An early model built by Monroe Jacobs. Note the Ailerons.
The only other person allowed on the floor while the flights were in progress was the owner of the model, who must follow it and bring it back. He was allowed to cross the floor, but once he had secured his model, he must carry it quickly to the nearest point at the side, and find his way back to the starting point along the outer lines. It is confusing both to the flyer and the spectators to have a single unnecessary figure on the floor during the flights. The crowd is kept back by members of the club, wearing the club colors.
The regular fortnightly model aeroplane meets held in New York are doubtless the most largely-attended and best-organized meets of the kind in the world. The 22nd Regiment armory, a spacious structure admirably suited for indoor aviation, has very courteously been thrown open for the purpose on every other Saturday afternoon.
Throughout the season, each of these meets brings together several hundred boys and spectators, and on the average about 100 model aeroplanes. The meet is conducted with intelligence and sympathy by the Y. M. C. A., and is open to all. Of late these exhibitions have become so popular that the crowds actually threaten the convenience of the flyers, and the boys have been required to present credentials on entering, consisting simply of a model aeroplane.
There are few more animated spectacles than the model aeroplane tournament. There is a great sunlit floor, measuring 250 by 150 feet, roofed with glass. The aviation fields are reproduced here in miniature, without loss of animation. Along the sides are continuous lines of "camps," corresponding to the hangars where scores of boys are busy tuning up their machines. They have brought tools and a variety of extra materials, planes, propellers, motors, and strips, which are spread about them.
In each camp the machines,—and there are no two alike,—are being assembled or repaired. Groups of the boys' friends and admirers are gathered about each camp, earnestly discussing the merits of a particular model and its chances in the approaching contest. To stroll down the line of camps is in itself a liberal education in aeronautics.
The records of all flights are carefully preserved, to be counted against the several important trophies which will be awarded at the end of the season. Any one of the scores of contestants can tell you at any moment how the score stands. During this tuning up process, the galleries have filled and an enthusiastic audience is assured.
One of the great beauties of indoor aviation is that it is entirely independent of the weather. The air of the great armory is practically at rest, and the aeroplanes escape the baffling side currents and air gusts. In England, for instance, indoor aviation is practically unknown.
A whistle sounds above the hum of many voices, and at the signal everyone scurries to the sides, leaving the broad floor clear. The judge, starter, and measurer take their positions, and the aviators, with their models tuned up to concert pitch, stand ready at the starting line. The starter announces whether the flight is "official" and if it is to be counted in the competition for the trophies, or is merely a practice or exhibition flight.
The start is made from the extreme corner diagonally across the armory. Only last year the start was made from a point well out in the middle of the floor, but that was when the flights were much shorter. To-day the boys have actually outgrown the armory, and even by flying from corner to corner there is not enough room. The aeroplanes are no longer launched from the hand or even pushed along the ground. They are required to start without assistance and rise in the air without being touched.