-five miles. Driven over
the surface of the water the new machine can
pass the fastest motor boat ever built and will re-
spond to its rudder more quickly than any water
craft afloat. Its appeal will be as strong to the
aquatic as to the aerial enthusiast.
Flying an aeroplane is thrilling sport, but fly-
ing a hydroaeroplane is something to arouse the
jaded senses of the most blase. It fascinates, ex-
hilarates, vivifies. It is like a yacht with hori-
zontal sails that support it on the breezes. To
see it skim the water like a swooping gull and
then rise into the air, circle and soar to great
heights, and finally drop gracefully down upon
the water again, furnishes a thrill and inspires a
wonder that does not come with any other sport
on earth.
The hydroaeroplane is safer than the ordinary
aeroplane, and for this reason is bound to become
the most popular of aerial craft. The begin-
DEVELOPING THE HYDEO 141
ner can take it out on his neighboring lake or
river, or even the great bays, and skim it over the
water until he is sure of himself and sure that he
can control it in the air. He can fly it six feet
above the water for any distance, with the feeling
that even if something should happen to cause a
fall, he will not be dashed to pieces. The worst
he will get is a cold bath.
The hydroaeroplane may compete with motor
boats as a water craft, or in the air with the fast-
est aeroplane. It can start from the land on its
wheels, but launch itself on the water where there
is lack of room for rising from the land.
Its double qualities as a water and air craft
make possible flights that could not be attempted
with the aeroplane.
At Cedar Point, Ohio, I had to fly the new ma-
chine when a strong gale was blowing across Lake
Erie, kicking up a heavy surf. However, I deter-
mined to make the attempt under what were ex-
tremely trying conditions, and so started it on
the beach and under the power of the aerial pro-
peller, launched it through a heavy surf.
Beyond the surf I found very rough water, but
turning the machine into the wind, I arose from
the water without the least difficulty, and circled
and soared over the lake for fifteen minutes. I
landed without trouble on the choppy water a few
hundred yards off shore, and after guiding the
hydroaeroplane up and down the beach for the
142 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
inspection of the great crowd, made a second flight
of ten minutes' duration, and landed safely upon
the sandy beach. That was the hardest test I
have ever given the hydroaeroplane, and I think
a very severe one. I am satisfied that it can he
used in more than ordinarily rough water, if it
is properly handled.
There is no question that in this particular line
of aeronautics, America is now leading the world ;
but the hydroaeroplane contests recently held at
Monte Carlo and the experiments made in France
by the Voisin Brothers' " Canard," which was
erroneously hailed by the French press as being
the first occasion when a machine had risen from
the water with two men, show that the French
are not far behind us.
Other experiments have been made in Europe
by Fabre, who was the first to achieve any degree
of success in this line, and by the Duf aux Brothers
on the Lake of Geneva, to say nothing of the
flights made by Herbster, the old Farman pilot,
on an Astra- Wright at Lucerne, and if the Ameri-
can aeronautic industry does not awaken to the
immediate possibilities along this line, it will once
more be overtaken by Europeans.
There are thousands of men throughout the
country who would gladly take up a new mechan-
ical sport as a successor to motor boating and
motoring if they felt they could do so with a rea-
DEVELOPING THE HYDRO 143
sonable degree of safety to themselves, and ade-
quate assurance that the life of their machine
would be commensurate to the price paid for it.
Followers of the sport of motor boating, which
has made thousands of converts during the past
few years, are already turning to the hydroplane,
which skims over the water at much greater speed
and less power. The next step will be the hydro-
aeroplane, which can skim over the water in ex-
actly the same way and has the further enormous
advantage of rising into the air whenever the
driver so desires. The sport should develop rap-
idly next summer and be in full swing in a few
years. Several improvements of detail will have
to be made. Ways of housing the craft of stop-
ping the engine of muffling the roar of the motor,
will be devised ; while more comfort for the pilot
and passengers will be arranged.
If a cross-country flight is too dangerous to at-
tempt because of the rough character of the land,
the hydroaeroplane can follow a river course with
perfect safety. Or, if there is no water course
and the country is level, it can take the land
course with equal safety.
In short, it matters little whether an aerial
course takes one over land or water, the hydro-
aeroplane is the safest machine for flight. With
the "Triad," as we called the machine from its
triple field air, land, and water the Great
144 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Lakes offer no impassable obstacle to a long flight,
and it is within the vision of him who watches the
trend of things, that an over-sea flight is not far
in the future.
NOTE BY AUGUSTUS POST
THE " FLYING BOAT"
At San Diego, on Jan. 10, 1912, a new type of
Curtiss hydroaeroplane, or " flying boat," was
given its first trial on the bay. It had been de-
signed and constructed under strict secrecy at
Hammondsport. The public knew nothing as to
the details of this craft until it was taken out on
the bay in order to test its balance and speed on
the water.
This craft, which was equipped to carry a pas-
senger, was driven by a sixty horse-power motor.
In contact with the water, it went at over fifty
miles an hour ; and lifted off the water, it travelled
at more than sixty miles an hour in the air. It
differs in many respects from the hydroaeroplane
now in use by the United States Navy officers
who, by the way, were present and witnessed the
test. There were two propellers instead of one
and these were driven by clutch and chain trans-
mission. They were really "tractors," being in
front of the planes; the motor had a new auto-
matic starter, and there was also a fuel gauge and
DEVELOPING THE HYDEO 145
bilge pump. The transmission has since been
changed to direct drive.
The boat, or hydro equipment, contained a bulk-
head fore and aft, was twenty feet long, with an
upward slope in front and a downward slope in
the rear. The hydro equipment, which was more
like a boat than anything yet designed, was able
to withstand any wind or wave that a motor boat
of similar size could weather. The aviator sat
comfortably in the hull with the engine not behind
him, but forward in the hull in this model.
THE "FLYING FISH"
A "No. 2 flying boat," just built by Mr. Cur-
tiss, and successfully tested on Lake Keuka,
Hammondsport, in July, 1912, is the "last word"
in aviation so far. An illustration in this book,
made from photographs taken in mid-July, 1912,
shows fully the bullet-shape of the "flying fish."
It is a real looat, built with a fish-shaped body
containing two comfortable seats for the pilot
and passenger or observer, either of whom can
operate the machine by a system of dual control,
making it also available for teaching the art of
flying.
All the controls are fastened to the rear of the
boat's hull, which makes them very rigid and
strong, while the boat itself, made in stream-line
form, offers the least possible resistance to the
air, even less than that offered by the landing
146 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
gear upon a standard land machine. Above the
boat are mounted the wings and aeroplane sur-
face. In the centre of this standard biplane con-
struction is situated the eighty horse-power motor
with its propeller in the rear, thus returning to
the original practice, as in the standard Curtiss
machines, of having a single propeller attached
direct to the motor, thus doing away with all
chains and transmission gearing which might
give trouble, and differing from the earlier model
flying boat built in San Diego, California, last
winter (1911-12), which was equipped with
"tractor" propellors propellers in front driven
by chains.
The new flying boat is twenty-six feet long and
three feet wide. The planes are five and a half
feet deep and thirty feet wide. It runs on the
water at a speed of fifty miles an hour, and is
driven by an eighty horse-power Curtiss motor.
At a greater speed than this it cannot be kept on
the water, but rises in the air and flies at from
fifty to sixty miles per hour.
The boat itself is provided with water-tight
compartments so that if any one compartment
should be damaged the flotation afforded by the
other would be sufficient to keep the craft afloat.
It is also provided with wheels for making a land-
ing on the shore; these wheels fold up, thus not
interfering in the slightest with its manoeuvres
over the water. The boat is so strongly built
148 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
that it can be readily beached even through a
high surf and handled the same as a fisherman
would handle his dory, or it may be housed afloat
like a motor boat or anchored to a buoy like a
yacht.
In rough water the spray-hood with which this
type of boat is provided protects the navigators
from getting wet and enables the craft to be used
very much as you might use a high speed motor
boat, with the added excitement of being able to
rise above other crafts or fly over them if they
get in the way. It looks very much like a flying
fish in the air and although designed to skim
close to the surface of the water at high speed it
can rise to as high an altitude as the standard
land machine.
Mr. Curtiss states: "My idea was to provide
a machine especially adapted for the requirements
of the sportsman, one that would be simple to
operate and absolutely safe. During the tests
which we have made with this flying boat it car-
ried three people with ease and the boat rose with-
out difficulty with the extra passenger, although
it is only designed to accommodate two people. "
With the hydroaeroplane a safe landing can
always be made, and if, through inexperience or
carelessness of the driver, a bad landing is made,
no injury to the operator or passenger can occur
other than what may result from a "ducking."
This boat shows how directly aeroplane-build-
THE EVOLUTION OP THE HYDRO
(A) (B) The flying boat of summer, 1012 on land and in the air. <C) A con-
trast the hydroaeroplane of winter, 1911
"*. I
HYDROAEROPLANE FLIGHTS
(A) Curtiss driving the "Triad" over Lake Erie,
ground-swells at Atlantic City
(B) Witmer riding the
DEVELOPING THE HYDRO 149
ers are turning to air craft available for amateur
sport not for exhibition "stunts." Such boats
will have ample protection for the passenger and
be able to carry a large quantity of fuel together
with wireless apparatus and provisions, so that
long overwater journeys may be made in com-
parative comfort, and also well within the radius
of communication by wireless. And most of all
they are safe! A. P.
THE NAVY ON THE HYDRO
(AUGUSTUS POST)
Captain Washington Irving Chambers, head
of the Aeronautical Bureau, United States
Navy, in a speech delivered at the Aeronautical
Society 's banquet in New York, said:
"The hydroaeroplane is the coming machine
so far as the navy is concerned ; in fact, it has al-
ready come. 1 The navy machine built by Glenn
i The fame of the hydroaeroplane has reached the Orient and a
demonstration was recently given at Tokyo, Japan, for the benefit
of the Japanese Army and Navy officials by Mr. W. B. Atwater, 1
of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Atwater are on a tour of the world,
carrying with them two Curtiss hydroaeroplanes and giving dem-
onstrations of a practical character before the military authori-
ties of all the countries en route. On Saturday, May llth, 1912,
he made three flights at Tokyo, the first hydro flights ever seen
in the Orient.
There was a great gathering of military men to witness the
flights, among them Prince Kwacho, representing the Japanese
Imperial Family; Admiral Saito, Minister of the Imperial Navy,
and Vice- Admiral Uryu.
150 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
Curtiss has had several tryouts and has proved
itself a success. I recently had a flight with Mr.
Curtiss in this machine, the 'Triad,' at Ham-
mondsport, N. Y.
"With two passengers seated side by side, the
control can be shifted from one to the other easily
while in the air. When we had gone a mile Cur-
tiss yelled to me to take the control. The levers
had been explained to me on the ground, but I
had not familiarised myself with them for the
purpose of handling the machine under way. I
turned on a notch and the front plane tilted up,
bringing the machine off the water to a level of
four feet in the air. We kept this level for an-
other mile or two, when Curtiss took the control
again. He turned the plane lever another notch
and we rose to a ten-foot level and encircled the
lake several times without changing from this
level more than a foot or two, lower or higher."
As a justification of Captain Chambers' re-
marks, the Aero Club of America, at their annual
banquet held on January 27, 1912, awarded the
"Collier Trophy" to Mr. Curtiss for his success-
ful development and thorough demonstration of
the hydroaeroplane, the terms of the deed of gift
stating that "it shall be awarded annually for the
According to the statement of the Jcvpwn Advertiser the Jap-
anese Navy has followed the example of Russia, and forwarded to
America an order for four Curtiss hydroaeroplanes. A. P.
DEVELOPING THE HYDEO 151
greatest achievement in aviation in America, the
value of which has been demonstrated by use dur-
ing the preceding year."
The trophy is a group in bronze by Ernest Wise
Keyser of New York, representing the triumph
of man over gravity and other forces of nature.
The trophy was donated by Eobert J. Collier,
president of the Aero Club of America. A. P.
PAET IV
THE REAL FUTURE OF THE AEROPLANE
BY
GLENN H. CURTISS
WITH CHAPTERS BY
CAPTAIN PAUL W. BECK, U. S. A., LIEUTENANT
THEODORE G. ELLYSON, U. S. N., AND AUGUSTUS POST
CHAPTEE I
AEROPLANE SPEED OF THE FUTURE
IF you look over the books on aviation that
were published even a comparatively short
time ago, you will see how much of them is given
to prophecies and how little to records of perform-
ance. Because, of course, as soon as the aero-
plane came into existence every one with eyesight
and a little imagination could see that here was
a new factor in the world's work that would
change the course of things in almost every way,
and naturally every one began to forecast the
possibilities of aerial flight. And at first, when
the machine was really so little known, even to
the inventor, that aviators hesitated to push it
to the extreme of its possibilities, writers had
more to say about what the aeroplane would prob-
ably do than what it had actually done. But the
aeroplane, which is bound to break all speed-rec-
ords, has made history at the fastest rate yet.
Day by day we move things over from the proph-
ecy department to the history chapter, and as
the days slip by on their rush to join the future,
hardly one but leaves a record of accomplishment
155
156 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
and achievement to justify the aeroplane proph-
ets.
At first, as I have just said, aviators could not
believe in the powers of the machine; we used
to trim down our garments to the lightest point,
to avoid extra weight, whereas now we bundle up
in heavy furs, or wear two suits, one over the
other, to meet the intense cold of the upper air;
and a great surplus of weight can be carried by
almost all machines. We used to wait for a calm
almost absolute before going up it used to be
a regular thing to see aviators wetting their fin-
gers and holding them up to see from which di-
rection the faint breezes were coming or drop-
ping bits of paper to see if the air was in that
complete stillness we used to think necessary for
successful flight. When I was waiting for just
the right moment in Albany to begin the Hudson
Flight which, because of the unusual and abso-
lutely unknown atmospheric conditions over a
river flowing between precipitous and irregular
hills, had to be timed with unusual care the
Poughkeepsie paper in an editorial said the "Cur-
tiss gives us a pain in the neck."
Even after I had made the flight the Paterson
Call made the wait a reason for denying the use
of aeroplanes in time of war, pointing out how
amusing it would be to see in the newspaper re-
ports of the wars of the future, "Battle postponed
on account of the weather !" Whereas now we
FUTURE SPEED 157
go up without hesitation into what is actually a
gale of wind, and under weather conditions that
would have made the first flyers think it absolute
suicide.
This discussion of the future of the aeroplane
will have more of a basis of solid fact for its
prophecy than if it had been written a couple of
years ago. Some ideas the world has as to the
future of the machine we have had reluctantly
to abandon or at least indefinitely to postpone,
but so many new fields of activity have opened
that one may only sketch the principal lines along
which it is reasonable to expect the aeroplane
and the art and science of mechanical flight to
develop.
The most practical present and future uses of
the aeroplane in the order of relative importance
which it seems to me that these uses will natu-
rally take, are: for sport, war, and special pur-
poses which the aeroplane itself will create.
SPEED PRESENT AND FUTURE
In saying "for sport " I mean both for the avi-
ator himself and for the spectators interested in
watching his aerial evolutions and enthusiastic
over results; over sporting competitions, speed
races, and record flights of all kinds. Such flights
provide as much fun for the fellow who looks on
as the fellow who flies and gives an opportunity
for those who take pleasure in acting in an offi-
158 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
cial capacity to exercise authority to their hearts'
content !
Speed will always be a most important factor
in the development of the sporting side of avia-
tion. Almost all races depend upon speed and
activity; and the aeroplane, the material embodi-
ment and symbol of speed, equals and in many
cases surpasses the speed of the wind.
Speed will have no bounds in the future. As
I have already said briefly in passing, aeroplanes
will soon be going considerably over one hundred
miles per hour. A motorcycle has gone at the
rate of one hundred and thirty-seven miles per
hour and an aeroplane should be able to go even
faster. With the help of a strong wind blowing
in the direction of flight, two hundred miles an
hour ought to be possible of attainment. Ma-
chines for high speed, however, must have some
means of contracting the wing area or flattening
out the curve in the planes so that when we want
to go fast, we can reduce the amount of surface
of the machine to lessen friction and so that when
we want to go more slowly and land, we can in-
crease the size of the wing surface.
The Etrich machine built in Austria has been
constructed so that the curvature of the planes
can be changed by operating a lever near the
pilot; this enables the machine to attain high
speed in flight and to fly more slowly in starting
and landing.
FUTURE SPEED 159
The record is one hundred and eight miles an
hour now (September, 1912) and we will not be
surprised to see it climb up in proportion as rap-
idly as the altitude record did in 1911.
There is no wonder that an aeroplane race
should create such absorbing interest, almost
amounting to a craze, in the mind of the public
directly interested. Speed is the one thing about
the aeroplane that appeals both to the practical
and to the imaginative man ; the man of business,
to whom saving time means saving money, and
the poet, or the man of leisure, to whom the words
"make a bee-line" that is, an air line have al-
ways stood for speed and directness. Now in
earth or rail friction-machines, the limit of speed
has almost been reached, except in the case of
monorail vehicles, and there seems to be little
progress in this direction. With the aeroplane,
on the contrary, speed is only in its infancy.
None of the difficulties that check the development
of speed in the automobile or locomotive attend
the aeroplane. What means speed now ninety or
ninety-five miles an hour merely marks a stage
in the machine 's development ; a hundred and fifty
an hour is even now within its possibilities, and
a much greater speed is by no means beyond the
vision of the present generation. What the boys
of to-day are going to see when they grow up no
one can foretell. It is largely a question of mo-
tive power that and the reduction of resistance.
160 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
In the latter respect I have already materially cut
down the resistance of the newest type of Curtiss
machine, in order to increase the speed. I was
able, as I have said, to win the International Cup
at Rheims in 1909 with a speed of forty-seven and
one-half miles an hour. At Los Angeles during
the past winter my latest type was able to fly
more than seventy miles an hour, and the same
type of engine, an eight-cylinder, has also been
made more powerful, thus the increased speed is
due to the improvements in the lines of the ma-
chine, the reduction of surface, and the controls,
and the increase of the power of the motor.
There is still room for reduction of surfaces,
minor improvements in the general outlines and
in the control; but the largest element in any in-
crease of speed must rest with the development
of the motor. Increased power is the tendency,
with as much reduction in weight as possible.
Personally, I can't see much room for reduction
in weight. At present I am using a motor of my
own manufacture that weighs but three pounds
to the horse-power. This I consider extremely
light as compared, for instance, with the engines
used in submarines of the Navy, which weigh
from sixty to seventy pounds to the horse-power.
Still, there will be some reduction in weight per
horse-power.
With the great speed that will undoubtedly
mark the aeroplane flights even of the near future,
FUTURE SPEED 161
the physical endurance of the operator will count
for a great deal in long flights. By the time we
can fly much over a hundred miles an hour there
will have to be some means of protection devised
for the operator, for anyone who has travelled
sixty or seventy miles an hour in an automobile
knows how uncomfortable such a trip becomes if
it keeps up over long distances. The driver of
an aeroplane sitting out in front unprotected
causes far more ^head-resistance." It will be an
easy matter to arrange some sort of protection for
him.
How strong this ^head-resistance" can be, I re-
alised in a curious experience while racing with
Ely at Los Angeles, going at probably sixty-five
miles an hour. I looked upward to see just where
Ely was flying, and as I raised my head the wind
got under my eyelids and puffed them out like toy
balloons. For a moment I was confused and
could scarcely see, but as soon as I turned my gaze
on the ground the wind pressure forced the lids
back into their normal position.
SAFER THAN AUTOMOBILE RACES
I believe there are fewer dangers in racing
aeroplanes than in racing automobiles. Eaces
run over the ground have to contend against ob-
structions to the course, tire troubles, and "skid-
ding" on a wet track, or in making sharp turns.
None of these exist in the race in the air. The
162 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
course is always clear, there is no " track, ' ' wet or
dry, and as for the turns that look so desperate
to the inexperienced observer on the ground, the
operator, far from slipping out of his seat as he
4 1 banks" sharply, sits tight and feels as if he
were going on an even keel. If you can imagine
how the water in a pail would feel as you swing
the pail around your head so fast that not a drop
spills, you can realise the sense of stability that
the aviator feels as he whirls around a circular
course at a tremendous rate of speed, in fact,
once an aeroplane is up in the air, it is often safer
to travel fast than it is to travel slow.
ACCIDENTS
Of course it would be folly, in view of the list of
accidents, fatal and otherwise, that the newspa-
pers print and reprint every time a noted aviator
falls, to assert that there is no danger in flying.
I doubt if the American man, especially the Amer-
ican young man, would take to the aeroplane so
enthusiastically if the sport were as safe as par-
lour croquet. There is, of course, always danger
of something going wrong with an aeroplane in
flight that may bring it down too quickly for
safety, but unless the derangement is vital, an
expert aviator can make a safe landing, even with
a "dead" motor. And the dangers of flight are
growing less and less every year as the machine
FUTUBE SPEED 163
is improved and as the aviator becomes more skil-
ful and more experienced in air conditions. The
report of the French Government for 1911 shows
that there have been only one-tenth as many fatal
accidents in proportion to the number of flights
made, as in the first year of aviation, but each ac-
cident has made ten times as much stir.
INCEEASE IN SKILL
Perhaps the greatest advancement in aviation
during the past year has been due to the increased
skill of the aviators. Men like Beachey, Mc-
Curdy, Willard, Brookins, Parmelee, Latham,
Kadley, and others who have made flights in this
country, have shown remarkable strides in the art
of flying. This advancement has been in experi-
ence in knowing what to do in all sorts of
weather in taking advantage of air currents and
in knowing how to make safe landings when trou-
ble occurs. A year ago it would have looked like
a desire to commit suicide to attempt some of the
" stunts " these men now perform as a part of
their daily exhibitions.
At the same time, I want to make it plain that,
personally, I do not now, nor ever have encour-
aged so-called "fancy" flying. I regard some of
the spectacular gyrations performed by any of
half a dozen flyers I know as foolhardy and as
taking unnecessary chances. I do not believe
164 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
fancy or trick flying demonstrates anything ex-
cept an unlimited amount of nerve and skill and,
perhaps, the possibilities of aerial acrobatics.
CROSS-COUNTRY EACES
The year 1912 in America is the year of great
cross-country flights. We have already seen the
foreshadowing of this development in the great
flights of Atwood from St. Louis to New York and
Eodgers from coast to coast. Eodgers' trip was
a great feat. Just think! Clear across the
United States and so many smashes that only a
man with indomitable will and pluck would have
kept on to success. Eodgers became an expert at
landing and made landings almost anywhere.
