[CHAPTER 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 several different newspapers, and a great many cities wanted to have public flights made and particularly 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 Walter Brookins made a world's altitude record of over six thousand feet in a standard Wright machine. 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. Willard, Eugene B. Ely, J. A. D. McCurdy, and Augustus 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 occasions 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 arranged 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 Bleriot monoplane with him. A special race was arranged 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, [3] after which it 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 undertaking for this period in the history of aviation in America, for the longest flight that up to this time had been made in this country was between New York and Philadelphia, one hundred and eighty miles; while the distance between Chicago 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.
| [3] | 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. 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. |
The Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup race was the 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 possible resource, with the splendid result of securing 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 powerful 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 another make. Mr. Grahame-White won the race in his Bleriot, although Mr. Alfred Leblanc, representing 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, Mars, Willard, and McCurdy who flew in the contests. I had given up public flying in contests at this time.