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 already come. [5] The navy machine built by Glenn 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 Hammondsport, N. Y.
| [5] | 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, of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Atwater are on a tour of the world, carrying with them two Curtiss hydroaeroplanes and giving demonstrations of a practical character before the military authorities of all the countries en route. On Saturday, May 11th, 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. According to the statement of the Japan Advertiser the Japanese Navy has followed the example of Russia, and forwarded to America an order for four Curtiss hydroaeroplanes.–A. P. |
"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 Curtiss 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 another 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' remarks, the Aero Club of America, at their annual banquet held on January 27, 1912, awarded the "Collier Trophy" to Mr. Curtiss for his successful development and thorough demonstration of the hydroaeroplane, the terms of the deed of gift stating that "it shall be awarded annually for the greatest achievement in aviation in America, the value of which has been demonstrated by use during 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 Robert J. Collier, president of the Aero Club of America.–A. P.
[PART 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]
[CHAPTER 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 performance. Because, of course, as soon as the aeroplane 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 probably do than what it had actually done. But the aeroplane, which is bound to break all speed-records, has made history at the fastest rate yet. Day by day we move things over from the prophecy 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 and achievement to justify the aeroplane prophets.