 This is my favorite photograph of the Wright brothers Wilbur at the left Orville with a moustache They gave to mankind a magnificent new vehicle for flying into the air But here is a down-to-earth picture of the two of them sitting on the back porch of their home in Dayton, Ohio How do you do again? I'm Paul Garber Historian Emeritus and Ramsey associate of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington In this part of our story part four on the section of the Wright brothers We have come to that time when Although the Wright brothers in 1903 had invented the airplane in 1904 5 6 7 and 8 had improved it and in 1909 were still ahead of most others by 1910 Others in the world had developed airplanes some of them very interesting very efficient such as this Antoinette airplane with Hubert Latham its principal pilot In this part of our story we will be telling not only what the Wright brothers themselves were doing But also what was accomplished by persons whom they had talked to fly and others who were flying the right type of airplane The great prize for airplane speed in 1910 was the James Gordon Bennett Trophy which had been won for America in 1909 by Glenn Curtis Thus making America the host for 1910 As I concluded part three of our story I showed you this right racer which had been designed and built especially to keep this prize in America It was named the baby grand Orville here at the controls had flown it at a speed of almost 70 miles per hour Faster than the known speed of any other entry It's eight-cylinder engine weighed about 300 pounds a hundred pounds more than their usual four-cylinder types and Developed over 50 horsepower Now look at the size of those propellers. I think they must be around 10 feet in diameter The wingspan was only 22 feet Almost half that of the kitty hawk flyer Here's a final engine test now there were no brakes in those days and they hadn't used wheelchocks yet I remember back in the old early bird times It was customary for someone to haul the holler more beef Then everyone would run to give a hand and here you see they're holding it back so that the engine can be tried out Also, sometimes we used to fasten a spring balance to the tail and then tie that to a post so we could measure the pull Water Brookings the first person taught to fly by the right, but this was to pilot the baby grand in this race But to the great disappointment of many particularly Wilbur and Orville the engine up there at Belmont Park Cut out at the critical time and Brookings smashed into a bad landing He crawled out of the wreck, but America's best hopes to win the race were lost the English flyer Claude Graham white Flying a 100 horsepower French Blariat monoplane one at a speed of 61 miles per hour There were a total of nine entrance from three nations America England and France Arch Hoxie also flying a small span right airplane But with a 30 horsepower engine attained an altitude of about 7,000 feet at Belmont on October 27 On that day the wind was so strong that his flyer and that of Ralph Johnston were blown backward while still facing forward on the last day of the meet October 31 Johnston established a world altitude record of 9,714 feet Another famous air meet during the fall of 1910 was held at St. Louis there Arch Hoxie took Theodore Roosevelt for a flight He was the first person who had been president of the United States to fly in an airplane As they landed and Teddy put back his white his wide brim felt hat. He probably said that was bully Air Express was inaugurated on November 7 1910 when Phil Parmally flew a right airplane from Sims station Near Dayton to Columbus, Ohio Carrying a package of silk consigned to the Moore House Martin's company The cargo weighed about a hundred pounds and was valued at eight hundred dollars His flight clothing consisted of an undershirt a sweater a sweater coat a heavy top coat Woollen cap and goggles the 65 mile flight was made in 66 minutes Parmally carried one piece of air mail And the crowd that welcomed they were so amused because he had such a hard time Getting through all of this clothing and and finally finding that letter to give it to Max Moore house Now also in 1910 the world had become greatly interested in aviation and Everyone in America among other nations wanted to see airplanes in flight So the Wright brothers organized an exhibition team The person there with a derby hat. We used to call it an iron hat is Roy Nobbinshoe famous balloonist and dirgeable airship pilot he headed up the team and Parmally we just met he's there at the left. There's Walter Brookings at the right. There were many persons in that team Now Frank Coffin was another member of that team there. He is with Wilbur Wilbur being at the right another iron hat Frank was a very capable pilot, but also there at the right school in Dayton. He was in charge of instruction He's given to the museum the sheets that were used at that time to tabulate the accomplishments of the pilots I hope we can raise this picture a bit and see those high button shoes Those are a classic thing of those days. I remember how proud I was of mine Took me quite a while to button them up with my mother's old-fashioned buttonhook well Frank was a splendid person and was One of the first to use floats on a right type B airplane this remarkable picture was taken in February of 1912 he was flying at New York and He would have to somehow you see that tugboat has made a path through the ice He took off by dodging these cakes of ice and flew over a part of the city and also flew over the Over the Statue of Liberty taking some photographs of it at the time Another pilot of right type planes was George Gray who made numerous exhibition flights in the middle Atlantic States Particularly in Virginia Later when he was a pilot in World War one He was so very proud of this license in which he could show that he'd learned to fly on Right brothers airplanes. I knew most of these men. I value my friendship with them I wish I could tell more about the