Soon we shall see, instead of men flying alone as
in the case of these trips, double flights with two
pilots relieving each other so that the" distance
covered in flights may be increased, and the capa-
bilities of machines for endurance can be fully
shown.
The Gordon Bennett International Cup race at
Chicago this year brought to this country two of
the best racing machines in the world and has
stimulated interest in aviation to a higher pitch
than it has ever had in the United States. At the
next Gordon Bennett, I hope to see an American
surpass even Vedrines' speed of one hundred and
five miles an hour for one hundred twenty-four
and eight-tenths miles.
FUTUEE SPEED 165
RACING TYPES OF TO-MORROW
There have been many meets since Bheims,
some international, some of local importance ; in-
deed almost every citizen of a civilised country
has had a chance to attend some one of them with-
out too great a journey, but what I have said of
one meet is true to some degree of all : that racing
and contests in general, especially between differ-
ent makes of machines, is of the greatest use to
the development of the aeroplane, just as compe-
tition among automobile manufacturers, in put-
ting out racing machines, helped the development
of that vehicle.
There are at the present time a number of types
and makes of aeroplanes, each claiming some es-
pecial advantage over the others, and trying to
demonstrate it. Some of these will drop out
some of them have dropped already some will
develop toward the aeroplane of the future, which
we can only infer from the machines of to-day.
The way to bring about this " survival of the fit-
test " is by speed contests and endurance races,
where the American manufacturer pits his ma-
chine against the foreign-made article and the bi-
plane contends against the monoplane.
The public believed, when these two types came
into being, that there would be a sharp division
of uses between them ; that the biplane would ex-
cel in just certain directions, the monoplane in
166 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
others, and the public has watched the various
records of speed, of endurance, of distance, as
they changed back and forth between the two
types, and has found that deciding their relative
merits and assigning their special uses was by
no means the simple and summary process they
thought it would be. The contests will have to
evolve new rules and regulations; for instance,
there will have to be some means of handicapping
machines with very high-power engines and small
plane surface as in the case of monoplanes,
which, with a minimum of plane surface and high
power engines, have a speed advantage over the
biplanes, that with equal engine power have much
larger plane surface. Perhaps the method of
handicapping now used in certain races of stock
automobiles, that is cubic displacement of the en-
gine, will be adopted.
PUBLIC INTEKEST IN MEETS
The aviation meet at Los Angeles, California,
[ 1 in 1911, was a good indication of what great and
deep interest the public have in contests in the
air, and will have in the great races of the future.
Aeroplane flights called thirty thousand people
through the gates the second day of the ten days'
meet. This is the biggest crowd, I believe, that
ever paid admission to an aviation meet, in this
country, and probably the largest that has ever
attended any outdoor attraction except the world 's
FUTUEE SPEED 167
series baseball games and the few big football
games. In addition, there was a considerable
crowd on the outside who did not pay admission,
but the actual paid admissions on Sunday were
more than thirty thousand. This third annual
meet did better than either of those held during
the two previous years, and this, I am convinced,
proves that aviation is a standard and lasting
attraction.
CHAPTER II
FUTURE SURPRISES OF THE AEROPLANE HUNTING,
TRAVEL, MAIL, WIRELESS, LIFE-SAVING, AND OTHER
SPECIAL USES
MANY will be the future uses of the aero-
plane ; special uses not necessarily depend-
ent on speed.
Sportsmen are likely to find in the aeroplane,
especially in the hydro, an admirable vehicle for
hunting, aside from their interest in its racing
capacity. Already there is pending in the Cali-
fornia legislature a bill designed to regulate
shooting from an aeroplane, intended as an addi-
tion to the California aeroplane traffic regula-
tions, described later. While this bill is probably
intended as more or less of a joke, it has been
thoroughly demonstrated that it is possible to
shoot wild ducks from an aeroplane. Hubert
Latham proved this fact in his Antoinette mono-
plane at Los Angeles.
Latham flew from Dominguez Field to the
Bolsa Chica Gun Club on the shore of the Pacific,
ten miles away, and chased wild ducks for thirty
minutes, finally bagging one. The sportsmen of
California thought they saw in this feat of La-
168
AEROPLANE SURPRISES 169
tham's the near approach of a time when the aero-
plane would be utilised for exterminating game,
and seemed much exercised over the incident.
The newspapers saw only the humour of the inci-
dent, however, and the sportsmen were quickly re-
assured.
Latham, not content with this achievement and
thirsting for new thrills, said that he was going
to fly up into the Rocky Mountains and shoot griz-
zly bears. His last undertaking was to take his
aeroplane with him to the Congo where he went
to hunt big game and to use the aeroplane in this
novel and sensational sport. Strange to relate,
after having braved all the dangers of the air, he
met his fate by being gored to death by a
wounded and infuriated wild buffalo, in July,
1912.
Some ranchers out west have clubbed together
to purchase an aeroplane for hunting wolves
which have been killing their cattle, and four avi-
ators flew over San Fernando Valley in California
recently, eagerly watching the underbrush for a
sight of two fugitive bandits who for two days
had eluded a large sheriff 's posse after attempt-
ing to hold up a railway agent and mortally
wounding a deputy at San Fernando. Each avi-
ator was sworn in as a deputy and carried with
him an observer provided with a powerful field
glass. They reported that they could see objects
very clearly below.
170 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
In scouring the hills one of the observers
thought that he had surely spotted his man and
the plane was dipped abruptly toward the ground.
On returning he said, "It was a dog I saw and I'll
bet that dog is running yet. ' '
I have heard on the best of authority that an
aviator in this country chased a buzzard until it
fell exhausted and that in Europe this same game
was played by a German aviator upon a large
stork.
AEKIAL BIRD-NETTING
On my practice flights in a hydroaeroplane
over San Diego Bay, I noticed on several occa-
sions that pelicans and sea gulls and even wild
ducks got in my path, and I was sometimes
obliged to change my course in order to avoid the
slow-flying fowl. It occurred to me that with a
net affixed to the forward part of the planes it
would have been an easy matter to run down and
bag a pelican, and possibly a sea gull. The ducks
are too quick to be caught by an aeroplane, as yet.
Chasing ducks in an aeroplane and catching them
in a net would be about as thrilling a sport as
one can imagine. Perhaps when the killing of
wild fowl with guns shall have palled on sports-
men, we shall see the method of "netting" them
with an aeroplane come into use. Something af-
ter the manner of scientists who hunt the lepi-
doptera.
AEEOPLANE SUBPRISES 171
Mrs. Lillian Janeway Platt Atwater, of New
York, while taking instructions in the operation
of the hydroaeroplane at North Island, early in
1912, tried my new method of catching seabirds.
She asked Lieut. J. W. McClaskey, instructor at
the Curtiss school, to take out the hydroaeroplane,
with her as a passenger, and attempt to catch a
pelican or gull with a net. The instructor
promptly agreed and for almost half an hour the
big hydroaeroplane with Lieut. McClaskey and
Mrs. Atwater chased pelicans and sea gulls up
and down the bay. They discontinued the hunt
only when a large pelican barely escaped becom-
ing entangled in the propeller, which would have
smashed it and possibly caused an accident. On
another occasion Mrs. Atwater did actually suc-
ceed in catching a gull while flying with her hus-
band.
Shooting rabbits from an aeroplane would be
comparatively easy. I came to this conclusion
while flying over North Island, which is covered
with weeds and sagebrush for the most part, with
hundreds of jack-rabbits and cottontails living
there. At first these rabbits were terribly fright-
ened by the aeroplane and ran in all directions to
escape. They soon became used to the sight,
however, and would watch the aeroplane with a
great deal of curiosity. One of the big jack-rab-
bits, either from fright or curiosity, waited too
long to get out of the way of Harry Harkness in
172 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
his Antoinette, when he made a rather abrupt de-
scent, and it was cut in two by the propeller.
MAIL-CABRYING
One of the most important special uses to which
the aeroplane is particularly adapted is for car-
rying the mail. Eoyal mail was first actually
handled at Allahabad in India last summer, dur-
ing which over 6,000 letters were transferred.
This service was planned to prove the great value
of an aeroplane post during war time to a be-
sieged town. A mail route via aeroplane was es-
tablished on trial between London and Windsor
in England, which carried several tons of mail
matter. And in this country last fall Postmaster-
General Frank H. Hitchcock and Captain Paul
Beck, U. S. A., inaugurated the first aerial postal
service regularly established in the United States,
over a route between the Aero Club of America's
flying grounds at Nassau Boulevard on Long Is-
land, and Mineola, L. I. A picturesque account
of this little episode is given by Frank O'Malley,
who wrote :
"The flying events of the day at the Nassau
Boulevard aviation meet came to an end in a hub-
bub of joyousness among 1,500 spectators on the
grounds.
"Lieutenant Milling had busted the American
record and was still flying for the world's record
when a tall, youngish man decked out in a blue
AEEOPLANE SURPBISES 173
serge suit, and a gray cap, climbed into the Cur-
tiss machine driven by Captain Paul Beck of the
army.
" 'The Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock, Postmaster-
Gen 'rul of the whole United States/ the mega-
phone man began to holler, 'will now fly to Mine-
ola with Captain Beck to deliver the mail.
Postmaster-Gen 'rul Hitchcock of the United
States will carry the mail-bag on his knees and
drop the bag at Mineola into a circle in which will
be the Postmaster-Gen 'nil of I mean the Post-
master of Mineola. Ladies and gentlemen, Post-
master-Gen 'nil Hitchcock.' (Much applause.)
"Mr. Hitchcock wasn't around to hear all this
and so didn't lift his gray cap in acknowledgment.
He was far out on the field with Attorney-General
Wickersham and Captain Beck. Post Office In-
spector Doyle handed the Postmaster-General a
mail bag containing one thousand, four hundred
and forty postcards and one hundred and sixty-
two letters, and Captain Beck and the Postmas-
ter-General hiked off in a northerly direction for
the high spots,
"The Curtiss circled three-quarters of the
field and then climbed rapidly until it was three
hundred or four hundred feet above the south end
of the track. Ovington, who had also got under
way with a second bag of mail in his monoplane,
shot up into the same acre of sky occupied by
Captain Beck and Mr. Hitchcock and shot east-
174 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
ward as a track finder for Captain Beck's ma-
chine.
"The field could see the two machines almost
all the time during the cross-country flight. The
way the biplane with a passenger pegged along
just behind the monoplane with only a pilot
aboard was a caution. Over a big white circle
painted on the Mineola real estate, Ovington from
his monoplane and the Postmaster-General from
Captain Beck's machine, plumped down to Mine-
ola the two pouches and hit within the circle in
each case.
"The biplane teetered slightly as the mail bag
was released and then the two machines made a
circle and spun back to where the crowd stood
on tiptoe peering over fences at Nassau Boule-
vard.
" 'I was up once before,' the Postmaster-Gen-
eral said after he had shaken hands all around
upon his return to earth. ' That was at Baltimore
with Count de Lesseps in his Bleriot. The bi-
plane to-day I found was much steadier.
" 'Fly again? I hope so, because I like the ex-
perience very much. My trip to-day was espe-
cially enjoyable because at Baltimore I could see
very little of the ground below, owing to the
closed-in construction of a monoplane. To-day
from the biplane all this end of Long Island was
stretched out to be looked at.
" 'Yes, air-routes are all right for practical
AEROPLANE SUEPEISES 175
mail-carrying/ Mr. Hitchcock continued, in an-
swer to a question. 'I mean/ he smiled, 'the air
is all right, but the vehicles must continue toward
perfection. But even with the aeroplane as it is
now it would be very useful to us, particularly in
some parts of the country.
PKACTICAL VALUE TO-DAY FOR MAIL-CARRYING
" 'Take along the Colorado Eiver in the canon
district of Yuma, for instance, or in parts of
Alaska. Along the Colorado there are places
where detours of fifty miles out of the way are
made in mail routes to get to a bridge. An aero-
plane could hop right across the river.
" 'The expensiveness of maintaining an aero-
plane service is an obstacle, but that will dimin-
ish. I would like to see the Post Office Depart-
ment do something definite in this direction for
the good effect it would have in stimulating the
development of the machine. Fliers at present
have many lean months between the meets.' "
Ever since Postmaster-General Hitchcock made
this trip he has been an enthusiastic advocate of
the aeroplane as a means of transporting mail
over difficult routes. During the next few months
he granted permission to a number of aviators,
including Ovington, Milling, Arnold, Eobinson,
Lincoln Beachey, Charles F. Walsh, Beckwith
Havens, Charles C. Witmer, and Eugene Godet,
all of whom fly Curtis s machines, to act as special
176 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
mail carriers, and these men have carried mail
bags in similar exhibiting tests from aviation
fields to points near the Post Office. Among the
cities where such tests have been officially made
are Eochester, N. Y. ; Dubuque, Iowa ; Fort Smith,
Ark.; Temple and Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Sa-
vannah, Columbia, and Eome, Ga.; and Spartan-
burg and Salisbury, N. C.
The record for long-distance mail carrying is
held by Hugh Eobinson, who took a bag of mail
at Minneapolis, Minn., and carried it on his long
flight down the Mississippi Eiver in a hydroaero-
plane as far as Eock Island, 111. The distance
covered by Eobinson was 375 miles on this trip,
and letters and first class mail matter were put off
and taken on at Winona, Minn. ; Prairie du Chien,
Wis. ; Dubuque and Clinton, Iowa; and Eock Is-
land, 111.
Of course the aeroplane is, at present, best
suited for carrying mail in localities where the
weather is equable; in such places it offers a
speedy, direct, and dependable service. These
numerous experiments in mail-carrying by aero-
plane have brought about the urging of an appro-
priation by Congress for this purpose. The
second Assistant Postmaster-General, who is in
charge of mail transportation, in a report that has
just been made public at the time I am writing
this, asks for $50,000 for the transportation of
mails by aeroplane. Part of this fund may be
AEEOPLANE SUEPEISES 177
devoted to mail routes in the Alaskan interior.
One government has actively entered on prac-
tical mail-carrying by aeroplane. Belgium has
voted a fund to establish routes across seven hun-
dred miles of impenetrable Congo jungle.
WIKELESS
The aeroplane is ideal for use with wireless
telegraphy and the combination of the aeroplane's
ability to obtain information and the ability to
transmit it by wireless will be one of its most im-
portant future developments in practical useful-
ness.
Wireless experiments do not involve any great
problem, as messages have been successfully
transmitted from an aeroplane to land stations
many times. The receiving of a wireless message
by an operator in an aeroplane from a land sta-
tion or from a warship involves considerable dif-
ficulty because of the noise and vibration of the
motor, but it is expected, however, that this will
be soon entirely overcome and that it will be pos-
sible to transmit or receive telegrams in an aero-
plane to or from distant points with the same
ease and accuracy that it is now seen on the
ground or on the water.
The telegraph seems to be the companion of the
locomotive, the telephone of the automobile, and
now wireless has its side-partner in the aero-
plane !
178 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Important experiments are being carried on by
the signal corps of every army with various
methods of communication with an aeroplane in
flight and by the aviator with those on the ground.
They have tried an instrument for making smoke
signals, with large and small puffs, reviving a
method used by the American Indians in the pio-
neer days and quite familiar to all boys who have
played Indian in the country.
FORESTRY SURVEY
The supervisor of the Selway forest, consist-
ing of 1,600,000 acres, which was formerly part
of the Nez Perces reserve in Idaho, predicts that
aeroplanes and wireless telegraphy will be impor-
tant factors in forest fire prevention before a far
distant date. He believes that a man in an aero-
plane could do more accurate and extensive survey
work in the forests of the Pacific slope country in
a few hours when forest fires are raging than is
usually accomplished by twenty rangers in a
week. With wireless stations installed on peaks
in the chief danger zones, he believed it would be
a comparatively easy task to assemble men and
apparatus to check and extinguish the flames and
prevent fires from spreading.
MOVING PICTURES
Aeroplanes have already been used for pur-
poses of photography and moving picture ma-
AEROPLANE SURPRISES 179
chines have also been attached to them and some
remarkable pictures taken. One of the large
moving picture magnates said, "Now, Mr. Cur-
tiss, if you can take a series of moving pictures
showing a trip across the United States, I do not
care if it takes you a year to get it and even
though it is taken piecemeal, or one section at a
time over the main cities on the way, I will pay
you well for it. We will take the film, trim it
down, and run it through at lightning speed tak-
ing our audience from New York to San Fran-
cisco 'as the bird flies' in twenty minutes."
The value of moving pictures taken from above
and from a swift low-flying machine is appar-
ent at a glance. The contour of the country is
shown as in no other way, and now that warfare is
going to have a quite different point of view, even
a different range of action, it is important that
schools, and especially military schools, should
be made familiar with this aspect of the land.
The flat map is superseded by such a panoramic
view. In time of actual war, moving pictures
taken in this way will have a unique value.
In photographing reviews of troops, public cel-
ebrations, lines of battleships, or any scenes that
require a panoramic representation, the aeroplane
has been used with success. It can also be of
great service in photographing animals and rare
birds which may inhabit regions otherwise inac-
cessible. With the advance of nature study and
180 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
the steady development of " camera hunting,"
the aeroplane will be used more and more for
such purposes as well as for photographing moun-
tain tops and other insurmountable or dangerous
places to reach.
Eobert G. Fowler has had some surprisingly
good motion pictures taken from his machine dur-
ing his cross-continent flight, by an operator sit-
ting beside him, his camera placed on a temporary
stand.
Mr. Frank W. Coffyn took a most interesting
series of moving pictures of New York City from
the water front, portraying the Battery, the
Brooklyn Bridge, and the famous Statue of Lib-
erty in the harbour. Mr. CofTyn used a hydro-
aeroplane for this purpose, which made his
flights comparatively safe. In fact, such a feat
would have been well nigh impossible for a ma-
chine that could not land on the water, for there
are no places where an aeroplane can land in the
business section of New York unless the aviator
should land on one of the large buildings, and
then he would have great difficulty in getting
away again. 1
Great care has to be exercised to keep the ma-
chine on an even keel, so that the operator can
manage the roll of film.
i The first start from a roof-top was made on June 12, 1912,
when Silas Christoferson in a Curtiss biplane rose from a plat-
form built on the roof of the Hotel Multuomah, Portland, Ore.,
and flew safely away. AUGUSTUS POST.
AEROPLANE SURPRISES 181
LIFE-SAVING
Another branch of the government service that
will no doubt be greatly aided by aeroplanes are
the Life Saving Stations along the coast, whose
regular equipment might well include an aero-
plane to fly to wrecks and carry a line from shore
to ship when the high seas make it impossible to
launch a lifeboat. It might be impracticable to
go out during the period of severe storm, but there
is always a calm in the air after a storm, as well
as the proverbial calm before one, while the high
seas in which a lifeboat cannot live are still run-
ning. The aeroplane or the hydroaeroplane,
dashing through the air, even through high wind,
would bring the line that means life to helpless
men clinging to a wreck.
I am awaiting with earnest expectation the first
time that an aeroplane actually saves a life ; when
that takes place, it will have conquered the heart
of the people as well as fascinated its intellect,
aroused its awe, or compelled its admiration.
The first period of enthusiastic acceptance of the
new machine has been succeeded in the mind of
the general non-flying public by an admiration not
at all like affection.
Realising how many lives have been given to
its development, feeling that the aviator takes, as
they call it, "his life in his hands, " the crowd at
a flying-meet feels with all its great and growing
182 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
interest, an attraction in which figures not a little
fear and distrust. The first time that an aero-
plane saves a life as it can and will do many
times it will have begun to conquer this public
distrust. That is why the exploit of the hydro-
aeroplane already described, in coming first to the
aid of the aviator in the water, had a value far
greater than its apparent importance. 1
i A very important service was rendered only a short time ago
by the hydroaeroplane which might easily have served to save a
human life if the accident had been more serious than it actually
was. Mr. Hugh Robinson the instructor of the Curtiss hydro-
aeroplane school was having Sunday dinner at the hotel in Ham-
mondsport, where Dr. P. L. Alden, one of the well-known physicians
of that place, was also eating dinner, when the doctor received a
telephone message that Mr. Edwin Petrie's little son had. fallen
from the steps of the Urbana Wine Company at Urbana, five miles
down the lake, and had a compound fracture of his thigh with a
serious hemorrhage. It was a very serious injury and the little
fellow was in intense pain, and Mr. Petrie asked the doctor to
come as quickly as he possibly could.
Dr. Alden realised the urgency of the situation and knew that
delay might mean serious results from hemorrhage, so he went
immediately over to Mr. Robinson and asked if he would take him
across the lake in the hydroaeroplane right away. Mr. Robinson
said, "I will be ready in five minutes; just as soon as you can
get over to the field."
Dr. Alden got his bandages and instruments and hurried down
to the shed where Mr. Robinson had already gotten out the hydro ;
he jumped in and they were off without a moment's delay. They
covered the five miles in five minutes, at times running on the
surface of the lake because the wind was blowing so strong; as
they ran up on the beach the doctor jumped out and hastened to
his patient.
The boy was so much interested in the fact that he was the first
AEROPLANE SURPRISES 183
EXPLORING AND ESCAPE FROM DANGER
The aeroplane will find one of its important
uses not only in taking pictures of inaccessible
spots, but also in crossing otherwise impassable
places, especially in times of pressing need when
fire, earthquake, volcanic eruptions that leave
beds of molten lava, explosions, pestilences,
floods, or other devastations occur, and quick as-
sistance is necessary.
In engineering and mining matters, the aero-
plane may be of assistance in exploring the best
places to locate the route for railroads through
mountain passes and into such places as " Death
Valley " where the salt deposits are located.
TRAVEL
An important field in the sporting world of avi-
ation of course will be carrying passengers and
initiating novices into the mysteries of the air
lanes and into the pleasures of aerial touring.
In this delightful method of travel the pano-
rama below is equal to any of the magnificent
patient to be treated by a hydroaeroplane doctor, and so fas-
cinated at hearing Dr. Alden tell about the trip, that he forgot for
the moment the seriousness of his condition and allowed the doc-
tor to reduce the fracture without an anesthetic. When all that
could be done just then had been done, Dr. Alden and Mr. Robin-
son returned in the hydroaeroplane as rapidly as they had
come on their errand of humanity, and at last accounts young Mr.
Petrie was getting well as fast as he could so he could have a ride
in the hydroaeroplane himself! AUGUSTUS POST.
184 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
landscapes which may be seen from high moun-
tains and besides, the view is attended by most
delicious thrills and sensations, and when a good
pilot is in control of the machine the passenger is
sure of a pastime absolutely unequalled for mere
joy, aside from further use or benefit it may have.
