The platform was like that built on the Birmingham, 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 before 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 runway 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.
ELY LANDING ON U.S.S. PENNSYLVANIA
TWO FAMOUS MILITARY TEST FLIGHTS
(A) Curtiss and hydro hoisted on U. S. S. "Pennsylvania," at San Diego.
(B) Ely leaving "Pennsylvania," San Francisco harbor
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 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 Curtiss biplane that Ely used, yet the photograph taken from the fighting top of the ship shows the machine touching the platform squarely in the centre. When one stops to think that the aeroplane was travelling about forty miles an hour when it touched the deck and was brought to a stop within a hundred feet, the remarkable precision of the aviator will be appreciated.