In January, 1910, he was the most prominent aviator at the Los Angeles meet, and there made a new world’s record for altitude, 4,166 feet.
Within the 13 months and 3 weeks (up to October 1, 1910) that he has been flying, he has won over $100,000 in prizes, besides receiving many handsome fees for other flights and for instruction to pupils.
CLIFFORD B. HARMON.
Clifford B. Harmon has the double distinction of being not only the foremost amateur aviator of America, but his feats have also at times excelled those of the professional airmen. On July 2, 1910, Mr. Harmon made a continuous flight of more than 2 hours, breaking all American records, and this he held for several months.
Mr. Harmon’s first experience in the air was as a balloonist, and in this capacity he held the duration record of 48 hours 26 minutes for a year. On this same voyage, at the St. Louis Centennial, he made a new record in America for altitude attained, 24,400 feet.
At the Los Angeles aviation meet, in January, 1910, where he went with his balloon New York, he met Paulhan, and became his pupil. At that meet Paulhan made a new world’s record for altitude with a Farman biplane, and this machine Mr. Harmon bought, and brought to Mineola, L. I., where he practised assiduously, crowning his minor achievements by flying from there across Long Island Sound to Greenwich, Conn.
At the Boston-Harvard aviation meet, in September, 1910, Mr. Harmon won every prize offered to amateur contestants.
WALTER BROOKINS.
Walter Brookins is one of the youngest of noted aviators. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1890, and went to school to Miss Katherine Wright, sister of the Wright brothers. Young Walter was greatly interested in the experiments made by the Wrights, and Orville one day promised him that when he grew up they would build a flying machine for him. Brookins appeared at Dayton in the early part of 1910, after several years’ absence, during which he had grown up, and demanded the promised flying machine. The Wrights met the demand, and developed Brookins into one of the most successful American aviators.
Brookins’s first leap into prominence was at the Indianapolis meet, in June, 1910, where he made a new world’s record for altitude, 4,803 feet. This being beaten soon after in Europe, by J. Armstrong Drexel, with 6,600 feet, Brookins attempted, at Atlantic City, in September, to excel Drexel’s record, and rose to a height of 6,175 feet, being forced to come down by the missing of his motor.