While travelling over torrid places like deserts
and arid wastes, as well as burning prairies, the
aviator can fly high where the air is cool and
clear and escape the great humidity and the
deadly alkali dust.
As for mountain climbing, it will have lost its
peculiar fascination when the aeroplane will be
to mountains what the elevator is to high build-
ings. The landscape has a greater, far greater
beauty; for an aviator can see a great distance
over a level plane. At the height of one mile you
can, theoretically, see ninety-six miles in every
direction and as you ascend the distance to the
horizon becomes greater. In hilly country, one
hill hides another when you look from the ground,
but when you are high up in the sky, like the eagle,
the mountains all seem to lose their height and
appear flat and naturally your view is unob-
structed.
At great altitudes the sky becomes very deep
blue and if you kept going up you would reach a
point finally where the sky became black and the
sun appeared like a ball of fire all by itself as a
candle flame does in the dark.
AEROPLANE SURPRISES 185
FOR HEALTH
In these regions there is no dust in the air to
diffuse the light and the air is dry and conse-
quently excellent for persons with lung trouble.
There is even a possibility that physicians will-
advise patients suffering from tuberculosis to as-
cend to these high altitudes, and it is a fact that
Hubert Latham was threatened with this disease,
yet enjoyed good health after taking up aviation,
only to be killed by a wild buffalo, as related.
Perhaps this is one of those cases I was looking
for where the aeroplane has saved a life.
METEOROLOGY
An aeroplane will bring quick reports of
changes in the weather. Rapid investigations of
conditions which exist in the strata of air at vary-
ing altitudes above the surface of the earth, made
by the use of flying machines, may lend us mate-
rial aid in understanding those conditions which
are closer to earth.
The study of the weather and meteorological
conditions becomes of greater and greater im-
portance as the progress in the science of avia-
tion advances. The currents of air that are reg-
ular in their direction of movement, like the trade
winds, must be mapped and charted, for with the
aid of a strong wind an aviator can make mar-
vellous speed, as the speed of the wind is added
186 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
to the speed of his machine and with an aeroplane
capable of making one hundred miles an hour a
favourable wind of fifty miles an hour would in-
crease the total speed by one half. For the wind
is now no longer an obstacle to flight, and as I
have already noted at the beginning of this chap-
ter, this is one of the most noticeable advance-
ments in aviation, one that can readily be seen,
understood, and appreciated even by the uniniti-
ated.
THE TENDENCY TOWARD HYDROS
There is always more or less danger in flying
over land, and the rougher its surface the more
difficult and dangerous the matter of landing.
The safest place and the most uniform surface is
to be found over the water, and there is much less
danger to the aviator flying there than over the
land. The strength of the wind can be easily
judged by the height of the waves, and squalls
and puffs can be seen coming so that if they seem
to be very bad you can come down on the surface
of the water or skim along very near it with the
greatest safety, if you are in a hydroaeroplane.
Eivers will no doubt become the favourite high-
ways of travel for the airman, as they were once
the only great avenues for the march of civil-
isation when the canoe or the rude boat was the
only vehicle of transportation. This brings us
naturally to another consideration of the air-land-
water machine.
CHAPTER HI
THE FUTURE OF THE HYDRO
THE most interesting type of flying machine
for sport and pleasure is the hydroaero-
plane, and this is undoubtedly the machine with
the greatest possibilities for the future. Indeed,
it opens up an entirely new region of activity, as
boundless as the ocean itself, and as various as
the different bodies of water. Built along the
lines of a motor boat with the addition of aero-
plane surfaces or horizontal sails, this craft will
be used for much the same purposes as motor
boats are now, but in ways immeasurably more
varied and more effective.
The boat portion will be made large and com-
fortable for pleasure trips and will be a veritable
sportsman's machine which can be run up to a
dock where it can make an easy landing and be
tied up when not anchored out from shore. There
will be a comfortable cabin, with cushioned seats
for the navigators, and celluloid windows will be
placed in the planes, so that the view below will
not be obstructed. It will be handled in heavy
seas without difficulty.
With such an air and water craft you can go off
187
188 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
hunting or fishing; you can shoot ducks and you
will not have to wait until Mr. Duck comes by but
you will be able to reverse the present custom and
chase him in his native element and overtake him,
too, as you would a fox on horseback. By rising
to a good height you can see schools of fish or
good places on the bottom to cast your lines for
fishing.
Inland lakes will be just the place for the water
machine and even among the mountains the
surface of lakes will offer ideal places for landing
and starting, even where the shores are quite out
of the question for safe flying ground.
The construction of the hydroaeroplane, while
keeping on the same general lines of development,
will adapt itself to the exigencies arising from its
extended uses. The propeller or propellers will
be protected from the flying spray which might
break them for small drops of water are like
bullets out of a gun when hit by the rapidly re-
volving blades of the propeller which travel so
fast that water might just as well be solid matter
as far as getting out of the way is concerned.
Spray will chip pieces right out of a wooden pro-
peller. Propeller blades are now covered with tin
on the tips for use on the water, and even metal
blades may be better in some respects for this pur-
pose. The control and rudders are placed on the
rear of the long light boat, which extends further
to the rear to accommodate them.
THE FUTUEE OF THE HYDRO 189
The radius of action in the hydroaeroplane is
now from four hundred to five hundred miles, for
the machine can carry a barrel of gasoline, or
fifty-two gallons, and as the engine uses about
seven gallons an hour this would mean about
seven hours running at from fifty to sixty miles
an hour in still air; if the wind were blowing
twenty-five miles an hour in the direction in which
the machine was flying it would add two hundred
and fifty miles to the distance covered in ten
hours.
These machines can be equipped with more
surface and they can be specially built to carry as
much as two barrels of fuel, which would enable
them to fly nearly twelve hundred miles if the wind
were steady. They can also fly in very high winds
up to almost one hundred miles an hour, which is
the speed at which some of the higher air currents
flow, as proved by the flight of balloons. This
would of course tremendously increase the dis-
tance covered. All this is possible to-day and it
seems that the aeroplane has already done every
thing possible to be done on land. Bleriot
crossed the English channel, Chavez crossed the
Alps, and Eodgers crossed the American conti-
nent, passing over the Rocky Mountains, and mak-
ing over four thousand miles in the air.
The only thing now left is to cross the ocean.
An attempt has been made to cross the Atlantic
in a dirigible balloon. You all remember how
190 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
Walter Wellman flew out over the ocean from At-
lantic City in one of the largest dirigible balloons
ever constructed here, the "America," remained
three days in the air, and covered over twelve hun-
dred miles, even though his motors were running
only a part of the time.
He was fortunate enough to be rescued and
brought back to land by the steamer Trent. And
nothing daunted, his chief engineer Melville Vani-
man constructed another large dirigible the
"Akron," on which he met such an untimely end.
Another entrant in the world race to cross the
ocean is Dr. Gans who, with the backing of the
German government, plans to start in his dirigi-
ble balloon the "Suchard" from the Island of
TenerifFe, one of the Azores, to attempt the cross-
ing of the Southern Atlantic. He will endeavour
to be the "Columbus of the air" and be wafted
above the waves by the selfsame winds which al-
ways blow in that part of the ocean to the West
Indies, just as the first man to accomplish this
passage was driven over the surface of the sea
with his small ships. Such great enterprises bid
fair to embolden aviators in their aeroplanes to
try to win the laurels due the first to be success-
ful.
Many aeronauts and aviators seem to be fo-
cussing their minds at the present moment on this
great problem. It seems always a condition nec-
essary to precede the accomplishment of any great
THE FUTURE OF THE HYDRO 191
thing that popular thought should be centred
upon it; then some one rises to the occasion and
the thing is done. There is no doubt that such a
flight is possible to-day, just as the flight across
the United States was possible in even the early
stages of aviation. For the machine and motor
which actually accomplished this trip were almost
the same as the very first models ; but it took the
man to do it.
It will no doubt necessitate a double machine,
and will need two pilots, one to relieve the other,
and possibly several engines to ensure against
stopping of the motor. Mr. Grahame-White has
predicted that within twenty years we will be fly-
ing across the Atlantic in fifteen hours upon reg-
ular schedule between London and New York.
Mr. Grahame-White once even went so far as to
say that the ocean in a few years would only be
used "to bathe in" but I think he might have
added "and to fish in," and left us that consola-
tion !
Perhaps, backed by government aid, and with
the co-operation of their naval vessels, a chain of
ships could be stretched across the ocean, which
would make it possible even now to fly with safety
over the distance between Nova Scotia and Ire-
land, about two thousand miles. Already, Mr.
Atwood who flew from St. Louis to New York, and
Mr. James V. Martin, have seriously planned
such a trip. Mr. Martin has submitted his plans
192 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
to the Eoyal Aero Club of England. He pro-
poses to keep in the track of steamers and to en-
deavour to secure the most favourable wind con-
ditions possible. His machine is designed to
have large floats and five powerful engines.
Storms pass across the ocean with great
rapidity and a fifty-mile-an-hour wind would so
increase the speed of an aeroplane as materially
to help it on its journey.
The accomplishment of this great flight over
the ocean will no doubt mean great things for the
progress of the world but it also will require fur-
ther development along the lines of a flying boat,
where a substantial vessel will be provided, able
to stand rough sea and yet able to rise and skim
the surface of the water.
Following up the success of my new hydroaero-
plane, I have taken great interest in the idea of a
flight across the Atlantic Ocean by aeroplane. I
consider the flight possible, and I am willing to
undertake the construction of a machine for the
purpose, provided any of the aviators now con-
sidering flight wish me to do so. I am not pre-
pared to give the details of such a machine as
would be required to make the flight, but I simply
express the opinion that the feat is possible and
that under certain conditions I will undertake to
furnish the equipment.
CHAPTEE IV
FUTURE PROBLEMS OF AVIATION
IN a consideration of the final structure of the
Coming Aeroplane, we pass into the realm of
pure prophecy, for the aerial liners and dread-
naughts of the future are still snug in the brains
of men like Eudyard Kipling or H. G. Wells. My
part in the consideration of what is coming is
here confined to the consideration of the imme-
diate, or at least the not far distant, future.
Biplanes will always be the standard machines
in my opinion, because you can get more support-
ing surface for the same weight.
Surfaces may be set one far out in front of the
other, as Farman has done, but with three surfaces
the third requires a full set of struts and wires
and just as much weight as for two ordinary sur-
faces, and adds only one half more surface, and
the head resistance is also increased once again.
Surfaces no doubt will be made larger and ma-
chines much bigger in every way will be built.
Telescoping wings may be a feature of the fu-
ture machines, so that a graduated area of wing
surface can be readily obtained and changed for
slow or high speed.
193
194 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
The limousine, or enclosed-cabin body, will be
a familiar sight in the future machines built for
passenger-carrying. These cabins will be pro-
vided with comfortable seats.
AUTOMATIC STABILITY
In regard to the question of automatic stability,
or some device to balance the machine automat-
ically, there seems to be no doubt that this prob-
lem will be solved ; in fact it is already solved both
for balancing laterally and keeping the machine
from tipping sideways and also to govern its fore
and aft pitching.
These devices may be of value in learning to
fly. But in the practical use of the aeroplane
you may see conditions arising which you wish
to counteract before they occur and for which
you wish to prepare. Automatic stabilisers will
no doubt prove very good auxiliary devices, and
some aeroplanes will have automatic stabilisers
on them before this is printed, but the aviator will
no doubt have to regulate the regulators in the fu-
ture as he operates the levers personally in the
present.
AVIATION LAWS TO COMB
The making of good laws is not to be overlooked
when considering the future development of the
aeroplane, for aviators must be protected from
themselves, and the public must be protected from
FUTURE PROBLEMS 195
the rashness or inexperience of airmen. Almost
all nations have already begun to exercise control
over their new territory, the air, and are realising
that it may become one of their most valued pos-
sessions and of an importance equal to their do-
main over water. For a nation without any sea-
coast may no longer be cut off from direct inter-
course with the world through the aerial craft
which can enter and leave at will, as vessels now
do on the sea, with no chance of a neighbouring
nation restricting this very freedom.
Laws are rapidly being passed by states regu-
lating and licensing aviators and requiring lights
to be carried, but it seems that the federal govern-
ment should be the power that should control
the air just as it does the sea and navigable riv-
ers. For fliers flit about so that the whole coun-
try seems but a mere playground for men of the
air.
Already the California legislature has made
several laws to protect the aeroplane and the avia-
tor, as well as to safeguard the larger public
that stays on the ground. Some of these laws
may seem a little premature, but everything about
aeroplanes goes so fast, that there is no wonder
the laws instead of lagging behind conditions as
they usually do, should speed up a little ahead
of them, for the progress of flight is such that by
the time the law gets on the statute books the con-
ditions may be calling for it. For instance, bills
196 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
have been introduced at Sacramento to regulate
the licensing of aeroplanes, which are to be classed
as " motor vehicles," and to carry numbers and
lights, the same as automobiles. The idea of pro-
viding for lights seems a little far-fetched at this
time, as it will be a long time before there will be
much flying at night. Besides, such lights as the
proposed law provides would be unnecessary, for
the reason that the aeroplane would not be con-
fined to an arbitrary path, but could choose its
own course. Therefore, a single light in front
and another behind would be all that would be re-
quired, instead of one pair in front, one behind
and one on each plane, as the bill suggests.
FUTURE COST OF THE AEROPLANE
The cost of the machine is high at the present
time because there are but few made. No doubt
when the great numbers of people who are now
deeply interested in the subject get to the point of
practical flight and desire to take flights, they
will want to own machines, and learn to operate
them. Then aeroplanes will be made in quantities
and the price will be reduced in accord with the
number that are built and some day we will be
able to buy a good aeroplane for about the price
we have to pay now for a small automobile.
Cortlandt Field Bishop is credited with having
said when some one asked him if the manufacture
of a cheap aeroplane, to cost $150, including the
FUTUEE PROBLEMS 197
motor, would not be a great business undertaking,
"Well, a great undertaking business should cer-
tainly come of it."
LANDING PLACES
The most serious problem of flying to-day is to
find a good course to fly over and suitable landing
places. The day will soon come when every city
and town will have public landing and starting
grounds. As a matter of fact the park commis-
sioners of New York City have already been dis-
cussing the setting apart of landing places or isles
of safety in the public parks of the city, although
some authorities declare that it would not be well
to encourage fliers to risk themselves and the peo-
ple below by flying over the houses. There should
be routes of travel established between cities over
which an aviator will have a right to fly, just as
there are highways on the surface of the earth.
GOVEKNMENT ENCOURAGEMENT
Perhaps the greatest factor which is needed
to further the development of the aeroplane to-
day is the thorough appreciation by the National
Government of the benefits which the aeroplane
may bring to its various departments besides the
military and postal service.
When railroads first became practical the gov-
ernment gave millions of dollars besides large
grants of land to enable them to extend and de-
198 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
velop to a successful state. Steamship building
was helped in the same way both by government
aid and by the building of warships and trans-
ports.
The French Government continues to lead the
world in its encouragement of aviation. During
the month of December, 1911, according to most
reliable statistics, the War Department ordered
no less than four hundred new aeroplanes, divided
between a dozen or more types, and asked the gov-
ernment to appropriate the sum of $4,400,000 for
aeronautics. Italy, next to France, is the most
active European government in aviation, the Ital-
ian War Department having ordered fifty French
machines of various types, as well as twelve aero-
planes of a new type produced in Austria. The
Turkish government has decided to establish
schools for the "fourth arm" immediately, while
Eussia will also increase its aviation programme.
The latest government to take up aviation is that
of Australia, where an aviation school is about to
open for the instruction of army officers. Ger-
many is not as active in aviation as the other
principal European governments, although it is
difficult to say exactly what is being done by the
Germans, as they purchase machines made in
their own country only.
A most interesting programme was arranged by
the British military authorities for the trial of
machines in competition in the summer of 1912, at
FUTURE PROBLEMS 199
Salisbury Plain, in order to determine the best
types of military aeroplane. The winning types
in this contest will receive large orders from the
British government to supply the Army and Navy
with aerial equipment.
FIRST AVIATION REGIMENT
(Newspaper Despatch)
PARIS, Jan. 25, 1912. The first aviation regiment, 327
strong, was organised here to-day.
A flag will be presented to the battalion later on.
Having already organised an aviation regi-
ment, French army officers are now agitating the
question upon the basis of having no less than a
thousand aeroplanes ready at a moment's notice
under the command of superior officers and under
perfect control of army pilots trained to handle
them. This training of officers is the most im-
portant part, for it takes time to make good fliers.
Machines may be turned out very rapidly, but
fliers become skilled to the point where they may
be of use in army work only by long practice and
practical experience. Our government has given
an appropriation, small in comparison with what
France, Germany and England appropriated, and
we have a few aeroplanes in the signal corps of
the Army now and three machines in the Navy,
but these are only the first steps in this important
branch of our military and naval development.
We all hope for at least adequate equipment, an
200 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
equipment that will equal, if not surpass, that of
the European powers.
After the development of the aeroplane for
sport and commercial purposes, its greatest field
of growth is for purposes of war and here we find
that the aeroplane can be at once the most deadly
weapon of offensive warfare as yet developed by
man, and an even more serviceable agent for de-
fensive measures, or for all those most important
duties related to scouting and obtaining and carry-
ing information.
WHAT THE AEROPLANE CAN DO IN WAR
I feel confident that an aeroplane can be even
now built which will be able to lift a ton of dyna-
mite or other high explosive, and that it can be so
constructed that it will be an aerial torpedo or
winged projectile, the engine charged with com-
pressed air and set to run any required distance,
from one mile to ten miles. Such a machine can
be steered by wireless controlling apparatus just
as submarine boats and small airships are di-
rected.
A hydroaeroplane can be made to fly at just a
certain height over the water by attaching it to a
drag or a float which would prevent its exceeding
the desired limit of altitude. The machine so
equipped might be started in a circle and flown
around in a circular course gradually widening
FUTUEE PEOBLEMS 201
and widening, like a bird dog hunting a scent, until
the object aimed at is hit.
One of the most important uses of an aeroplane
adapted to the uses of the Navy will be its valua-
ble assistance in enabling the manner of forma-
tion of the enemy's ships in line of battle to be
made known to the commanding officer and the
angle of approach to be estimated, in order that
our own ships may be so formed in line of battle
as to meet the brunt of the attack effectually.
An aeroplane launched from the deck of a bat-
tleship and ascending to the height of a mile will
give the observers on board a range of vision of
ninety-six miles in every direction and powerful
glasses will reveal many details that can be seen
more clearly from above than when observed from
the same level. Submarines can be located with
great ease when far below the surface of the wa-
ter. Even the bottom appears clearly in some
of the tropic seas, and fogs, which obscure all
things to the enveloped mariner bound to the sur-
face of the sea, usually hang comparatively low
down and even a moderate altitude will enable
an aerial observer or pilot to see clearly above the
banks of mist which shut down like a pall upon
the water.
The military aeroplane will be able to muffle its
motor and for night operations will be equipped
with search-lights and able to approach an enemy
202 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
unseen and unheard from a high altitude, a direc-
tion in which there are no pickets.
In the school machines of one of the Chicago
schools the motors have already been muffled to
permit the teacher more readily giving his in-
structions to his pupils. U. S. Army officers have
also experimented with mufflers on their motors.
Aeroplanes have been recently used by the Ital-
ian Army near Tripoli and bombs were dropped
which not only frightened the enemy but stam-
peded their horses and caused panic among the
soldiers. They were also of great service in di-
recting the fire of the guns from the ships which
were quite out of sight of their targets, a captive
balloon and an aeroplane signalling the effect of
the shots and the angles at which to train the guns.
The aviators took steel bomb-shells with them and
filled them while flying, holding the caps in their
teeth, and steering with their knees while per-
forming this operation. They did not dare to
carry the bombs loaded for fear of being blown
to pieces themselves in case of an accident when
landing.
In the fall of 1911, extensive tests were made
by the French military authorities which showed
how reliable aeroplanes can be. The aviators flew
at the command of officers and under the strictest
orders; the machines were required to land in
ploughed fields and to start away again with their
full complement of passengers and extra weight
FUTUEE PROBLEMS 203
of fuel. All the machines were required to carry
a weight of about five hundred pounds and to rise
to a certain height in a specified time with their
complete load. The machines were also dis-
mounted and assembled in the field and packed
and transported from one place to another, to
test the ease with which this could be done.
These military tests were won by Charles Wey-
mann, who was also the winner of the Gordon
Bennett International Aviation Cup for America
last year.
Mr. Weymann drove a special Nieuport ma-
chine, which was the most speedy type of aero-
plane built at that time, and was successful in
landing and starting from a ploughed field, which
many thought impossible for a very fast type of
machine. It took the greatest skill to land such
a speedy machine on rough ground, for he had to
glide down with absolute accuracy, to land with-
out a smash.
Among Army officers the keenest competition is
developed, and it is only by a spirit of rivalry
and a desire to excel that the best qualities in offi-
cers and men are brought out in times of peace.
Of course in time of war there is a need which
calls for the best there is in a man.
The needs of the Army and Navy aviators have
developed some special features in machines built
for their purposes. They want to be as far out in
front of the machine as possible so they can have
204 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
an unobstructed view, and so that if they should
be so unfortunate as to be pitched out, they will
be quite clear of everything. This is especially
true of naval machines built to fly over the water.
Military aeroplanes also should have a standard
method of control, so that any Army or Navy avi-
ator can operate any Army or Navy machine.
CHAPTEE V
THE AEROPLANE AS APPLIED TO THE ARMY
(By Captain Paul W. Beck, U. S. A.) 1
WHENEVEE science discovers anything
new or startling, such discovery is imme-
diately tested by practical men of commercial or
professional life to ascertain whether or not it
can be applied to their business or profession.
In civil life these tests are to determine whether
or not this new discovery can be applied to
cheapen production or benefit mankind in any
other way. In the Army two tests are always
applied: first, to determine whether or not the
discovery can be used to kill the other fellow and,
second, to determine whether or not it can be used
to prevent the other fellow from killing us.
These are the tests which have been applied to
the aeroplane by the military. Let us see how
these heavier-than-air machines have responded
to these tests.
Can aeroplanes be used to kill the other fellow?
iln July, 1912j Captain Beck was granted by the War De-
partment the title of "Military Aviator"; the first time that any
American has been given this title, which implies finished skill
in both aviation and military tactics, and for which all the army
aviators are to qualify. AUGUSTUS POST.
205
206 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
Our problem here is not ethical but practical; it
is not based on the determinations of the Hague
peace convention, but upon the actual capabilities
of the machine from a physical standpoint, con-
sidered apart from humanitarian principles. In
other words we do not discuss whether or not it
is ethically right to use aeroplanes aggressively,
but whether or not aeroplanes are mechanically
capable of such use. The Army does not disturb
itself with ethical questions until they become
rules of International Law, and then it only con-
siders them as being binding in their actual ob-
servance under the conditions imposed by such
law. Meanwhile the Army, by preparation in
time of peace, seeks to gain the fullest possible
measure of information along the lines of investi-
gation necessitated by the mechanical side of the
question.
Considered from this standpoint, the question
is repeated: can aeroplanes be used to kill the
other fellow? Well, where may we expect to meet
this other fellow? He will be armed, of course.
He will be on the ground, on the water, or in the
air. Wherever he may be we must get close
enough to see him, while we must remain far
enough away to keep him from having a decidedly
better chance of hitting us than we have of hit-
ting him. If he is on the ground or on the water
we must fly over him. If he is in the air we must
manoeuvre our air craft so as to gain an advan-
AEMY AVIATION 207
tageous position over him ; one where we can shoot
our machine guns or rifles while he is unable to
use his similar weapons against us. That is
where skill as an aviator and superiority of speed,
climbing powers, and control of the machine will
play a prominent part in deciding the supremacy
of the air.
From the standpoint of the location of the en-
emy the problem can be reduced to two cases : one,
when the enemy is on the ground or on the water,
and the other when he is in the air. Against him
in the first case we must use projectiles dropped
from on high. These may be shrapnel, explosive
shells or simply large, thinly encased masses of
high explosive, depending on whether we are at-
tacking individuals or animals in groups ; gun em-
placements, bridges, etc., or important strategical
or tactical points such as arsenals, barracks, or
parts of a defensive line.
Against the enemy in the skies we must use
some small machine gun or rifle, in an endeavour
to brush him aside and allow our own informa-
tion-gathering aeroplanes to perform their func-
tions unmolested.
But we are not progressing. Can aeroplanes
be used to kill the other fellow? Well, assuming
him to be located as we have assumed him to be,
there are several other questions which must be
answered before we can clinch the main issue.
Can a man act as aviator and at the same time
208 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
manipulate the mechanism that may be found
necessary to the killing of the other fellow? If
not, can an aeroplane be built that will carry at
least two men, one as aviator and the other as
manipulator of the death-dealing apparatus, and,
at the same time, carry enough extra weight, i. e.,
fuel, to keep aloft long enough to accomplish the
necessary flight and also carry the projectiles and
dropping device? Yes. The two passengers
may be estimated to weigh three hundred pounds.
The dropping device may be estimated to weigh
not to exceed fifty pounds. At least three known
types of aeroplane carry six hundred and fifty
pounds of weight for a continuous flight of two
hundred miles in length. That leaves two hun-
dred and fifty pounds that can be devoted to the
carrying of projectiles.
So far the coast seems clear, but a small storm
appears in the offing; can this two hundred and
fifty pounds, or any considerable part of it, be
dropped from a moving aeroplane without dis-
turbing its equilibrium to such an extent as to
render the machine unmanageable? Any weight
can be dropped from the centre of lift without
disturbing the equilibrium. Thirty-eight pounds
have been dropped from one machine from a point
three feet in front of the centre of lift without dis-
turbing the equilibrium.
Admitting that the necessary weight can be
carried and can be dropped, we next encounter
AEMY AVIATION 209
the highly important question, what can we hit
from a height of, say, three thousand five hundred
feet? At this point the problem becomes one
of pure fire control, and is directly analogous to
target practice in our sea-coast defences. Since
the aeroplane is moving forward at a definite rate
of speed at the instant of dropping the projectile,
it follows that there is an initial velocity given to
the projectile. This velocity is dependent upon
the forward speed of the machine and varies with
it. Gravity exerts an influence on the drop of the
projectile, which influence increases the speed of
drop as the altitude from which the shell is
dropped increases. The direction and force of
the wind currents through which the projectile
must fall are variable and they all exert influences
tending to cause the projectile to swerve from its
original course to a degree dependent upon their
strength and the thickness of each stratum of air.
The size of the target and, if it be animals or men,
the direction and rate of movement of the target,
are all factors to a successful hit.
Practice has shown us that the principal factors
are the forward speed of the machine and the alti-
tude. The variations due to wind currents
through which. the projectile must pass in falling
are negligible. The only targets to be chosen will
be sufficiently large and immobile to warrant an
assumption that they can be hit. Aerial target
practice will never degenerate to the sniping of in-
210 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
dividuals. It will be directed against ships, small
boats, armies, cavalry, quartermaster and field ar-
tillery trains and similar large bodies of men or
animals, or against the strategical and tactical
points alluded to above.
The problem then simmers itself down to a more
or less accurate solution of a method for deter-
mining the forward speed of the machine and its
altitude, which, with a suitable set of tables and
suitable mechanical devices for releasing the pro-
jectile at the proper instant, will produce a rea-
sonably good target practice.
For some time the solution of the forward speed
of an aeroplane seemed impracticable. It has
now been solved by the simple use of a telescope,
mounted on a gimbal so as to maintain its hori-
zontal position and movable vertically along a
graduated arc. By setting the telescope to read
an angle of forty-five degrees and snapping a
stop watch on an object which lies in the line of
sight of the telescope produced, and then swing-
ing the telescope so as to point vertically down-
ward, we can, by snapping the stop watch a sec-
ond time as the sighting point again comes into
the field of vision, ascertain the exact time it has
taken the machine to cover the distance measured
by forty-five degrees of arc. Our altitude is
known by reading a barometer. We then have
two known angles of a right triangle and one
known side, viz., the altitude. By a set of tables,
AEMY AVIATION 211
already made out, we can determine our forward
speed.
Now, all of this is done as a preliminary to
actually dropping the projectile. After we have
the forward speed and the altitude we simply con-
sult another set of previously prepared tables and
read from those tables an angle. This angle shows
the proper point of drop to hit another point on
the ground somewhere in advance of the aero-
plane. After picking the angle out of the table
we set our telescope to read the known angle and,
when the line of sight, produced, is on the object-
ive, we release or "trip" the projectile. This has
actually been done. Now I ask you the question,
can an aeroplane be used to kill the other fellow?
Can an aeroplane be used to prevent the other
fellow from killing us? Of course it is much su-
perior to Santa Ana's mule for purposes of rapid
departure from the scene of hostilities, but that
is hardly the test we apply. It is, on the other
hand, inferior as a shield to the ordinary breast-
works constructed by armies in the field, but,
again, that is not precisely the test to be applied.
The most effective way in which we can keep
the other fellow from killing us is to find out where
he is, what he is doing and how he proposes to
accomplish his to us reprehensible, to him laud-
able object. Accordingly we apply the informa-
tion test to the aeroplane. Can we use it to gather
212 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
information of the enemy, his lines of communi-
cation, his lines of defences, his probable lines of
advance or retreat, his rail and water communi-
cations, his artillery positions and gun emplace-
ments, and a host of other things, all of which
tend to produce success or failure in battle? In
other words, can we use the aeroplane to prevent
the enemy from killing us?
In order to make use of information there are
two distinct steps which must be taken: First, it
must be gathered; second, it must be communi-
cated to the proper officers for transmission to
the Commanding General in the field. No infor-
mation is of value until it is communicated to an
officer competent to act upon it.
This problem of information is then divided into
two parts : the getting, and the transmitting. In
getting information we must at once settle just
how far the aeroplane will be available. There
is a certain class of information, i. e., that concern-
ing the road beds over which an army must move,
the fords it must cross, the bridges it must travel
over, the hills and valleys that might afford shel-
ter for an offensive force or may be used de-
fensively, the location, extent, thickness and
amount of underbrush in woods, and much other,
intimate, local knowledge that is of great and in-
dispensable value to a commanding officer in the
field. Such information can be gathered only
from the ground. An aeroplane could be of use
AEMY AVIATION 213
in such gathering only as a means for transport-
ing the topographical sketchers quickly from point
to point, allowing them sufficient time to do their
work before again taking the air. Also an aero-
plane would be of but little use in locating small
bodies of the enemy.
Where the aeroplane would begin to be of use,
however, is in the locating of the main body of the
enemy, his defences, his artillery positions, in de-
termining the outline of his position, the natural
or artificial boundaries which cover and protect
his flanks, his main arteries of supply, the strong
and weak points of his line of defence, etc.
To accomplish these results the aeroplane must
fly at a sufficient elevation to render difficult the
hitting of a vital part of the machine or the avia-
tor by hostile rifle or artillery fire. While the
modern rifle in use in our army will fire a ball
about three thousand five hundred yards straight
in the air, it is generally accepted among aviators
that an aeroplane would be practically safe, save
from a chance shot, at three thousand five hundred
feet. Of course there is a large chance that if
enough rifles are directed at an aeroplane for a
long enough time the machine or operator would
be hit, at this altitude, but war is not a game of
croquet, and the men who would man these ma-
chines in war would stand ready to take the risks
demanded by the exigencies of the service.
The proper machine to act as a gatherer of in-
214 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
formation is one that can carry a pilot, passenger,
and wireless outfit. It is proposed to equip all
information-gathering machines with wireless
and to this end a special set has been devised and
is being tested out at the U. S. Army Signal Corps
Aviation School. That the wireless will be a suc-
cess there is no doubt, for certain simple experi-
ments with crude apparatus have been already
tried out with remarkable success.
I have said that military aviators propose to
fly at about three thousand five hundred feet while
seeking information. Perhaps this will be in-
creased to about five thousand feet if it can be
demonstrated that the reconnaissance officer can
clearly discern, from that height, the points which
are of military value. This officer will be aided
by powerful field glasses, a camera and sketching
case, and he will have at hand a wireless outfit
which he can use in sending back whatever he may
ascertain of value. Upon reporting back to the
officer who sent him out he will turn over his
sketches and photographs. It is thought that in
this way very complete and valuable data will be
available.
From an aeroplane or balloon the ground pre-
sents a very different appearance than it does
from our usual man's eye view. It takes time and
practice to determine just what the different
strange-looking objects are, let alone to determine
relative sizes and distances. On this account we
ARMY AVIATION 215
have concluded that the reconnaissance officer and
pilot must both be trained at the same time.
Since this is the case and since there is a decided
mental and physical strain connected with long-
continued flight, we have gone further and con-
cluded that both officers who fly in the aeroplane
must be pilots and both must be trained in recon-
naissance duty. In this way each can relieve or
"spell" the other.
There is much more to this than the mere act-
ing as an aerial chauffeur. To be a successful
military aviator a man must be an excellent cross-
country flier. He must be an expert topogra-
pher or sketcher, he must understand photography
and he must be a practical wireless operator,
as well as have a knowledge of the theory of
wireless. Above all, he must be trained in mili-
tary art, that most elusive of all subjects. By
that we mean that he must understand the mili-
tary significance of what he sees, he must under-
stand the powers, limitations, and functions of the
three great arms infantry, cavalry, and field ar-
tillery, whether used in combination or sepa-
rately; he must know major and minor tactics to
determine the worth or uselessness of a position;
he must be able quickly and accurately to reduce
his observations to a written report in order that
the information gained may be of immediate use
to his chief.
For all of these reasons we have concluded that
216 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
we must rely on commissioned officers of the regu-
lar army or organised militia, trained in time of
peace to fulfil their functions in time of war. We
can not place dependence on civilian aviators, for
they have not had the training along the highly
technical and specialised lines that are necessary.
We can not rely on enlisted men of the army, for
the same reason.
There is another class of fliers that will, un-
doubtedly, be of use in war time. These are the
men to drive fast-flying, single-passenger ma-
chines for speedy messenger service between de-
tached bodies of troops, or to drive the heavy am-
munition or food-carrying aeroplanes to relieve
a besieged place. These may well be chosen from
the ranks of the civilian volunteers who would,
without doubt, flock to our colours and standards
at the whistle of a hostile bullet. There is plenty
of room in war time for all of the aviators we can
scrape together, be they civilian or military.
Two new types of aeroplane have been alluded
to in the last, preceding paragraph; the fast-fly-
ing, quick-climbing racer and the slow-going,
heavy-weight carrier. We are of opinion that
there should be three types in all for military
purposes. Of greatest importance and in great-
est numbers we should have the middle-class ma-
chines; those capable of staying in the air for
at least three hours of continuous flight, while
carrying two men and one hundred and fifty
ABMY AVIATION 217
pounds extra, of either wireless apparatus or ma-
chine gun and ammunition. Such a machine will
climb two thousand feet in ten minutes, will travel
above fifty miles an hour on the level, is perfectly
easy to manage, and forms the back-bone of the
aerial fleet.
One of these craft acting as a convoy, armed
with a Benet-Mercier machine gun weighing about
twenty pounds and with ample ammunition, could
sweep the skies clean of hostile aeroplanes, while
its mate, carrying reconnaissance apparatus and
two officers, could gather the information which
the Commanding General desires. The speed ma-
chine is for use as described above. The weight-
carrying machine can carry about six thousand
rounds of ammunition at a trip. Eifle cartridges
weigh about one hundred pounds per twelve hun-
dred rounds. This machine could carry enough
emergency rations on one trip to subsist five hun-
dred men for a day. It could make a speed of
forty miles per hour with this weight and, in the
course of a day, could, undoubtedly, make several
trips of succour, provided the sending point were
within fifty miles of the besieged place which is
the usual case.
And now, can an aeroplane be used to prevent
the other fellow from killing us 1
This is a very fascinating subject as a whole.
The field opened is almost limitless; but the
greatest idea of all is that through this conquest
218 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
of the air we are approaching more nearly to that
much longed-for era of universal peace. Through
the aeroplane and dirigible, man is effacing arti-
ficial barriers ; he is bringing the rich closer to the
poor, the powerful closer to the weak. No longer
can unwise and selfish potentates, be they royal,
democratic, or financial, send forth their armies
to fight while themselves resting safe and secure
at home. The king in his palace or the money
baron on his private yacht is in as much danger
from these air craft as is the high private in the
muddy trenches at the front. That touches the
selfish side of things. At any rate, while the aer-
oplane will, probably, do more to promote peace
than has any previous discovery, we of the Army
are still busily engaged in finding out just what
it will do in war.
CHAPTEE VI
THE AEROPLANE FOR THE NAVY
(With an Account of the Training Camp at San Diego. By Lieu-
tenant Theodore G. Ellyson, U. S. N.)
THE first active interest of the Navy Depart-
ment in the practical side of aviation may
be said to date from November, 1910, when Glenn
H. Curtiss offered to instruct one officer in the
care and operation of his type of aeroplane.
Prior to this date the Department had carefully
followed the development of the different types
of aeroplanes, but had taken no steps toward hav-
ing any one instructed in practical flying, as at
that time there was no aeroplane considered suit-
able for naval purposes. Again, shortage of of-
ficers and lack of funds for carrying along such
instruction were reasons for the delay in taking
the initial step. There were unofficial rumours
to the effect that there would be an aviation corps
organised, and it was understood that requests
for such duty would be considered, but it was
looked upon as an event that would take place in
the dim future. At this time Mr. Curtiss made
his offer to instruct an officer at his flying field
which was to be located in southern California,
219
220 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
and, as it was understood that lie had in view the
development, during the winter, of a machine
that could be operated from either the land or the
water, his offer was immediately accepted by the
Navy Department, and I was fortunate enough
to be detailed for this duty.
The training camp was located on North Island,
opposite San Diego, California, this spot having
been selected on account of the prevailing good
weather, and because there was both a good fly-
ing field for the instruction of beginners, and a
sheltered arm of San Diego Bay, called The
Spanish Bight, for carrying on the hydroaero-
plane experiments. The camp was opened on
January 17, 1911, and shortly thereafter seven
pupils were on hand for training, three army of-
ficers, one naval officer and three civilians.
What was accomplished there is now history,
namely the development of a machine that could
rise from, or land on, either the land or the wa-
ter, a feat that had never before been accom-
plished. It is true that one man had been able
to rise from the water ; but in attempting to land
on the same he had wrecked his machine, so this
could not be called a successful experiment. This
same machine which had risen from the water and
landed on the land and then risen from the land
and landed on the water, was flown from the avi-
ation field to the U. S. S. Pennsylvania by Mr.
Curtiss, a landing made alongside and the aero-
NAVY AVIATION 221
plane hoisted on board with one of the regular
boat cranes. No preparations had to be made ex-
cept to fit a sling over the engine section of the
aeroplane so that it could be hooked on the boat
crane. The aeroplane was then hoisted over the
side and flown back to the aviation field.
As I have said, the above paragraph is now
history. What is not generally known is the hard
work and the many disappointments encountered
before the hydroaeroplane was a real success.
Mr. Curtiss had two objects in view: First, the
development of the hydroaeroplane, and secondly,
the personal instruction of his pupils. The lat-
ter was accomplished early in the morning and
late in the afternoon as these were the only times
when the wind conditions were suitable, and the
experimental work was carried on during the rest
of the day, and, I think, Mr. Curtiss also worked
the best part of the remainder of the time, as I
well remember one important change that was
made as the result of an idea that occurred to
him while he was shaving. No less than fifty
changes were made from the original idea, and
those of us who did not then know Mr. Curtiss
well, wondered that he did not give up in despair.
Since that time we have learned that anything
that he says he can do, he always accomplishes,
as he always works the problem out in his mind
before making any statement.
All of us who were learning to fly were also
222 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
interested in the construction of the machines,
and when not running "Lizzy" (our practice
machine) up and down the field, felt honoured at
being allowed to help work on the experimental
machine. You see it was not Curtiss, the genius
and inventor, whom we knew. It was "G. H.,"
a comrade and chum, who made us feel that we
were all working together, and that our ideas and
advice were really of some value. It was never
a case of "do this" or "do that," to his amateur
or to his regular mechanics, but always, "What
do you think of making this change?" He was
always willing to listen to any argument but gen-
erally managed to convince you that his plan was
the best. I could write volumes on Curtiss, the
man, but fear that I am wandering from the sub-
ject in hand.
One of the results of the experiments at San
Diego, was to show that such a hydroaeroplane,
or a development of it, was thoroughly suitable
for naval use. Although it was the first of May
before Mr. Curtiss returned to his factory at
Hammondsport, specifications, which were ap-
proximately as follows, were sent him and he
was asked if he could make delivery by the first
of July :-
"A hydroaeroplane, capable of rising from or
landing on either the land or the water, capable
of attaining a speed of at least fifty-five miles an
hour, with a fuel supply for four hours ' flight. To
NAVY AVIATION 223
carry two people and be so fitted that either per-
son could control the machine. "
His reply was in the affirmative and the ma-
chine was delivered on time. Since that time this
machine has been launched from a cable, which
can easily be used aboard ship, and has been
flown on an overwater nonstop flight, one hundred
and forty-five miles in one hundred and forty-
seven minutes. If such an advance has been made
in a little over six months' time, what will the
next year bring forth?
In my opinion the aeroplane will be used by
the Navy solely for scouting purposes, and not
as an offensive weapon as seems to be the popular
impression. This impression is probably en-
hanced by the recent newspaper reports of the
damage inflicted upon the Turks in Tripoli, by
bombs dropped from Italian aeroplanes. Even
could an explosive weighing as much as one thou-
sand pounds be carried and suddenly dropped
without upsetting the stability of the aeroplane,
and were it possible to drop this on a ship from a
height of three thousand feet, which is the lowest
altitude that would ensure safety from the ship's
gun fire, but little damage would be done. The
modern battleship is subdivided into many sepa-
rate water-tight compartments, and the worst
that would be done would be to pierce one of
these, and destroy those in that one compartment,
without seriously crippling the gunfire or ma-
224 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
noeuvring qualities of the ship. In only one way
do I see that the aeroplane can be used as an of-
fensive weapon, and that is when on blockade
duty, with the idea of capturing the port, ships
out of range of the land batteries could send out
machines with fire bombs and perhaps set fire to
the port.
Innumerable instances could be cited where the
use of an aeroplane for scouting purposes would
have been invaluable. In recent times may be
cited the blockade of Port Arthur during the
Eusso-Japanese War, and the blockade of Santi-
ago, during the Spanish- American War.
Again suppose that several scouts were on the
lookout for an enemy's fleet, and that they sighted
the enemy's smoke. It has been proven that by
modern scouting methods it is next to impossible
for an enemy to start for any of several destina-
tions, no matter how many miles apart, and not
be discovered by the opponent's scouts before
reaching their destination. The enemy's main
strength, or battleships, will be covered by a
screen, that is cruisers and torpedo boat destroy-
ers, spread out many miles from the main body,
whose duty it is to prevent our scouts from get-
ting near enough to obtain any information. In
order to obtain the necessary information our
scouts would have to pierce this screen, and the
chances are very great that they would be sunk
in the attempt, or so crippled that they would be
ELLYSON LAUNCHES HYDRO FROM WIRE CABLE
(A) The start. (B) Leaving the wire
HUGH ROBINSON'S HYDRO FLIGHT DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI
NAVY AVIATION 225
unable to convey the information to the Com-
mander-in-Chief. In any event, why run such a
risk? If equipped with aeroplanes it would be
an easy matter to send them out, and the infor-
mation would be obtained in a much shorter time,
without danger of the loss of a ship, and with the
surety that the information would be secured.
In this connection it must be remembered that
there is nothing to obscure the vision at sea, that
the range of vision from a height of three thou-
sand feet is approximately forty miles, and that
the wind conditions are always better than over
land ; that is, steady. These are simply a few in-
stances of the value that an aeroplane may be to
the Navy.
In my opinion, the ideal aeroplane for naval
use should have the following characteristics:
The greatest possible speed, while carrying two
people and fuel supply for at least four hours'
flight (not under sixty miles an hour speed, as
this has already been accomplished), and, at the
same time, capability of being easily handled in a
thirty-mile wind. There are many machines for
which this quality is claimed, but few that have
really proved it. Double control so that either
person can operate the machine. Ability to be
launched from shipboard, without first lowering
into the water, as on many occasions the wind at
sea will be suitable for flying, whereas the sea
will be too rough to rise from. Ability to land on
226 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
rough water. The engine to be fitted with a self-
starter. Also that the engine be muffled and the
machine fitted with a sling for hoisting on board
ship by means of a crane, and so constructed that
it can be easily taken apart for stowage, and
quickly assembled.
A search-light for making landings at night,
and an efficient wireless apparatus, should also
form part of the full equipment.
I did not make one of the requirements that
the aeroplane be able to rise from the water, for
in actual service it could always be launched from
the ship. For practice work and for instruc-
tional purposes, it must be so fitted, but this could
be a different rig if necessary. In the near fu-
ture I predict that the aeroplane adopted for
naval purposes will operate from a ship as a base
and the great part of the instructional work will
be done in the hydroaeroplane on account of the
large factor of safety.
CHAPTEE VII
GLIDING AND CYCLE- SAILING A FUTURE SPORT FOR
BOYS, THE AIRMEN OF TO-MORROW
(By Augustus Post.)
THEEE is great popular interest in the prob-
lem of soaring, or flying as birds do, with-
out any apparent effort, and also in gliding
flights, or descending from a high altitude with-
out the help of a motor.
Wonderful keenness of feeling on the part of
an aviator, akin to that remarkable sensitiveness
which is exhibited by all blind people, may be
highly developed for an aviator is just like a
blind person in the air as far as concerns seeing
the eddies, gusts, and currents, which are so dan-
gerous to the balance of the machine but the
ability to advance and go ahead against the wind
is as far off as the wireless transmission of power
is to-day. It is necessary to have an up-current
of air to enable a machine to soar and it is neces-
sary to find where these upward blowing currents
are. Any bicycle can coast down hill and a
glider is only a coasting aeroplane, and it may
be as difficult to find the right air current as to
find a hill to coast down on a bicycle.
227
228 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
Great advances will be made in the art of avia-
tion along the lines of training men in the art of
handling an aeroplane. No opportunity is so
good for this purpose as handling the machine as
a glider with the motor shut off, or by practise
with a regular gliding machine. Boys will natu-
rally take to gliding, and as a glider was the first
form of flying-machine and the easiest to build
mechanically, there is every reason why sailing or
soaring flights should be thoroughly mastered.
The instinct which birds have which enables
them to seek out and to utilise the rising currents
of air in the wind and so to set and adjust their
wings as to enable them to take advantage of
these rising currents, is latent in the human mind
and can be developed by practice to a point far
exceeding that of birds, on account of man's su-
perior intelligence. It is quite possible that some
arrangement may be made by which an aviator
can see the air and can prepare for or escape con-
ditions that are not favourable to his manoauvres.
It is clear that the wind gusts, swirls, and turbu-
lences exist in the air, for they are quite evident
when we watch a snowstorm and can see the snow-
flakes as they float, impelled now in one direction,
now another, or as we see dry leaves carried about
by a sudden gust of wind, or, even more clearly
when over sandy plains we can see the great col-
umns of dust ascending in the center of whirl-
winds for hundreds of feet, carrying heavy parti-
GLIDING 229
cles to great heights. It is quite possible that
birds can see the air itself by some arrangement
of the lenses of their eyes which may either en-
able them to see the fine dust particles or to so
polarise the light that the direction of its vibra-
tions can be determined and the course of flight
so changed that an air lane favourable to the path
of the bird can be followed and by following out
one stream lane among many, which has an up-
ward trend sufficient to counteract the falling
tendency, the bird can remain at an equal eleva-
tion.
Mr. Orville "Wright has clearly demonstrated
this to be possible by his experiments lately made
at Kitty Hawk, N. C., where he was able to soar
for ten minutes over the summit of a sand dune, so
delicately adjusting the surfaces of his glider to
the up-trend of the wind that he was falling or
descending at the same speed that the wind was
rising, and thus he seemed to stand still over one
spot on the ground. After increasing his descent
and approaching the ground, he was able by the
delicacy of adjustment of his controls to change
the relation in such a manner that the wind rising
overbalanced the descending of the machine and
he was carried backward and upward to the crest
of the hill again, where he remained for a short
time before again gliding downward to the level
ground below. In the same manner that a boat
sails against the wind by the force of the wind
230 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
blowing against the sail, which is placed at an
angle to it and which resists sidewise motion by
the pressure of the water against the hull of the
boat, a glider with horizontal sails set at the
proper angle will also sail into the wind which
blows against its surfaces and which makes the
path of least resistance a motion forward and
slightly descending with relation to the direction
of the wind, but which, in the case of an upward
moving current of air, may be a path rising in
respect to the ground.
The development of skill in this art will come
by practice, and young men will follow out the
ideas and suggestions of the more experienced
until we will have small, light, flexible machines
with such sensitive control that, with small mo-
tors to enable them to rise or to get from one
place to another, much as a bird flaps its wings
when necessary to add a little to the power which
it gets from the wind itself, or in rising from the
ground, will be able to sail around and glide
on the strength of the wind for hours at a time.
The clever aviator or real birdman with his
keen instinct cultivated to a state of perfection,
fitted with polarising glasses possibly, may seek
out and utilise the various powers that are pres-
ent in the air; adjusting his wings so that he will
be supported by the upward motion of the air
itself where it exists, or, by turning on his motor,
moving from one rising column of air to another,
CYCLE-SAILING 231
upon which he may hover and circle around, steer-
ing clear of all those other air lanes which are
leading in some other direction.
These glasses, by showing where the air waves
are all of one direction, may reveal a current
flowing in one way, while they may make great
masses of air flowing in some other direction ap-
pear as of some other colour, say red, for in-
stance; or, again, in another direction, all may
look green, and it will only be necessary to keep
where all is pure white.
Entirely new types of machines have been re-
cently constructed in France called "aviettes"
and "cycloplanes." These are machines like
gliders which are mounted on bicycle wheels and
small aeroplanes with wings which have aerial
propellers turned by the pedals which drive them
along the ground and through the air.
A contest was held in France in June, 1912, for
a prize offered by the Puegeot Bicycle Company
for the first machine of this type to fly a distance
of about forty feet and later a second prize for
the first machine to fly over two tapes one meter
three feet nine inches apart and four inches
high. Both of these prizes were competed for by
machines without any motor and driven solely by
man power. Over two hundred entries were re-
ceived by the promoters of the contest, but no one
accomplished the flight on that date of the public
contest. Three days afterward, however, Gabriel
232 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
Paulhain succeeded in winning the prize put up
for the second test. He flew eleven feet nine
inches on his first trial and ten feet nine inches
on the second, which was made in the reverse
direction.
There seems to be great interest in this form
of human flight, which was the original way of
attacking the problem of flight itself. When the
gasoline motor was perfected mechanical flight
followed very quickly and was rapidly developed
to a high degree of practicability. It is possible
that with encouragement human flight may also
become more common than it now is.
PAET V
EVERY-DAY FLYING FOR PROFESSIONAL
AND AMATEUR
BY
GLENN H. CURTISS
WITH CHAPTERS BY
AUGUSTUS POST AND HUGH ROBINSON
CHAPTER I
TEACHING AVIATORS HOW AN AVIATOR FLIES
TEACHING another man how to fly is a very
important matter, in whatever way yon
look at it.
You can take a perfect machine and select ideal
conditions and let everything be right for making
a flight and then it is directly np to the pupil he
must do the operating of the machine, no one else
can do it for him. In a single passenger machine,
the instructor can clearly show how it is done
and then the other fellow must do it. The trick
in learning to fly is self-confidence and that must
be gained by personal practise. Any man who
wants to fly badly enough can fly.
Almost all of the aviators that have flown and
are now flying Curtiss machines, like Hamilton,
Mars, Ely, McCurdy, Beachey, and Willard and
the army and navy aviators, have been practically
self-taught although now we have a regular
school under the supervision of Lieut. J. W. Mc-
Claskey, U. S. M. C. (retired), who has had great
success with his pupils. I have been flying for
over four years and I feel that I don't know much
about it yet.
235
236 THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
The would-be aviator should go to a good
school where the best facilities can be had and
where there is a good large place to fly, without
obstructions. The machine should be thoroughly
mastered and every part understood. Training
a man to fly does not, as I regard it, consist in
putting him in an aeroplane and letting him go
up before he knows how to get down again. Any-
body may be able to go up in an aeroplane, but it
requires skill and practice to come down without
damage to man or machine.
HOW TO FLY
An aeroplane is supported in the air by its
wings. These are placed at a slight angle to the
direction in which it goes so that the front edge
is slightly higher than the rear edge. This tends
to push the air downward and the speed of the
aeroplane must be great enough to skim over the
air before it has a chance to flow away. You may
have had the experience of skating over thin ice
which would bend beneath your weight as long as
you kept moving, although it would have broken
if you remained in one place. This is precisely
the same phenomenon, and as the water has not
time to flow away underneath from the thin ice so
the air is caught under the surfaces of the wings
and the machine passes on gathering new air as
it goes to support it, faster than the air can flow
away. A curved surface is better than a flat one
HOW TO FLY 237
and to find just the proper curve to be most ef-
ficient at the speed at which the machine is to fly
is a very difficult problem and must be deter-
mined by very careful laboratory experiments.
The various flying machines have different
ways of accomplishing the control of the rudders
for steering to the right or left, and up and down,
for a flying machine is different from all other
vehicles in this one respect. In addition to the
steering, the machine must be balanced, and as
the air is the most unstable of all mediums, how
to maintain the equilibrium becomes perhaps the
most important point in the construction of an
aeroplane, as well as the most necessary one for
the aviator to master. This is accomplished in
various ways and is the characteristic feature of
the different machines.
The Curtiss machine is considered one of the
simplest of all. When it is remembered that Mr.
C. F. Willard, my first pupil, learned to operate
a machine with hardly any instruction it would
seem that the mere learning to operate should not
be a serious obstacle to overcome. If the air is
still and there are no wind gusts to strike the ma-
chine sideways and upset it, flying is easy, but if
the air comes in gusts and is rolling and turbulent
even the best and most skilful operator is kept
busy manoeuvring the front rudder and endeav-
ouring to keep the machine headed into the wind,
and when it tips, moving the side controls to
238 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
maintain the balance. With all of these move-
ments it is no wonder that the aviator's mind
must be active there is no time to think, every
movement and act must be absolutely accurate
and the body must be under full control.
The operator sits on a small seat just in front
of the lower main plane ; directly in front of him
is a wheel which he can push out or pull back.
Pushing the wheel out turns the elevating sur-
faces so that the machine points down. On the
other hand, pulling the wheel toward you points
the machine up, causing it to rise higher into the
air. Turning the wheel to the right or left steers
the machine to the right or left in the same man-
ner as a boat is steered by turning its rudder.
The operator now must consider how to bal-
ance the aeroplane. On each side at the extreme
outer ends of the machine are placed small hori-
zontal planes so hinged at their front edge that
they may be turned up or down. They are con-
nected together in such a manner that when one
points up the other points down, thus acting as a
"couple"; wires connect these stabilising planes
to the movable back of the pilot's seat. This has
a yoke which fits over the shoulders of the oper-
ator.
When the machine tips to the left the aviator
naturally leans to the right or the highest side
and the lever is moved to the right by the pressure
LEAENING TO FLY 239
of the shoulder. This causes the left hand sta-
bilising plane to be pulled down so that it offers
its surface at an angle to the wind and exerts a
lift on its side while the right hand plane is
turned the opposite way, which causes it to exert
a depressing effect on its side ; this tends to right
the machine.
The operator must use his feet also for there is
a pedal for the left foot which operates the throt-
tle of the engine, causing it to go faster or slower,
and one for the right foot which operates a brake
on the front wheel, which helps to stop the aero-
plane after it has landed and is running over the
ground on its wheels.
THE FIKST STEPS
It is necessary to know every detail of the ma-
chine every bolt, nut and screw, and the pur-
pose each serves in the economy of the whole. It
is absolutely essential for the successful aviator
to know his motor. The motor is the heart of the
aeroplane, and keeping it in good order is just
as necessary to the aviator's safety as is the keep-
ing of his own heart strong for any emergency
that he may be called to face.
After becoming familiar with its workings, so
that it becomes second nature to make the right
movements, get into the machine and when the
air is perfectly still run it over the ground.
240 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
When there is no more novelty in the sensation
and the machine is in a good position to get up
speed you raise the elevator a little and try mak-
ing short jumps into the air. The other pupils
standing in a group at the end of the field are
usually hoping and praying that you will not
smash the machine before their turn comes and
so cause delay until it is repaired.
In San Diego, there was great rivalry between
the Army and the Navy. Witmer and Ellyson
used to get up by sunrise and go over to the island
and take out the old machine we used for teach-
ing, which was nicknamed " Lizzy." They did
this secretly because there was only one machine
and they did not want the Army to smash it and
so keep them down on the ground. After making
their practice, they would go home and come back
later, pretending that it was their first appear-
ance.
When the officers began their schooling they
fell steadily into my way of looking at the prob-
lem, and not one of them spared himself bruised
hands or grimy clothing. For the first ten days
I did not offer them a chance even to give the
motor its full power while they were in the avia-
tor's seat. After they had worked around the
aeroplane long enough, however, and were fa-
miliar with all its details, they were allowed to
make "runs" over the half mile course, straight-
away.
LEABNING TO FLY 241
i
That is, they took their seats in the machine in
turn, the propeller was started, and the machine
propelled along the ground on its wheels, like an
automobile, without being able to rise. To pre-
vent the machine rising while one of the men was
in it, the throttle of the engine was so arranged
that it only got half power, which was not suffi-
cient to give it lifting power, but enough to drive
it along on the ground at twenty or twenty-five
miles an hour. This "grass cutting, " as the boys
soon dubbed it, gave them the opportunity to be-
come used to the speed and the "feel" of the ma-
chine. It also taught them to steer a straight
course by using the rudder and the front control,
and to practise balance by the use of the ailerons.
After a few days of these runs the throttle was
given full vent, allowing full speed on the wheels,
but the propeller was changed to one without the
usual pitch. Thus, while the engine would drive
the aeroplane at full speed on its wheels, this
propeller did not have enough thrust to lift it
from the ground. In this way the military
pupils got the advantage of the speed, acquired
balance, and adjusted their control to suit it,
without the danger of getting up in the air too
soon.
A little later, when they had thoroughly ac-
customed themselves to these conditions, still an-
other propeller was put on. This one had just
sufficient pitch to lift the aeroplane from the
242 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
ground, when well handled, and it would make
' ' jumps " of from twenty to fifty feet at a height
of a few inches or, perhaps, a few feet.
These jumps served still further to develop the
ability of the men to control the machine and
perfect their balance, and it gave them the first
sensation of being in flight at high speed, though
not high enough to do any great damage should
one of them be so unlucky as to smash up. A
smash-up was what we particularly wished to
guard against at all times, not only because of
the cost of repairs and the delay, but largely be-
cause an accident, even though it may do no in-
jury to the aviator, may seriously effect his
nerves. I have known of beginners who, while
making rapid progress in learning to fly, suffered
a complete setback just because of an unim-
portant accident to the machine in flight, or in
landing. Eagerness to fly too soon is responsible
for many of the accidents that befall beginners.
An ambitious young man may become thoroughly
convinced after a few jumps that all he needs for
making a long and successful flight is the oppor-
tunity to get up a hundred feet or so. The first
chance he has, he goes up as he had planned, and
unless he is lucky or an exceptionally quick
thinker, the odds are that he will smash up in
getting back to earth again.
I have never seen any one more eager to fly,
and to fly as quickly as possible, than were these
LEARNING TO FLY 243
officers. Probably they were following the mili-
tary bent of their minds or, perhaps, it was the
enthusiasm of the pioneer in a new science.
As a rule, the mornings at San Diego are fine.
There is seldom any wind during the forenoon,
except when one of the winter rain storms blows
in from the ocean. We tried to get in as much
work during this calm period as possible. The
mornings were found to be the best for doing this
work. It was most desirable, not to say neces-
sary, that the pupils should have a minimum of
wind during their early practice work. Even
the lightest wind may sometimes give serious
trouble to the beginner. A gust may lift the
aeroplane suddenly and then just as suddenly die
out, allowing the machine, should it be in flight,
to drop as quickly as it rose. Such a moment is
a critical one for an inexperienced man. He feels
himself dropping and unless he keeps his head
clear, he may come to grief through doing too
much or too little to restore his equilibrium.
In the practice work all the officers, as well as
two private students, C.C.Witmer of Chicago and
E. H. St. Henry of San Francisco, used the same
machine. This was one of the older types of bi-
plane, with especially strong wheels, and with a
four-cylinder engine. This type was selected as
best adapted to the strain of heavy work. It had
sufficient power, under its regular equipment, to
fly well, but had not the very high speed of the
244 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
latest type, fitted with eight-cylinder engines.
For beginners, I consider the four-cylinder ma-
chines the best.
While most of the practice runs and jumps
were made during the hours of the forenoon,
when there was little or no wind, there was plenty
of work on hand to fill in the afternoons as well.
We were all the while experimenting with various
devices, some of them new, others merely modifi-
cations of the old. All of these, whether new or
old, involved many changes in the equipment of
the aeroplanes. There was seldom a time when
at least one or more of the four machines we kept
on the island was not in the process of being
taken down or set up. Besides, there was the
long series of experiments with the hydroaero-
plane, which were carried on from day to day
without affecting the regular practice work.
These frequent changes in motor, propeller,
planes, or controls, were always taken part in by
the officers. Thus they became acquainted with
everything about an aeroplane and knew the re-
sults produced by the changes. I consider this
the most valuable part of their training.
All this "building up" process, as it may be
called, that is, building up a thorough knowledge
of the aeroplane until every detail is known, I
believed to be necessary. I proceeded on the the-
ory that confidence is sure only when the aviator
has a thorough understanding of his machine, and
LEAENING TO FLY 245
confidence is the absolute essential to the man
who takes a trip in an aeroplane. If the aviator
has not the knowledge of what to do, or what his
machine will do under certain conditions, he
would better not trust himself in the air. Once
the men learned to make the runs and jumps suc-
cessfully and to handle the machine with ease and
confidence, they were ready for the next stage of
their training before they could be trusted to
make a flight. This was to go as passengers.
For the carrying of a passenger, I chose the hy-
droaeroplane.
This machine was not equipped with wheels
for landing on the earth, when I first began to
use it, but had all the equipment for starting
from or landing on the water. We had built a
hangar for storing it at night close down to the
water on Spanish Bight, which gave us the
smooth shallow water for launching it and haul-
ing it out with ease.
First, the men were taken in turn as passen-
gers for runs over the surface of the bay. On
these runs I made no attempt to rise from the
water. I wanted to give the men time to accus-
tom themselves to the new sensation of skimming
over the water at forty miles an hour, for that is
the speed at which I was able to drive the hydro-
aeroplane. The machine would skim along under
full power, with the edge of the float " skipping "
the water as a boy skips a stone on a pond.
246 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
After this I undertook short flights, taking each
officer in turn as a passenger, and keeping within
fifty or a hundred feet of the water. At intervals
I would make landings on the water, coming down
until the float touched the surface, and then get-
ting up again without shutting off the power.
When these flights had been made for several
days and the men had accustomed themselves
thoroughly to the sensation of being in flight, I
believed they had progressed far enough to be
taken up for longer and higher flights over both
land and sea. In these flights I used a machine
equipped for landing on both land and water with
equal safety.
One of the most important things that should
be developed in the beginner, and, at the same
time, the most difficult, is the sense of balance.
Every one who has ever ridden a bicycle knows
that the sense of balance comes only after con-
siderable practice. Once a bicycle is under way
the balance is comparatively easy, but in an aero-
plane the balance changes with every gust of
wind, and the aviator must learn to adjust himself
to these changes automatically. Especially is a
fine sense of balance necessary in making sharp
turns.
Some aviators develop this sense of balance
readily, while others acquire it only after long
practice. It may be developed to a large extent
by going up as a passenger with an experienced
LEARNING TO FLY 247
aviator. I have noticed that it always helps a
beginner, therefore, to make as many trips as
possible with some one else operating the aero-
plane. In this way they soon gain confidence,
become used to the surroundings, and are ready
for flights on their own hook.
One by one the officers were taken up as pas-
sengers on sustained flights until they felt per-
fectly at ease while flying high and at great
speed. The machine I used for passenger-car-
rying practice work was capable of flying fifty-
five miles an hour without a passenger, and prob-
ably fifty miles an hour with a passenger. This
speed gave the men an opportunity to feel the
sensation of fast and high flying, an experience
that sometimes shakes the nerves of the amateur.
All this took time. As I have said elsewhere, I
did not want to force the knowledge of aviation
upon the young officers. Bather, I wanted to let
them absorb most of it, and to come by the thing
naturally and with confidence. It was much bet-
ter, as I regarded it, to take more time, and give
more attention to the little details, than to sacri-
fice any of the essentials to a too-quick flight.
The men who had been detailed to learn to
fly, I assumed, would be called upon to teach other
officers of the Army and Navy and, therefore, they
should be thoroughly qualified to act as instruct-
ors when they should have completed their work
at San Diego. This is the view they took also, I
248 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
believe, and I never saw men more anxious to
learn to fly.
During the last period of instruction, when the
men had gone through all the preliminaries ; when
they had learned how to take down and set up a
Curtiss aeroplane; knew the motor, and how to
operate it to the best advantage; in short, were
thoroughly acquainted with every detail of the
machine, they were ready for the advanced stage
of the work. This was to take out a four-cylin-
der aeroplane for flights of from three to ten min-
utes ' duration at various heights.
My instructions to all of the men were never
to ascend to unaccustomed heights on these prac-
tice flights; that is, not to venture beyond the
heights at which they felt perfectly at ease and
capable of handling the machine, and to make a
safe landing without danger to themselves or to
the machine. These instructions were obeyed at
all times. Perhaps the caution exercised at
every stage of the instructional period had had
its effect on the men and they felt no desire to
take unnecessary chances.
When they were able to fly and to make safe
landings in a four-cylinder machine, I considered
that I had done all I could do to make aviators of
them. I had tried not to neglect anything that
would prove of benefit to them in their future
work things I had had to learn through long
years of experiments and many failures. In
LEAENING TO FLY 249
other words, I tried to give them the benefit of
all my experience in the many little details that
go to make the successful aviator.
Given the proper foundation for any trade or
profession, the intelligent man will work out his
own development in his own way. I could only
start the men along the road I believed to be the
easiest and safest to travel; they had to choose
their own way and time to reach the goal.
It has been a pleasure and satisfaction to work
with the officers of the Army and Navy. Their
desire to learn the problems of aviation, intelli-
gently applied, has made the work easier than I
had anticipated. The many little annoyances
that often beset us are forgotten in the keen sat-
isfaction of having been of some service to the
men themselves, and above all to our War and
Navy Departments.
A BULLETIN ISSUED AT THE CURTISS AVIATION CAMP
The course is divided into six parts or stages.
1st. Ground work with reduced power. To
teach running in straight line.
2nd. Straightaway flights near the ground, just
sufficient power to get off.
3rd. Straightaway flights off the ground at a
distance of ten or fifteen feet to teach use of the
rudder and ailerons.
4th. Eight and left half circles and glides.
5th. Circles.
250 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
6th. Figure eights, altitude flights and landings
without power and glides.
In the above stages of instruction the men
should learn the following about flying:
FIRST STAGE
Learn to run straight, using rudder and keep-
ing on the ground. The idea is to be able to con-
trol under reduced power. Student must be
kept at this continuously until he is perfectly at
home in the machine and accustomed to the noise
of the motor and the jar and movement of the
machine on the ground. This practice should be
kept up from one to two weeks, depending upon
the ability the student shows in handling the ma-
chine in this part of the instruction.
SECOND STAGE
Motor throttled, but with sufficient power to al-
low the student to jump the machine off of the
ground for very short distances. Care must be
taken in adjusting the throttle to allow for wind
conditions, otherwise machine may be shot up into
the air suddenly and the student lose control of
it. Student should be also instructed during
these jumps to pay attention to the ailerons to
keep the machine balanced. The throttle can be
gradually let out to full as soon as the student
begins to acquire the use of the ailerons and
keeps good balance.
LEARNING TO FLY 251
THIED STAGE
Student should be instructed to rise fifteen or
twenty feet from the ground in straightaway
flights, and use rudder slightly in order to become
accustomed to its use and its effect on the ma-
chine in the air. As soon as the student has ac-
complished the above he may be permitted to
rise to the approximate height of one hundred
feet if the field is large enough and to glide down
under reduced power. When he has done this
successfully many times, let him repeat the above
gliding with motor cut out completely.
FOURTH STAGE
Student may be permitted to rise to the height
of twenty-five to fifty feet and make half circles
across the field to the right and then to the left.
These circles should be shortened or sharpened
with increased banking on turns until they are
sufficient for any ordinary condition or case of
emergency.
FIFTH STAGE
The student may be permitted to rise to a
height of not less than fifty feet, and if the field
is sufficiently large, permitted to make long cir-
cles, gradually shortening these circles until the
shortest circle required is reached. Student
252 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
should be cautioned not to climb on the turns.
He should be instructed to drop the machine on
the turns, thus increasing the speed and lessening
the possibility of slipping side wise in banking.
He should be instructed to land as nearly as pos-
sible on all three wheels at once. This may be
accomplished by flying or gliding as close to the
ground as possible and parallel to it, then slow-
ing the engine and allowing the machine to settle
to the ground.
SIXTH STAGE
In making figure eights for pilot's license,
student should try to climb as much as possible
on the straightaways between the turns and drop
slightly on the turns. In making glides from
high altitudes where motor is voluntarily cut off,
it is best to start the gliding angle before the
power is cut off. In case the motor should stop
suddenly, the machine should be plunged instantly
if machine is at sufficient altitude and consider-
ably sharper than the gliding angle, in order to
maintain the head-on speed, and then gradually
brought back to the gliding angle.
A DAY AT HAMMONDSPOKT NOTE BY AUGUSTUS POST
The Curtiss Aviation Camp at Hammondsport
broke all records on June 22, 1912, by the number
of flights made in a day. In all, two hundred and
forty flights were made. One hundred and twen-
LEARNING TO FLY 253
ty-six of these were with the practice machine
called "Lizzie" and constituted straight flights
for the length of the field and half circles. Sixty-
four flights were made with the eight-cylinder
practice machine, and consisted of half circles,
circles, and figure eights. The other sixty flights
were made with the hydroaeroplane.
The twelve students who made these flights,
some of whom were taking the course in the hydro
and land machine both, expressed themselves as
pretty thoroughly tired out at the end of this
strenuous day's work. One hundred or more
flights are made practically every day in the
week, but the twenty-second being a particularly
fine day, this new record was made.
The day's flying used up a barrel of gasoline
and four gallons of oil. A. P.
CHAPTER II
AVIATION FOR AMATEURS
THE man who contemplates buying an aero-
plane for his own use will be especially in-
terested in three subjects: First, how difficult it
is to learn to fly; second, how long it takes to
learn ; and third, what is the cost of up-keep. By
difficult I do not mean dangerous; any one who
has gone far enough to consider owning and op-
erating a machine knows and discounts the ele-
ment of danger, and as to cost, it is easy to get
figures on the first cost of an aeroplane; what
the investigator would like to know is what it is
likely to cost him for maintenance, breakage, and
so on.
With a competent teacher and if ever compe-
tence was necessary it is here learning to fly is
neither difficult nor dangerous. Six weeks ought
to be time enough to teach one to fly, provided
the pupil knows something about motors and is
apt in other ways. Contrary to popular belief,
reckless daring is not one of the requirements
for success. Indeed, a man who applies for a
position as aviator with the announcement that
he is a daredevil afraid of nothing under heaven,
is very likely to be rejected for this very reason,
254
AVIATION FOE AMATEUES 255
and a pupil who has the common sense to know
that there is no especial point in defying a quite
impersonal force like gravitation will get up a
much better start than one who has so little cau-
tion that he wants to get up in the air too soon.
Caution is the great thing for the beginner. Let
him learn the machine first from the ground and
on the ground, learn the controls and find out
what to do when he shall be up in the air. Then
let him learn how it feels to run over the ground
on the wheels. Then he will begin to make
' ' jumps," little ones, then longer and longer, un-
til he is free of any fear of the air. This comes
sooner with some than with others, and it is said
that in some rare cases fear of the air never exists
at all, for the great aviator, the star performer,
like any other great man, has to be born with cer-
tain qualifications and a good many of them.
There is no reason, with the advancing improve-
ment in the flying machine, why almost every one
with a real desire to fly should not be able in a
comparatively short time to learn to do so.
As for the third point, it will cost no more to
keep an aeroplane than to own an automobile.
The initial cost is the greatest. Of course, there
are the same qualifications that obtain with the
automobile the cost of up-keep will depend upon
whether you have many and serious breakages
and whether the owner looks after his own ma-
chine. Should the owner prefer to hire a com-
256 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
petent mechanic, his wages will be about the same
as those of a first-class chauffeur. As for smash-
ups, the expense of these would be considerable,
but not as much as it would be if an automobile
should have an accident. For contrary to the
ideas of a good many of the uninitiated, it is
quite possible to injure an aeroplane, and quite
seriously, too, without in the least hurting the
aviator. In this respect the hydroaeroplane is
of course safest of all ; I am reminded of a recent
accident at Antibes, near Nice, France, where
Mr. Hugh Eobinson, who was demonstrating a
Curtiss hydroaeroplane, suffered a badly wrecked
machine without the least injury. Forced to make
a quick landing, he chose, in order to avoid a
flock of motor boats filled with spectators, to dive
directly into the water. The shock threw him out
of the machine and he swam about unconcernedly
until a motor boat picked him up. Of course a
similar sharp contact with the solid ground would
have wrecked the aviator to some extent as well,
but it is possible to put a hydroaeroplane com-
pletely out of commission, necessitating expensive
repairs, and not be more than shaken up.
Be ally there is much less danger of smash-up s
than the outsider would think, provided the avia-
tor is a careful driver. The main thing is to
have great judgment in choosing a time for flights.
An inexperienced aviator should never take up
his machine in an unsteady wind of greater veloc-
AVIATION FOE AMATEUES 257
ity than ten miles an hour. The less wind the
better, for the beginner. The dangerous wind is
the puffy, gusty sort, and this should be avoided
by any but the most experienced aviator. It must
be remembered, however, that it is the variations
and not the velocity of the wind which causes
trouble.
Another item of expense to be taken into con-
sideration is the transportation of an aeroplane
from one place to another, for it does not always
go on its own wings. This, however, is neither
difficult nor expensive. I am able, for example,
to take down my machines and pack them in spe-
cially constructed boxes so that they take up but
a comparatively small space for shipment. The
setting up process is not difficult, nor even com-
plicated, and can be performed by any one having
had the proper instructional term at a first-class
aviation school. An illustration shows an aero-
plane, in its case, carried on an automobile.
With regard to safety as a steady, every-day
means of transportation, all of us, in and out of
the profession, know that, as Mr. Hudson Maxim
has said, to make the aeroplane a common vehicle
for, say, the commuter, "It must be improved so
that flights shall become more a function of the
machine and less a function of the aviator. " At
present a great deal depends upon the man who
is flying especially upon his quick and accurate
judgment and his power to execute his judgment
258 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
instantly and automatically. The man who buys
an aeroplane to fly knows this beforehand and
takes it into account; indeed it is a question
whether, if the flying machine were as safe as a
rocking-chair, there would be so much fascination
about it; but while the aviator will always have
to take into account, no matter how the mechan-
ism may be improved, a certain element of dan-
ger that must attend it, he may as well remember,
to quote Mr. Maxim once more, that "the tenure
of life of no automobilist is stronger than his
steering gear."
It certainly is not looking too far ahead to fore-
cast the entrance of the aeroplane into the com-
muter's life. The great mass of the people cer-
tainly will not take the air-line, any more than
they are now coming in by automobile every
morning, and yet how many business men and
not necessarily the richest do make the trip, that
twice a day they used to take in a railroad car, in
the open air, with the exhilarating breezes of
their own automobiles? Perhaps not these same
business men, but a corresponding class, will un-
doubtedly reduce the dull hours of train travel
by half and turn them into hours of delight by
the popularisation of aeroplane transportation.
As has been the case with every means of trans-
portation that has shortened time of travel, the
habitable zones around cities will grow larger and
larger as places hitherto inaccessible open before
AVIATION FOE AMATEURS 259
the coming of the swiftest form of transportation
known to man, and the only one not dependent
upon the earth's surface, whether mountain,
swamp, or river, to shape its course.
If we had a course only a few hundred feet wide
from New York to St. Louis or Chicago, aero-
planes could go through every day and there
would be little danger ; indeed, even as things are
now, it would be a much safer method of travel
than by automobile, as well as of course much
faster. Long lanes with grass on each side and
an automobile highway in the middle would be of
the greatest advantage to both forms of travel.
In crossing mountains on the downhill side an
aeroplane could glide for long distances at an
angle of one to five, so that if the elevation were
a mile high it could glide five miles before land-
ing. And on the up-hill side it could of course
land immediately and with ease.
To return to the amateur, it is always better to
go around an object that you can not land on im-
mediately. Landing is indeed one of the most
important points for the amateur aviator to con-
sider. If it is possible, watch all accidents and
study them closely. I take every means I can to
learn what causes an accident so as to guard
against it myself. Strictly speaking almost ev-
erything about the art of aviation is being learned
by experimentation and the causes of accidents,
while not always exactly ascertainable, are of
260 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
the greatest interest to builders and operators of
flying machines, for out of the accidents of to-day
often come the improvements of to-morrow.
While learning, and indeed whenever possible,
you should examine the ground before attempting
to fly over it. The pupil should inspect every inch
of the course over which he is to fly, by walking
carefully over it, noticing all the holes and ob-
structions in the ground. Then should it be nec-
essary to land, for any cause whatever, he will
know instinctively where to land and what to
avoid in landing. Keep away from other aero-
planes, for the wind-wash in their wake may tip
up your plane and cause serious trouble.
My advice to the amateur begins and ends with
one injunction: "Go slow." Yes, for more than
a month, "Go slow." It is hard to resist the
temptation to try to do stunts; with a certain
amount of familiarity with your machine, so that
you feel you could do a great deal more than you
are doing, and with some experienced and confi-
dent performer all but turning somersaults with
his machine over your head, to the delight of the
crowd, it is hard to resist giving one's self the
thrill that comes from taking a risk and not being
caught, but you will do the stunts all the better
for going slow at first.
Mr. Charles Battell Loomis, the late American
humourist, said once, in talking about the opening
of the fields of air:
AVIATION FOR AMATEURS 261
"It was thought that the automobile was a ma-
chine of danger, but the aeroplane has made it
comparatively safe. A man in an aeroplane a
mile above the earth, taking his first lesson all
by himself, is in a perilous position. He has not
one chance in a thousand of ever owning another
machine.
"A man who will fly over a city full of hard-
working people is a selfish brute. Until a man is
absolutely sure of himself he should always fly
with a good-sized net suspended beneath his ma-
chine.
"The man in the street has always hated new
things. He hated velocipedes, then bicycles, then
safeties, then automobiles, then motorcycles, but
he has not yet learned to hate the aeroplane. But
wait until monkey wrenches begin to fall on
Broadway or beginners begin to fall on the man
in the street. Then he will be mad at the aero-
plane if there is anything left of him."
Allowing for the humorous exaggeration, there
is this element of truth in this that mechanical
flight has as yet a strong element of uncertainty.
Yet there are certainly wonderful stunts to be
done with a flying machine, and the fun is as much
in the effect on the flier as on the audience ; per-
haps even more so. I would fly for the mere
sport if I were not in the business, for there is a
fascination about flying that it is unnecessary to
explain and difficult to resist. You can chart cur-
262 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
rents of the sea, but the wind is such a capricious
element that though there are, so to speak, outline
maps that could be made of the general direction
of the winds, there will always be a certain un-
certainty about their conduct. Nevertheless there
are so much greater possibilities in flying than
in any other of the arts, that it is no wonder the
amateur wants to develop them. And in conclu-
sion I can say that an aeroplane in perfect con-
dition is as safe as an automobile going at the
same speed and I mean it I
CHAPTER III
HOW IT FEELS TO FLY
(By Augustus Post.)
THERE is no one question that people ask
more often than: "How does it feel to fly!"
Perhaps a passenger feels more keenly the sen-
sations of flight than an aviator because his mind
is not taken up with the operation of the controls.
As for the passenger, he climbs into the flying
machine, takes his seat beside the operator, and
becomes at once the centre of interest to all the
people standing by. If he is himself an aviator
it is another matter, but if it is his first experience
in the air, he is usually the object of a certain
shuddering admiration, not unmixed with envy.
The motor is started, making a terrific noise
that almost deafens him, and quite drowns the
parting speeches and the eff erts of the funny men
present to improve the occasion. With perfect
calm, without the least excitement, the aviator
listens to the noise of the motor; he hears it run
and carefully notes the regularity of the explo-
sions. When all is ready, he waves his hand
the signal for the man holding the machine to let
go. The machine runs along the ground, gather-
263
264 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
ing speed, bounces a little, so that one hardly
knows when it leaves the ground; the front con-
trol is raised, and the machine is in the air.
You feel the rushing of the wind, and things be-
low seem dancing about down there. The ma-
chine keeps its exquisite poise in the air, sensitive
to the slightest movement of the control. As it
rises, the forward plane is turned a little down,
and as the machine varies in its elevation, the
plane is turned to bring it back to the level ; it tips
a little to one side and the aviator moves, as it
were instinctively, to correct the balance. The
rush of the wind by your face becomes more vio-
lent, and the machine pitches and balances as if
it were suspended by a string or by some unseen
force which holds it up in the air.
When the flight nears its end and the machine
flies low over the aviation field, the fences and
trees there seem in a moment to be rushing to
meet one. The planes are pointed downwards,
the machine descends, is caught up again by the
control, and glides along level with the ground,
skimming just above the grass. The wind moves
it a little side wise, perhaps, but the pilot, with the
rudder, straightens the machine around until it
points right into the wind's eye and the wheels are
parallel with the direction of the machine over the
ground. The control now causes the machine to
come lower until the wheels strike the ground
it rolls along bounces a little over the rough field
g
BBHBBBI
(A) AUGUSTUS POST FLYING AT THE FIRST HARVARD-BOSTON MEET
(B) AN AEROPLANE PACKED FOR SHIPMENT POST DRIVING
CURTISS' PUPILS
(A) J A D McCurdy racing against automobile, Daytona Beach. (B) Lieu-
tenant T. G. Ellyson, U. S. N. (C) Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Atwater, pupils at
San Diego
HOW IT FEELS TO FLY 265
the brake is set, and the machine comes to a
stop.
The aviator jumps down, the passenger climbs
out with somewhat less agility, perhaps, and ex-
presses his very hearty thanks, the plane is
turned around, the propeller started, and the
machine flies off again, leaving the passenger to
tramp slowly through the grass, contemplating
the insignificance of the human creature who is
forced to walk humbly along the ground. You
may remember that the first time you descended
from an automobile and began to walk, you seemed
to yourself to be only marking time.
This new experience, though of the same nature
as that, is far more impressive ; not alone the dif-
ference in speed, but the whole character of the
motion the altitude, the rushing wind, the sense
of something long awaited and now realised
sets the sensation of flight apart from any other,
and makes him who once experiences it resolved
to repeat the experience as soon and as often as
possible.
The passenger is at once the object of eager
inquiries as to how he felt, and he usually makes
it his business to express his satisfaction when-
ever asked and sometimes without being asked,
so there is little wonder that aviators are besieged
by applicants for rides. A few months ago a
lady who had been a passenger in an aeroplane
was certain to get her picture in the papers ; now
266 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
there are so many that it would be difficult even
to keep a record of them.
Now that we are coming to regard the aero-
plane seriously, more from the practical and less
from the grandstand side, it may be noted with-
out fear of loss to gate receipts, that its dangers
have been greatly exaggerated. Eational flight
is hardly any more hazardous than motor speed-
ing, steeple chasing, and many other sports, not
to mention football! Engines stop and planes
split, but steering gear breaks and horses stum-
ble. Danger lurks everywhere, but we disregard
it because the chances are long in our favour.
The real danger in aviation lies in the chances
men take as desire lays hold upon them; chances
the dangers of which they fully realise, but disre-
gard for various causes. There are so-called
"holes in the air," but they are hardly more nu-
merous than gullies in the road. High wind is
dangerous, but the aviator can often avoid its
perils if he will. Briefly, aviation confined to its
now well-defined limitations, is a thoroughly ra-
tional sport.
The "queer" sensation of flight comes in a
quick rise, dip or short turn, and you can experi-
ence the same sensation in the elevator of a
New York sky-scraper, Ferris wheel, shoot-the-
chutes or even the back yard swing, for that mat-
ter! Dizziness from height is not experienced,
for one sees the landscape spread out from high
HOW IT FEELS TO FLY 267
up and afar off, as if from a sheltered balcony;
the tendency is not to look down but away.
While the rush of air is tremendous, it is not
disagreeable, and one even forgets the deafening,
unmuffled motor in the indescribable joys, mainly
because of the wondrous charm and variety of the
landscape which we have known only in detail,
ignorant of its beauty as a mass. Apprehension,
shuddering, gruesome, childish apprehension per-
haps, at the starting, replaced by profound se-
curity as mastery, perfect mastery, is apparent;
a sense of joyous freedom following as the mar-
vellous world below is revealed. Like an exqui-
site monotone in low relief it is, each note of col-
our with its value and in perfect harmony with
the whole ; ever subtly changing, always some new
surprise, some unexpected revelation, lifting one
on the wings of exaltation.
The popular literary vehicle of to-day, rivalling
the " fairy coach of Cinderella, " is without ques-
tion the alluring aeroplane, fitted with all the
latest improvements : tachometer, inclinometer,
animometer, barograph, aneroid, compass with
map holders, lights, and all the modern conven-
iences and aviation equipment, including a wire-
less telegraph outfit, having shock absorbers for
landing and an enclosed limousine cabin with mica
or celluloid windows, in which not only can our
spirits be wafted about, but in which we may en-
joy all the material comforts of speedy travel,
268 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
free from present annoyances and inconveniences,
and without requiring the inflated rubber suits
which Mr. Eudyard Kipling so kindly provided
for his passengers on board the now famous
11 Night Mail." Vehicles of this description al-
ready exist and an "aero-bus" has carried as
many as thirteen passengers besides its driver.
It is confidently predicted that twenty passengers
will soon be carried in an aeroplane at one time.
There is no doubt but that in flying the higher
faculties are called into play. No such elaborate
preparation is necessary for learning to drive an
automobile, but some instruction is usually found
necessary when learning how to balance a bicycle
for the first time and until confidence is secured,
as is also the case in learning to swim. A good
chauffeur does not necessarily make a good avia-
tor even though he have exceptional ability as a
driver of racing automobiles, although I think
that an aviator might make a good driver of a
racing automobile. This seems to indicate clearly
to my mind that there is some additional quality
required in flying. I know of one case where a
successful automobile builder and driver killed
himself on account of desperation over the fact
that he could not master flying.
Actors and men with a keen sense of feeling
seem to do well in the air. They seem to get the
"feel of the air," or to have the delicate sense
of touch which is required to handle an aeroplane
HOW IT FEELS TO FLY 269
among the illusive vagaries of the atmosphere,
and to be able to sense its rapid action and feel
its ever-changing conditions almost before they
take effect. One must be absolutely en rapport
with his machine, as an expert horseman is part
of his horse or his horse is part of him; such a
rider stands out from all the rest, a beautiful sight
to see and an expression of the poetry of motion ;
such also is the manner of the master at the
piano, whose very soul is in tune and vibrating
with every subtle and rich harmony of the instru-
ment, feeling at the same time the ever-changing
mood of his audience as he sways them or is
swayed by them in turn, keeping in close sym-
pathy with their thoughts as well as suggesting
to their minds the trend that they shall take.
AVIATING AND BALLOONING
The sensations which an aviator has during
great flights of both duration and altitude are
somewhat comparable to those of the balloon
pilot 1 who sails in the sky far above the earth,
i Mr. Post is not only intimately connected with the develop-
ment of the aeroplane but also one of the most capable practical
balloon-pilots in the world. Mr. Post accompanied Mr. Allan R.
Hawley in October, 1910, when the balloon "America II," repre-
senting the United States, broke the world's competition record
and won the Gordon Bennett balloon cup by sailing one thousand
one hundred seventy-two miles from St. Louis to Lake Tschoto-
gama, in the wilds of Quebec. The trip took forty-six hours.
This record still stands as American distance record. Mr. Post
270 THE CUBTISS AVIATION BOOK
feeling a peculiar realisation of the immediate
presence of the Supreme Being, overwhelmed
with the magnitude of the universe, with a sense
of being a part of it, untrammelled, unaffected by
ordinary things, surrounded with extraordinary
conditions, supersensitive and yet keenly realis-
ing, now, matters of vast importance; now, mi-
nutely weighing his life in his hands as if it were
something far removed from himself; breathing
an air full of vigour and inspiration, with a sense
of exaltation pervading every cell of the body
is it a wonder that men enjoy such delights and
really live only when they can cast off mere ex-
istence and rise either to the contemplation of
such experiences by reading and thinking about
them or to a full realisation of these experiences
by actually trying them out personally? Such
moments, rapidly passing moments each going
to make up our individual life are usually but
too few.
Is it then a wonder, that, after actual days of
such vivid living, upon descending to earth or
coming back among people, one should look at
those who gather around about one as some kind
of lower order of animal, that it should take a
few moments to feel their presence gradually
dawning upon him, and to bring his faculties
slowly back where they can begin to understand
also holds, with Mr. Clifford B. Harmon, the American endurance
record of forty-eight hours, twenty-six minutes. THE PUBLISHERS.
HOW IT FEELS TO FLY 271
what these bystanders are thinking and talking
about?
This seems but a dream, but is in reality an
actual experience of a return to earth after two
days spent in the air and a visit to regions over
four miles above its surface, much of the time
out of sight of this dear old sphere, when ears
had become unaccustomed to sound, and so im-
paired by the change of pressure due to the high
altitude that we could not, for some time after
landing, hear when spoken to. Our own voices
rang hollow and stuck in our throats, and our
thought had become unattuned to those expressed
by the gaping, wondering crowd, struck dumb at
the sight of our arrival, and standing like cows
in the pasture when you walk among them.
Such is the state of mind in store for the air-
man, the artist, the thinker, the person desiring
to become isolated for a while to feel as Adam
felt in all reality, when he stood in the midst of
the garden of Eden, monarch of all he surveyed.
This appeals strangely to the imagination but
when it becomes a reality by virtue of actual ex-
perience, it also becomes a sensation most difficult
to express; for so few people understand what
you are talking about, few having had the sensa-
tions of being removed from this world and com-
ing back again to it.
CHAPTEE IV
OPERATING A HYDROAEROPLANE
(By Hugh Robinson.)
THE general impression among aviators and
manufacturers of aeroplanes is that the
hydroaeroplane is rapidly becoming the flying
craft of the future, by reason of its ease of con-
trol, extensive bodies of water upon which to
operate it, and, above all, its safety.
It is practically impossible for the operator of
a hydroaeroplane to suffer injury in case of acci-
dent. Even in the worst kind of an accident, the
most that can happen to the operator is an ex-
hilarating plunge into salt or fresh water as the
case may be, with the beneficial effects of a good
swim if so desired, otherwise, the operator may
" stand by" the wreckage, which cannot possibly
sink. The several pontoons, together with the
necessary woodwork to construct the planes, etc.,
furnish ample buoyancy to support the machine
and operator even in case of a total wreck, which
rarely ever happens. One can bang down upon
the water with a hydro in any old fashion, and
beyond a tremendous splash nothing serious hap-
pens.
272
OPEKATING A HYDRO 273
Of course, this article refers entirely to the
Curtiss hydroaeroplane, which I have been oper-
ating since its invention. The Curtiss pontoon is
divided into six water-tight compartments, three
of which will support the machine under average
conditions. Recently, while the writer was
abroad, a demonstration was made of these com-
partments for safety in case of accident to any
part of the pontoon.
This demonstration took place at Monaco, and
consisted in removing the drain plugs from two
compartments, after which the hydro with pilot
and passenger was pushed out into the harbour
and allowed to stand thirty minutes to let the
opened compartments fill with water, after which
the motor was started and a flight made without
the slightest difficulty.
The operation of a hydro is very similar to
that of the ordinary land machine only, if any-
thing, considerably easier and more simple. The
start of the hydro is simply starting the motor
while the hydro is resting on the land or bank
of the lake or river, with the front towards the
water. The operator takes his place, and on
opening the throttle gradually the thrust of the
motor slides the apparatus along the ground, or
planks if ground be unsuitable, and into the wa-
ter. The pontoons being fitted underneath with
steel shod runners makes it possible to start on
rocks, gravel, or in fact most any reasonable sur-
274 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
face. The finish can be made in the same man-
ner, without assistance.
It is possible to start the hydro on dry land if
the surface is reasonably smooth, with the as-
sistance of one or two mechanics. It is also pos-
sible, in an emergency, even to land on the earth
with the hydro pontoon attachment; and, of
course, with wheels attached to the landing gear,
one can come down on land as with the ordinary
type of machine.
Once out upon the water, the operator rapidly
increases his speed by opening the throttle, taking
care, however, to accelerate gradually, to allow
the pontoon to mount the surface of the water
without throwing an unnecessary amount of water
into the propeller. Once a speed of twenty-five
to thirty miles an hour is obtained, the pontoon
skims lightly over the surface of the water. As
the ailerons do not become effective until the
machine acquires considerable speed, the small
floats on the lower ends of wings maintain the
balance until necessary speed is acquired. The
small flexible wooden paddles on the lower rear
ends of the wing tanks slide over the water and
exert a great lifting effect, thus rigidly preserv-
ing the balance on the water at slow speeds or
standing, and also preventing damage to wings in
case a bad landing is made whereby one wing
strikes the water first. In such a case, instead
of the wing digging into the water, the paddles
OPERATING A HYDRO 275
cause a glancing blow which levels the machine
automatically.
When the machine has acquired a certain speed
it leaves the water in exactly the same manner as
on the land and immediately increases its speed,
due to the released friction from the water. It
also has a slight tendency to jump into the air
due to the released friction between the boat and
water. Once into the air, the operator is the
same as with the regular land-equipped Curtiss
aeroplanes.
The landing is made in the ordinary manner,
bearing in mind to keep the boat as near level
fore and aft as possible, and if the water be very
rough to allow the tail of the machine to settle
on the water first. This will prevent any possi-
bility of sticking the front of the boat into an
unexpected wave.
As should be the case with any aeroplane, it is
advisable to start and land against the wind if
there be much, but this is not compulsory. The
hydro may be landed even while drifting side-
ways, in an emergency case. It is obvious that
to do this with a land machine would be to invite
disaster.
The writer saw a forcible demonstration of the
one and two pontoon types of hydros during the
Hydroaeroplane Meet in France, and he had
the only machine there with the single pontoon,
and also the only one able to go out on rough
276 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
water. He successfully made flights and landings
in waves six to eight feet high, whereas three
hydros of the two pontoon type were wrecked in
waves less than two feet high. The single pon-
toon-equipped hydro may be dragged out on the
banks any place where a space two feet wide may
be obtained, and on my recent trip down the Mis-
sissippi, I had occasion to rejoice in this fact
and put it to a practical test, as I was hauled out
on shores between large rocks or stumps in sev-
eral instances. The turning of the hydro is ac-
complished by simply turning the rudder and
leaning towards the turn, the same as on a bicycle,
allowing the motor to run on reduced or half
throttle.
The exhilaration of flying a hydro cannot be
described on paper. It is the fastest motor boat
in the world, and to be able to approach a launch
and jump over it and observe the consternation
of the passengers is the keenest pleasure imagin-
able.
The hydro may be used solely as a motor boat
if desired, at a speed of sixty miles per hour,
without a drop of water ever touching its pas-
sengers, or if weather be favorable, flights may
be made at will of the operator.
The surface of a river or lake offers the ideal
condition for landing or starting an aeroplane,
and these are more numerous than suitable
grounds for land machines, besides this the air
OPERATING A HYDRO 277
conditions over water are always better than over
land, due to its unbroken surface, which does not
obstruct the air currents as do trees, houses, etc.,
on land.
An automatic safeguard exists in the hydro to
prevent accidents, such as has caused the loss of
lives on land, and that is as follows:
It is possible to rise in an ordinary land ma-
chine with too little power to make a turn or climb
fast, and as a result get a bad fall. Owing to
the fact that there is a suction between the water
and the pontoon it requires more power actually
to leave the water than to fly once the plane is
in the air. This fact prevents a hydro taking
flight with too little reserve flying ability, and
once in the air the operator may be sure of a con-
siderable reserve of power to enable him to fly
strongly and safely under all conditions.
PAET VI
THE CURTISS PUPILS AND A DESCRIPTION
OF THE CURTISS AEROPLANE AND
MOTOR
BY
AUGUSTUS POST
CHAPTER I
PUPILS
ALL great masters have been represented by
pupils who have done honour to their
teacher and have achieved personal success in a
large measure. Mr. Curtiss is no exception to
this rule, for he has taught more than a hundred
pupils.
There have been representatives of all classes
and all nationalities. The list includes all trades
and professions, from horse trainers to bankers.
And in all these have been pupils from thirteen
nationalities including Russians, Germans,
French, Canadians, Scotch, Irish, English, Jap-
anese, Indians, Cubans, Mexican, Spaniards, and
Greeks.
Instruction has been given in all languages, in-
cluding the sign language. Some nationalities
are naturally a little harder than others to in-
struct, largely because of national characteristics
of thought, and also for the reason that in a
southern climate those native to it are often un-
accustomed to the rapid action necessary at times
in flying.
Negroes have not yet as a class taken to avia-
281
282 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
tion, but there is one Chinaman in California,
Tom Gun, who has been successful as an aviator.
But conspicuous among the list of pupils is the
number of Army and Navy officers of our own,
as well as of foreign countries, that have gradu-
ated from the Curtiss School.
Hydroaeroplane operation has also been taught
to a number of pupils both at Hammondsport,
N. Y., and at San Diego, California, where the
training camps are located.
The life that the pupils lead at these schools
is most interesting and healthful. The students
get up early, sometimes at four in the morning,
when it is just light enough to see and when the
air is usually calm and the best conditions for
learning to fly exist. Pupils are outdoors prac-
tically all day, flying, or working on the machines
when any thing breaks or goes wrong. Many
pupils have engaged in exhibition flying after
completing their course of instruction, and among
the large number of very excellent aviators that
have followed in Mr. Curtiss' wing beats (for you
can hardly say foot steps) have been some of the
foremost aviators in the world and men whose
fame and exploits are household words to-day.
A partial list of some of these men at present
active in the field is here given :
Chas. F. Willard, Hugh Robinson, Chas. K.
Hamilton, J. C. Mars, C. C. Witmer, E. C.
St. Henry, Lincoln Beachey, Beckwith Havens,
Beckwith Havens
Chas. K. Hamilton
CURTISS' PUPILS
C. C. Witmer
J. A. D. McCurdy
Chas. F. Walsh
Cromwell Dixon
Chas. F. Willard
LINCOLN BEACHEY 283
Lieut. T. G. Ellyson, U. S. N.; Capt. P. W.
Beck, U. S. A.; Lieut. J. H. Towers, U. S.
N. ; William Hoff, J. B. McCalley, S. C. Lewis,
C. W. Shoemaker, W. B. Atwater, Al. Mayo, Al.
J. Engle, J. Lansing Callan, G. E. Underwood,
Irah D. Spaulding, C. F. Walsh, Carl T. Sjo-
lander, Fred Hoover, E. C. Malick, Eipley Bow-
man, T. T. Maroney, C. A. Berlin, H. Park, W. M.
Stark, E. H. McMillan, F. J. Terrill, Francis
Wildman, F. J. Southard, Lieut. P. A. Dumford,
W. B. Hemstrought, Earl Sandt, E. B. Eussell,
Lieut. J. E. McClaskey, W. W. Vaughn, Barney
Moran, M. Kondo, J. G. Kaminski, Mohan Singh,
K. Takeishi.
Among those in this list who have done wonder-
ful things, it might be interesting to mention some
of the marvellous feats of daring as well as a few
of the achievements of Lincoln Beachey, who is
credited with being the greatest exhibition aviator
in the world.
At the meet in Chicago in the summer of 1911,
Beachey flew more miles than any other aviator.
He flew all the time and was in the air during all
the flying hours in one contest or another. He
did all the special tricks in the air that were
known, he carried passengers, won speed races,
and established a new world's altitude record at
11,642 feet. After flying as high as he could, at
Chicago, with a seven gallon tank full of gasoline,
Beachey came down and said: " To-morrow I'll
284 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
go higher. " He had a ten gallon tank fitted to
his machine, filled it full up to the top, and started
right up from where his machine was standing on
the ground, so as not to waste a drop of gasoline,
and flew up and up until it was completely ex-
hausted and his motor thus compelled to stop, but
not until he had set the world's record at 11,642
feet. He deliberately started out on this trip to
climb up as long as his fuel would last. He knew
his motor would stop and he would have to glide
down. It was not an unintended glide but it
was the longest glide on record. He brought out
all the points and possibilities of his machine;
distance, speed, weight-carrying, and altitude.
Wilbur Wright said: "Beachey is the most won-
derful flyer I ever saw and the greatest aviator of
all." Calbraith P. Bodgers said upon his ar-
rival at Los Angeles after flying across the Amer-
ican continent, a distance of over four thousand
miles, " Beachey 's daring flight down the gorge
of Niagara and through the spray of the falls was
a greater achievement than mine." Beachey has
been remarkably free from serious accidents even
though now he pitches straight down from the
sky, seeming to fall straight to the earth and just
catching his machine up in time to avoid striking
the earth.
At Hammondsport on July 29th, 1912, Beachey
was trying out a new model military type and he
ascended six thousand five hundred feet in fifteen
LINCOLN BEACHEY 285
minutes, while he came down in one minute, mak-
ing one of his perpendicular dives with the engine
still. The whistling of the wind through the taut
wires of the machine could be heard half a mile
away. On this occasion one of the lady visitors
to the testing grounds, who had never seen
Beachey fly before, thinking that he was falling
and would surely strike the ground and be
dashed to pieces, fainted. Beachey said, "Fly-
ing did not come to me at first but it seemed to
come all of a sudden and then it came big." l
Once Beachey had to land in a very small place
surrounded with trees and the only way he could
do it with the fast machine that he was driving
was to kill its speed in the air by skimming over
the trees, shutting off his motor, and gliding along
to the place where he wanted to stop, and then
i Ralph Johnstone said in a conversation about experiences
while learning to fly, "I learned to fly all right but one day when
I was up in the air pretty high I seemed to forget all about it
and how to operate the controls. I tried them and tested how
they worked and it seemed to me that I learned all over again, but
it did seem funny to me for just a few minutes." Geo. W.
Beatty said, "When I was flying at Chicago, in the contest for
duration, when the weather was calm, and I had nothing else to
do but sit and think while the machine flew on, round and round,
lap after lap, I would look out at a wire and watch it as it vi-
brated and wonder if it was possible for it to break, while I
realised that I could not get out to fix it. This worried me
more than flying in a high wind. It seems more natural for me
to fly than not to. I have been in the air on an average of two
hours every day for over a year."
286 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
pointing the machine up suddenly, very much as
a bird comes to a stop, and then " pancaking "
down, as it is called when you come down " ker-
flop " like a pancake.
Beachey broke a wheel by this performance and
he has worried over that little breakage as much
as another man would over smashing up a whole
machine.
Beachey flew from New York to Philadelphia
in company with Eugene Ely and Hugh Eobinson
in August, 1911, winning the first inter-city race to
be held in the United States.
Among the skilled operators of hydroaeroplanes
is Mr. Hugh Eobinson who flew down the Missis-
sippi Eiver in the spring of 1912, carrying mail
and covering the river course between Minneapo-
lis, Minn., and Eock Island, 111. Mr. Eobinson
also went to France in May of 1912, and com-
peted in the first contests and races ever held in
this new sport at Monte Carlo. Since his return
to America, Mr. Eobinson has been the instructor
in hydroaeroplaning at Hammondsport.
CHAPTER II
A DESCRIPTION OF THE CURTISS BIPLANE
NO type of aeroplane is more familiar in
America than the Curtiss biplane. By long
experimentation, this machine has been developed
for practical use; and is now used for military
purposes in Eussia, Japan, Italy, Germany,
France, and the United States. The machine is
of the general type known as " biplane, " in which
there are two sets of wings, or surfaces, one being
directly above the other. This type of machine
seems to be the most favoured by Americans, for
it not only allows of a greater spread of lifting
surface for a given width of plane than in the
monoplane, or single-wing type, but also it is
much stronger than other machines of the same
weight, as its design permits of a system of
bridge-trussing known as the " Pratt Truss."
In the Curtiss machine this feature is especially
pronounced, because of the greater safety which
rigid planes have when compared with the flexi-
ble wings.
The woodwork of these aeroplanes is entirely
of selected spruce and ash, all the posts, beams,
and ribs being laminated. The propeller is a par-
287
288 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
ticularly difficult piece of laminated work, being
built up of from twelve to eighteen layers of thinly
cut wood, while the upright posts of the central
section are made up of ash and spruce, the heav-
ier and more flexible wood forming the core. A
feature of strength is to be found in the double
trussing which is placed in all of the vital parts
of the aeroplane, where the greatest strength is
required. All this trussing is made with a cable
of galvanised steel wire tested to withstand a
pulling strain of nearly half a ton.
Transportation and military use have been es-
pecially considered in the construction of the
planes. The upper and lower planes are made
up of interchangeable panels, which are so joined
together that the machine is easily assembled and
taken apart and may be transported compactly
in two flat boxes which scarcely make one full
wagon load, as indicated in an illustration in this
book.
The wing-panels are made up with a light and
strong wooden framework covered with cloth es-
pecially made and treated with a rubber coating
for the purpose. The curved ribs are laminated
also and the panels held together by a system of
trussing which gives them great strength. These
panels are covered both top and bottom.
Light and strong bamboo rods extend to the
front of the main planes, supporting the elevator
or forward horizontal surface, which acts as a
BIPLANE PAETS 289
rudder to steer upward and downward. Similar
bamboo rods at the rear support the vertical rud-
der and rear elevators and stabilising plane.
Front and rear elevators work in conjunction
with each other so that as the front of the ma-
chine is directed up, the rear of the machine is
depressed by the two rear elevators, called " flip-
pers " from their resemblance to these append-
ages of a seal or a turtle, each of which is con-
trolled by an individual set of cables, so that if
one should break or get out of order the other
may be used independently. The front or rear
elevators are sufficient to maintain the fore and
aft balance of the machine in flight, so if any-
thing happens to one the other will enable a safe
landing to be made. Some aviators take off the
front elevating plane entirely, relying solely upon
the two rear ones for horizontal control.
The elevators and the vertical rudder are ma-
nipulated by a single steering post at the top of
which is the steering wheel. Turning the wheel
to the right or left steers the aeroplane to the
left or to the right as a boat or an automobile is
steered, while pushing the wheel forward directs
the machine downward and pulling the wheel
causes it to rise, a system of control in accord
with the natural impulse of the operator.
To maintain the lateral balance of the aero-
plane, there are small movable planes, or " ailer-
ons," attached at the ends of the main frame-
290 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
work, midway between the upper and lower
planes, at the rear. These ailerons are so ar-
ranged that the front edge remains in the same
position; while one swings upward, the other
swings downward, at the back, thus giving an up-
ward pressure of air on the under side of the one,
while the other is depressed by the air which
strikes it on top. This movement is controlled
by a movable back to the aviator's seat or a frame
or yoke which fits around the shoulders of the
aviator in such a way that he moves the ailerons
to the proper position when he leans to the high
side of the aeroplane as it tilts and is thus able
automatically to correct its balance.
The motors with which the military and cross-
country models are equipped are of the eight-cyl-
inder " V-shaped'' type, developing sixty and
eighty horse-power. The propeller is attached
directly to the motor shaft, thus doing away with
any necessity of gearing, which consumes power,
increases the risk of breakage, and decreases re-
liability. The speed of the motor is controlled
by a throttle opened and closed by a movement of
the left foot.
The seat for the aviator is placed well forward
of the main planes, giving him a clear view not
only ahead, but also straight downward. On the
military model, a passenger-seat is provided im-
mediately beside that of the aviator, and a dual
system of control makes it possible for either pas-
p .
Si-T
s
S i"3..
1 a c t!
5 .2
O ^.2^
DIAGRAM OF CURTISS MOTOR, SIDE AND FRONT VIEWS
I, Cylinder; 2, Engine Bed; 3, Fuel Tank: 4. Oil Pan; 5, Radiator;
6. Propeller ; 7. Crank Case : 8. Carbureter : 9. Gasoline Pipe : 10. Air Intake ;
II. Auxiliary Air-pipe; 12, Drain Cock; 13, Water Cooling: System: 14, Gas
Intake Pipe: 15, Rocker Arm; 16, Spring on Intake Valve; 17, Spring on
Exhaust Valve; 18, Exhaust Port; 19, Rocker Arm Post; 20, Push Rod.
BIPLANE PAETS 291
senger to operate the machine independently of
the other.
The aeroplane is mounted upon a three-wheeled
chassis with one skid extending from front to
rear, the whole landing gear being built strong
and rigid to withstand the shock of landing, the
most dangerous part of flying.
Elaborate tests are made of the different parts
of the machine; the panels forming the surfaces
are tested by loading them with gravel until they
break and weighing the amount of gravel heaped
upon them before they give way. These tests
have shown a factor of safety in excess of any
strain that could be put on the machine in the air.
The strain on the various wires and cables is
also measured, with a special instrument made
for that purpose, as seen in an illustration.
Every conceivable test has been tried which could
give information that would lead to any improve-
ment in strength to withstand strains, in addition
to the complete knowledge that has come from
actual tests under all conditions in the air, and
on the ground itself, by expert flyers who have
done almost everything that it is possible to do
with the machine as far as trying to find its weak
point is concerned. Dives almost straight down
with abrupt turns at the end of the drop put many
times the ordinary strain on every part. Rough
landings also show up any lack of strength or
fault in the design of the running gear or frame
292 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
of the machine, especially since this machine is
not provided with any springs or other device for
taking up the shock of a bad landing.
CURTISS AEROPLANE PARTS A COMPLETE LIST 1
1, Engine Section Panel; 2, Wing Panel; 3, Wing Panel,
Sparred Beam; 4-5, Aileron, Right & Left; 6, Tail; 7-8,
Flipper, Right and Left; 9, Rudder; 10, Front Control, Ele-
vator only; 11, Hydro Front Control, Elevator only; 12-13,
Fin, Top & Bottom; 14-15, Non Skid Surface, Headless &
Large.
BAMBOOS
16-17, Front, Upper, Right & Left; 18-19, Front, Lower,
Right & Left; 20, Front Cross Tie, Headless; 21-22, Front
Bamboo Brace, Right & Left; 23-24, Rear, Upper, Right &
Left; 25-26, Rear, Lower, Right & Left; 27, Push Rod Bam-
boo, 45"; 28-29, Bamboo Post, Short & Long.
30, Full Set Rear Bamboos, Wired Complete; 31, Full Tail
Equipment, consisting of Rear Bamboos, Posts, Tail, Rudder
and Flippers.
POSTS
32, Wing Panel, %" x 23,4" x 54%"; 33, Wing Panel, %" x
2%" x 60"; 34, Engine Section, 1%" x 2%" x 54V 2 "; 35, En-
gine Section, 1%" x 2%" x 60".
i To indicate the exact technical knowledge required in building
an aeroplane, a matter quite apart from the obvious dash and
daring of the aviator, nothing seems more adequate than to in-
clude the list of aeroplane and motor parts. THE PUBLISHEBS.
BIPLANE PARTS 293
DIAGONAL ASH BRACES, FROM FRONT WHEEL TO ENGINE BED
36-37, Diagonal Ash Brace, Tinned, Bight & Left; 38-39,
Diagonal Ash Brace, Left & Right; 40-41, Diagonal Ash Brace,
Tinned & Ironed, Left & Eight.
DIAGONAL SPRUCE BRACE, FROM FRONT WHEEL TO WING PANEL
42-43, Diagonal Spruce Brace, Left & Right; 44-45, Diag-
onal Spruce Brace, Ironed, Left and Right; 46, Skid; 47-48,
Engine Bed, not Tinned, Right & Left; 49-50, Engine Bed,
Tinned, Right & Left.
ENGINE BED POSTS. BRACES AND TUBING BRACES ABOVE LOWER
PLANE
51-52, Engine Bed Post, Front, Right & Left; 53-54, Engine
Bed Post, Rear, Right & Left; 55-56, Engine Bed Brace,
Front, Lower, Right & Left; 57-58, Engine Bed Brace, Rear,
Lower, Right & Left; 59-60, Engine Bed Brace, Rear, Upper,
Right & Left; 61-62, Engine Bed to Surface, Rear, Upper,
Right & Left; 63, A Brace to Surface, Front, Upper; 64,
Cross Tie Brace under Upper Surface; 65-66, Aileron Brace,
Upper, Right & Left; 67-68, Aileron Brace, Lower, Right &
Left; 69-70, Seat Post, Right & Left; 71-72, Carburetor
Brace, Right & Left.
CHASSIS BRACES. FORKS AND TUBING UNDER LOWER PLANE
73, Cross Tie Rod, Lower, Under Lower Surface; 74, Long
Span Brace, Rear Wheel to Rear Wheel; 75-76, Skid Fork,
Right & Left; 77-79, Vertical Fork, Front & Rear, Right &
Left; 80-81, Leader Fork, Rear, Right & Left; 82-83, M
Brace, Right & Left; 84, Y Brace; 85, V Brace, Front, Skid
to Diagonal; 86, V Brace Spreader and Bolt, Front; 87,
Brace, Center, Skid to Diagonal; 88, V Brace, Center, Skid
to Double Seat; 89, V Brace, Rear, Skid to Diagonal; 90-91,
Combination Foot Throttle & Brake, Single & Dual.
294 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
92, Brake Shoe; 93, Brake Shoe Hinge; 94, Brake Shoe
Lug; 95, Brake Shoe Spring; 96, Steering Column, Single;
97, Steering Wheel, Spider, Fork and Bolt; 98, Steering
Wheel, Spider, Fork & Column, Assembled & Wired; 99,
Steering Column, Dual; 100, Steering Wheel, Spider, Fork
& Bolt, Dual; 101, Steering Wheel, Spider, Fork, Bolt &
Column, Assembled & Wired, Dual; 102, Foot Rest; 103,
Push Rod, Metal, with Swivel End, Dual.
104, Seat, Single; 105, Seat with Fittings for Shoulder
Yoke, Single; 106, Seat, Complete with Shoulder Yoke,
Whiffle-tree Case and Whiffle-tree, Single; 107, Seat, Double;
108, Seat with Fittings for Shoulder Yoke, Double; 109, Seat,
Complete with Shoulder Yoke, Whiffle-tree Cases and Whiffle-
tree, Double; 110, Seat, Passenger; 111, Seat Supporting
Brace, Passenger; 112, Rear Beam Reinforcing Plates.
113, Cable, % 2 "; 114, Cable, % 6 "; 115, Cable, % 2 ";
116, Cable Casing; 117, Short Circuiting Switch; 118,
Snaps, 3"; 119, Main Plane Socket; 120, Main Plane
Socket, Wired Complete; 121, Main Plane Plate; 122, Aileron
End Wire Connection; 123-124, Aileron Cross Wire Clamp
& Clip; 125, Aileron L; 126, Aileron Post Lug; 127, Aileron
Brace Wire Connection ; 128, Aileron Corner Wire Guide ; 129,
Aileron Corner Pulley, 3"; 129, Aileron Pulley, 3".
131, Bamboo Curved Rudder Wire Guide; 132, Skid Safety
Wire Connection; 133, Copper Sleeve; 134, Tin Thimbles;
135, Diagonal Ash Brace Iron; 136, Diagonal Spruce Brace
Iron; 137-138, Engine Bed Post Plate & Wire Connection;
139, Engine Bed Bolt; 140, Fin L Irons; 141, Fin Hinge;
142-143, Front Control Bracket & L Iron; 144, Hydro Front
Control, Brace Lug; 145-146, Hydro Front Control Support-
ing Post, L & R; 147-148, Hydro Front Control, Supporting
Post Lug, Left & Right; 149-150, Hydro Front Control Push
Rod & Bracket; 151-152, Hydro Front Control Post & Diag-
onal Brace; 153, Hydro Splash Boards.
154-155, Flipper Post & Wedge; 156, Flipper Hinge; 157,
Flipper Wire Guide, Straight; 158, Rudder Swivel; 159,
BIPLANE PARTS 295
Curved Corner Wire Guide; 160, Rudder Lever Clip; 161,
Rudder Wire Connection; 162, Rudder Wire Guide, Curved;
163-164, Terminals, Short & Long; 165, Turnbuckles; 166,
Wheel, 20" x 4", Complete; 167, Wheel, 20" x 4", Less Tire;
168-169, Wheel, 20" x 2V 2 ", Complete & Less Tire; 170, Inner
Tube, 20" x 4"; 171, Casing, 20" x 4"; 172, Tire, 20" x 2%";
173, Axle.
174, Gas Tank, to Attach to Engine Bed ; 175, Bamboo Brace
Clip; 176, Flexible Gasoline Pipe; 177, Radiator; 178,
Radiator Brace; 179-180, Propeller, Bolt & Tinned; 181,
Propeller, Complete Not Tinned; 182, Cap Screw, Nickel
Steel, % 6 -24 x 1%; 183, Cap Screw, Nickel Steel, % 6 -24 x
2V 4 ; 184-185, Spring Washer, %, x % 6 & % 6 x %; 186, Wing
Pontoon, Complete; 187, Pontoon Paddles; 188, Hydro Drain
Plug; 189, Hydro Braces; 190-191, Hydro Spacing Tube &
Bolt, Short & Long.
CHAPTER in
THE CURTISS MOTOR AND FACTORY
THE history of the Curtiss motor goes back
to the early days at Hammondsport ; it was
the keynote of the development of the motorcycle,
the airship, the aeroplane, and the hydro. From
a crude single-cylinder engine used on an experi-
mental bicycle, the motor has developed to an
eight-cylinder engine giving over eighty horse-
power, on which the reliability of the Curtiss
aeroplane is dependent. Indeed, flight itself, in
the history of the world, was delayed until the
development of the gas engine made it possible
to get a power that was applicable for this pur-
pose, and one that was, at the same time, light
enough.
To describe the motor intelligibly to one who
has had no acquaintanceship whatever with gas
engines would require many chapters, but to
those who have ever examined automobile, ma-
rine, or other motors, the following technical data
will give an idea of the distinctive feature of this
aeroplane motor.
296
MOTOR PAETS 297
MOTOE DESIGN AND MATEEIAL.
Crankshaft:
The crankshaft is supported in five bearings of
more than ample size. It is extremely difficult,
if not impossible, to design a shaft which will be
light enough for aeronautical purposes, and still
be sufficiently rigid without a special support.
The propeller end of the shaft is supported in two
places eleven and three-eighth inches apart, at
one end in a plain bearing two and seven-six-
teenth inches long and at the other in a combined
radial and thrust ball bearing of ample size.
This construction is stronger than is the case
where the propeller is mounted immediately be-
hind the last main bearing proper or even in some
cases carried at a distance of several inches from
the bearing without support. Any lack of me-
chanical or thrust balance is multiplied and trans-
mitted directly to the last crank throw, the tre-
mendous racking and twisting strain thus
occasioned causing ultimate failure.
The crankshaft is made of imported Chrome-
Nickel steel, properly heat treated. This steel,
particularly after heat treatment, has an enor-
mous tensile strength combined with a very high
elastic limit and great resistance to fatigue and
crystallisation.
Connecting Rods:
The connecting rods are machined from a solid
298 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Chrome-Nickel steel forging, heat treated. The
body of the rod is tubular, which cross section
gives a maximum strength with minimum weight.
Eough forging weighs five pounds; finished
weight one pound eight ounces.
Piston:
The piston is long enough to give sufficient
bearing surface to sustain the side thrust from
the connecting rod and at the same time weighs
but two and one-half pounds. The domed head,
with properly placed ribs, assures strength. The
piston pin bearing is seven-eighth inches diame-
ter by two and three-fourth inches long. Eevers-
ing common practice, the pin turns in the piston
instead of the rod end, as considerable gain in
bearing surface is thus made.
Engineers will appreciate that with a combined
piston and rod weight of four and one-half
pounds, the strains from twenty-two hundred re-
versals of motion per minute at normal speed are
very slight.
It has three rings together with fourteen oil
grooves aiding the rings in retaining compression
and assisting the oiling. All pistons are rough
turned and then thoroughly annealed before
grinding, to insure against warping in service.
The piston rings are of clean springy iron,
ground all over. As a ring must be tight on the
sides as well as where it comes in contact with
MOTOE PAETS "299
the cylinder, there must not be a variation in
width of over a quarter thousandth of an inch.
Cylinder:
The cylinder is symmetrical in design, insur-
ing even expansion without distortion.
Valve-in-the-head construction gives an efficient
shape of combustion chamber; the compact
charge fired in the centre giving quick, complete
combustion, and the large valves give free ingress
and egress for the gases.
The water jacket is brazed to the cylinder-
casting autogenously, the metal being a composi-
tion of nickel and copper known as "Monel"
metal, which is proof against corrosion.
Cylinders are bored, ground and finished by
lapping, to get a glass smooth surface.
Water Circulation:
The water circulation is so carried out that all
cylinders are cooled equally, the water pump be-
ing divided by a partition which passes water in
equal quantities to each set of four, thus avoiding
any possibility of a steam- trap on one side caus-
ing all the water to pass through the other side.
The pump is driven from the crankshaft by a
floating joint. The pump shaft is made of a car-
bon spindle steel.
A portion of the hot water is returned through
the carburetor water jacket, which is essential
300 THE'CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
with present day gasoline, particularly in cold
weather or high altitudes.
Lubrication:
The lubrication is a combined circulating and
splash oiling system. A gear driven oil pump
submerged in the oil pan forces a constant stream
of filtered oil through the hollow cam shaft bear-
ing, thence to each individual cam shaft bearing,
thence to the main crankshaft bearings whence
it is forced through the hollow crankshaft and
cheeks to the crank pins, the surplus replenishing
the oil pan into which the rods dip, thus oiling
the cylinder walls by splash and also filling oil
pockets on each main bearing, as an additional
insurance against their running dry.
The pump is driven off a bevel gear integral
with the crankshaft and is of the gear type, be-
ing without valves or moving parts other than
two simple spur gears. It is entirely enclosed in
a fine mesh screen through which the oil must
pass to reach the pump.
Valves:
The valves have cast-iron heads reinforced with
a perforated steel disc embedded in the cast
iron, the whole being electrically welded to a
carbon steel stem. The cam shaft is hardened
and ground and cams formed integral with the
shaft. The cam contour is also ground, the valve
timing being exactly the same in each cylinder.
CURTISS MOTORS
(A) The first Curtiss aerial motor; iised In Baldwin dirigible. (B) Motor
used in both the "White Wing" and "Red Wing." (C) Motor of 1912
^ -WMKfc
AT THE AEROPLANE FACTORY, HAMMONDSPORT
(A) Testing aeroplanes. Gravel on reversed planes tests strength ; scale shows
wire-strain. (B) Assembly room of factory
MOTOR PAETS 301
Castings:
The majority of non-moving parts, including
the crank case, are cast of special aluminum al-
loys. Recent laboratory tests have shown ten-
sile strengths of as high as fifty thousand, five
hundred pounds per square inch.
Weight:
The weight of model "A" motor alone is two
hundred eighty-five pounds three and eight-
tenth pounds per horse-power. The weight of
power plant including propeller, radiator, and
necessary connections is three hundred forty-
seven pounds.
Note that the forty horse-power cylinder mo-
tor weighs one hundred seventy-five pounds and
gives a thrust of three hundred ten pounds
when equipped with a seven foot diameter by six
foot pitch propeller turning at nine hundred
revolutions per minute. The pitch speed of the
propeller at this rate is in excess of a mile a
minute.
Gas-Consumption :
The consumption of gas is three-fourths pint
per horse-power per hour. The engine can be
throttled and consumption reduced in nearly di-
rect ratio to the horse-power developed.
Consumption on full throttle per hour is seven
and one-fourth gallons gasoline and one gallon of
302 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
oil. The oil capacity of the small pan is four gal-
lons ; of the large pan, six gallons.
Testing and Power:
Each engine is given an extended run with pro-
peller load. After giving the required standing
thrust at the proper speed, the engine is com-
pletely torn down for inspection and carbon re-
moved. After assembling, it is given a second
test on a water dynamometer, which gives the
horse-power developed.
Miscellaneous:
Few people realise that the aeronautical motor
is subjected to usage equalled by few internal
combustion engines. The average car engine is
seldom run on full throttle for extended periods.
The marine engine is ordinarily a very heavy,
slow speed machine. The aeronautical motor, to
run at the high speeds under full load demanded
to-day, must of necessity be designed with this
fact in mind, and particular attention paid to
numerous weaknesses apt to develop under this
treatment.
Adding to the above the necessity for minimum
weight while still retaining a sufficient factor of
safety in all parts, it is evident that an aeronauti-
cal motor must be designed as such and not be a
modified edition of an automobile engine with a
few pounds removed here and there.
MOTOR PARTS 303
PARTS OF CUBTISS MOTOR A COMPLETE LIST.
1-5, Breather Pipe Cap Screw & Flange, Collar, Cap &
Clip; 6, Ball Bearing (Radial) ; 7-8, Crank Case, Upper Half
& Lower Half; 9-10, Crank Case Bolt, Small & Large > 11,
Crank Shaft.
12, Cam Shaft; 13-15, Cam Shaft Bearing, Front, Centre,
& Rear; 16, Cam Shaft Bearing Sleeve, Rear; 17-18, Cam
Shaft Gear & Retaining Screw; 19-20, Cam Shaft Bearing
Clamping Screw, Centre, & Retaining Screw; 21, Cam Fol-
lower Guide Stud; 22, Cam Follower Guide Screw; 23, Cam
Follower; 24^25, Cam Follower Guide & Plug.
26, Cylinder; 27, Cylinder Tie Down Yoke; 28-29, Cylinder
Stud, Long & Short; 30, Cylinder Stud Nut; 31-32, Connect-
ing Rod & Bolt; 33, Connecting Rod Bolt Nut; 34, Compres-
sion Tee for Oil Pipe; 35, Compression Coupling Sleeve;
36-37, Cable Holder & Screw; 38-39, Cable Tube & End; 40-
41, Cable Tube Clip & Screw; 42, Carburetor Water Pipe
Clip.
43, Exhaust & Inlet Valve; 44, Exhaust Valve Spring; 45,
Felt Oil Retainer for Rear Thrust Bearing; 46, Felt Oil Re-
tainer for Magneto Gear; 47, Gasket for Intake Manifold;
48-49, Gear Case Cover & Screw; 50, Gear Cover Packing
Nut; 51, Half Time Gear; 52, Intake Pipe Elbow; 53, Intake
Pipe with 2 Union Nuts ; 54r-56, Intake Pipe Y & Support Base
& Cap; 57-62, Intake Manifold, & Bolt, Bolt Nut, Cap
Screw, Union Nut, & Elbow Cap Screw; 63, Intake Valve
Spring; 64, Magneto Bracket; 65, Magneto Gear; 66-67, Mag-
neto Bracket Cap Screw, Large & Small; 68, Magneto Base
Cap Screw.
69, Main Bearing Stud Nut; 70, Main Bearing Stud, New;
71-73, Main Bearing Cap, Front, Centre & Rear; 74-75, Main
Bearing Babbitt, Front, Upper, & Lower; 76-77, Main Bear-
ing Babbitt, Centre, Upper & Lower; 78-79, Main Bearing
Babbitt, Rear, Upper, & Lower; 80, Main Bearing Babbitt
304 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
Clamping Screw; 81, Main Bearing Liner, Front & Rear;
82, Main Bearing Liner Centre; 83, Main Bearing Liners.
84, Nipple for Oil Pump; 85-86, Oil Pump & Leader Gear
Shaft; 87-94, Oil Pump Follower Gear, Cover, Drive Pin-
ion, Screen, Support Bolt, Cover Screw, Follower Gear
Bushing, & Shaft Bushing; 95, Oil Pipe for Pump;
96-97, Oil Pump Compression Coupling & Nut; 98-99, Oil
Sight, Base & Glass; 100-101, Oil Sight Glass Guard & Cap;
102, Oil Splash Pan; 103, Oil Bleeder Pipe; 104, Oil Bleeder
Pet Cock.
105-107, Piston, Pin & Ring; 108-109, Pump Packing Nut,
Large & Small; 110-114, Push Rod, End Bearing Pin Lock
Screw, Spring, Spring Support, Forked End, & End
Bearing Pin; 115, Propeller Bolt; 116-121, Rocker Arm,
Support, Bearing Pin Set Screw, Tappet Screw, Sup-
port Cap Screw, & Bearing Pin; 122-124, Spark Plug
(Herz) Gasket,--& Wrench; 125-129, Thrust Bearing, End
Clamp, Lock Ring, End Clamp Screw, End Clamp Bolt,
End Thread Bolt Nut; 130, Valve Push Rod; 131, Valve
Stem Washer; 132, Valve Stem Lock Washer.
133-135, Water Jacket, Inlet Nut, & Inlet; 136, Water
Pump; 137-140, Water Pump Shaft, Support Stud, Im-
peller, & Driver; 141, Water Pump Friction Sleeve; 142-
143, Water Pump Friction Washer, Front & Rear; 144-145,
Water Pump Bushing, Front & Rear; 146, Water Pump Gas-
ket; 147-149, Water Pump Universal Joint Member, Male,
Female, & Spring; 150-151, Water Pipe, Right Hand, Bot-
tom, & Left Hand, Bottom; 152, Water Pipe Outlet Elbow;
153-156, Water Outlet Top Pipes for Cylinders.
A VISIT TO THE FACTOBY
A visit to the Curtiss factory is of interest to
any one interested in machinery and there yon
will see the latest machines of all types, from
THE CURTISS FACTORY 305
powerful milling machines to a delicate modern
"Printograph" that is almost human in its man-
ner of getting out letters and printing, for it is
a cross between a printing press and a type-
writer. Another unique machine is one that
carves out propellers from a laminated block of
wood. One arm of this machine runs over a
model, and the other, about two feet away, ar-
ranged to move exactly with it, and provided
with a tool of cutting edge, forms the propeller
blade with absolute accuracy, out of a block of
wood placed parallel to the model. The cutting
tool follows all the complex changes in the surface
of the wooden propeller with the greatest ease and
rapidity.
The brazing room, where the oxy-hydrogen
torch is used to braze metal parts together, and
the room where they weld the water jackets on to
the cylinders, are places of special interest; the
nickel plating room, japanning room, and the
room where painting and drying are done, almost
complete the tour of the various departments,
but there still remain the wood-working shop,
boat shop, assembling rooms, where the aero-
planes are put together and completely set up,
and the motor testing room, where motors are
run for whole days, ten hours at a time, driving
an air propeller and showing on scales the
amount of thrust given at all times.
Here you may also see a machine to make
306 THE CUETISS AVIATION BOOK
" brake tests" of the motors, by which is told
how much horse-power the motors give. This
machine consists of a large drum with a brake
fixed against it and cooled by water so it will not
get too hot. This brake absorbs the energy of
the motor, which is measured by an arrangement
of scales and lever arms.
There is a tremendous racket when the big mo-
tors are running at full speed in this small room,
and the hillside rings with the roar of their fiery
exhaust.
In the laboratory of the factory, where the de-
signs and drawings are made, there is one of the
most interesting pieces of apparatus in the whole
plant. This is a "wind tunnel," where models
of aeroplanes are tested and where experiments
are tried to see what occurs in the stream of air.
Here tests are made which assist in determining
what the best form and shape of objects such as
upright posts and exposed parts shall be and
where a measure of their relative resistances may
be made. The tunnel itself consists of a square
box with a propeller or fan mounted at one end
to create a draft or current of air which passes
through a screen to cause it to assume uniform
motion. There is a window in the tunnel
through which the observer can see the action of
the objects to be tested. Varying the speed of
the fan varies the speed of the air current and its
pressure, and in this manner the stream-lines of
THE CURTISS FACTOEY 307
air under the varying conditions and the effect
upon models of different forms and shapes may
be studied to enable refinements to be made in
the aeroplane's construction.
Down on the shore of Lake Keuka, about a half
mile from the factory, are the aeroplane sheds
and the flying field. Here is where the aviation
school is situated, and where flyers are made.
Over the smooth field, the pupils start with the
four-cylinder " grass cutters," or machines hob-
bled so they cannot get but a little way off the
ground. They hop, hop, hop, almost all day long,
one after the other taking regular turns, and now
and again varying the monotony by being called
away by the flying instructor to take a real flight
in the hydroaeroplane out over the lake to get
accustomed to the upper air, and to the high speed
of the big machine.
Later in his course of instruction, the student
takes out an eight-cylinder machine and flies
around in circles over the field until he is able to
take the test for his Aero Club of America Li-
cense, which requires him to make two series of
figure eights around two pylons fifteen hundred
feet apart, landing each time within one hundred
and fifty feet of a mark and rising to an altitude
greater than two hundred feet.
This is the goal of the novice, and after his test,
the student is ready to fly as far and as fast as
he likes. He has become the complete airman.
RETURN CIRCUI
TO 202 M
LOAN PERIOD 1
4
~i ^ =
LATION DEPART
am Library
2
5
1 1
MENT
642-34D.-3
3
J -
ore clo.in 9 .in., on ,he lo s, da,e s,a m ped b.,o,
DUE AS STAMPED
NO. DD6A, 20m,
J. uuu, orn, 4 / /
YB 7016
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRWES
259861
C