wonderful early bird friends that I have as an organization You know of the old timers early birds was my privilege to be the recent president of it Now there were some girls who learned to fly also of the right planes There's Catherine Stinson Standing with her right plane. She learned to fly at Chicago and was taught to fly by Max Lillie She thrilled many crowds in those cities over which she flew Her sister Marjorie was also famous They taught their brother Eddie Stinson to fly another brother Jack was also a pilot and maintained a flight school on Long Island During World War one Marjorie trained many Canadian pilots who fought in that war Ruth law was another girl flyer who learned the right system of control her cross-country flight in 1918 from Chicago to New York was a record maker and during the first world war She encouraged bond sales by advertising them from the sky Now Al Welch shown here at the left Had been one of the first three students taught to fly by Orville Wright. The other two were Brookings and Hoxie Welch's most famous pupil is shown here lieutenant Henry H Arnold later general of the Air Force I always bow a bit to happen. It was through him that I met my dear wife And we always go over to his grave on Memorial Day and lay a few flowers there in appreciation We're certainly a happy couple and I'm so grateful to say so Now Hap had begun his lessons on May 3rd, 1911 The flight lasted seven minutes and on the report sheet Welch wrote rough Some bad vannings I guess the third lesson was for 12 minutes and the comment was hand-on elevator Meaning that the teacher let the pupils steer the airplane up and down During lesson number nine Arno was permitted to try balancing the airplane and on lesson number 19 The comment was landed without assistance The final notation was number of flights 28 total time in the air three hours 43 minutes Finished 13 May 10 days learning Actually, it was 11 days, but the Wright brothers didn't permit any flying on Sunday They were the sons of Bishop Wright you recall Arnold's companion in training was Lieutenant Tommy milling now There's Hap at the left and Tommy seated there in the airplane Millings teacher was Cliff Turpin Here's Cliff in his airplane at the center of this group The picture was taken when the minister at the right was marrying the couple at the left Then Turpin took the bridal couple up for a short a aerial honeymoon There were all kinds of aviation thrills and stunts in those pioneer days In June of 1911 the army established its first aviation field at Collie's Park, Maryland The same field where Wilbur had taught the army's first two pilots in 1909 as I described in my previous section of this series There the army quartermaster Constructed these hangars which have been designed by the rights an Arnold milling and other officers pilots and men were assigned to conduct military flight operations there Arnold was a very active pilot On July 7. He made an altitude flight of 3260 feet on July 10. He flew over the United States Capitol building on July 18 He climbed to 4,167 feet and on August 21 He made a cross-country flight of 42 miles to Frederick, Maryland By this time an increase of appropriations for aeronautics to 125,000 dollars for the fiscal year 1912 Had permitted the purchase of several airplanes of both the Wright and Curtis types Bomb dropping in those days was a simple procedure. You just picked it up held it out and let it go Here at San Francisco in 1910 Lieutenant Myron Chrissy had assembled a bomb from some two and a half inch pipe and made another one from an artillery shell With Phil Parmley as pilot Chrissy dropped them from the right airplane over the Tanforam race track These were the first live aerial bombs But in College Park a more scientific method was developed by Lieutenant Riley Scott His invention carried two 18-pound bombs and included a telescope for measuring speed an altimeter from measuring height a stopwatch for precise timing and tabulations for figuring equations These tables were prepared for an altitude of 400 feet and From that height the bombs landed within 10 feet of a target that was four by five feet on the ground Scott whose pilots for these tests had been Tommy milling Prepared tabulations for an altitude of 3,000 feet But before he could make those tests at College Park. He had to leave for France our own War Department had not shown much interest but the French had offered a prize for bomb dropping and Scott was going to try to win it In fact there he did win the recognition. He deserved Now James means of Boston whom you'll recall from a previous talk was compiler of the Aeronautical annuals of 1895 6 and 7 The Wright brothers had studied those and had continued Their interest in aviation from that time means also was interested in aviation and In 1909 was granted a patent for a signaling device It used the exhaust of the engine to blow through a tube in which lamp black was inserted by tapping a key Something like a telegraph whereby dots and dashes of the Morse code could be blown out as visual signals This was also tested at College Park October 13, 1911 the official report was Because of the short time of the visibility of the puffs and the Impossibility of distinguishing the same at a distance greater than four or five miles It is thought that the device is not practical for general military use On June 7 1912 Captain Chandler who was in charge of the air station at College Park Tested a Lewis machine gun for the first time from the air the tenant milling was his pilot Using a drum with 50 cartridges firing at the rate of 500 shots a minute Five hits were made on a strip of cheese cloth six by seven feet in size from an altitude of 250 feet Other shots were fired into a pond to give the gunner a better idea of the spacing of the bullets The next day from an altitude of 550 feet Sound 44 shots were fired 14 of them hit a cloth target on the ground the target was two yards by 18 yards in size The gunner was handicapped by the lack of sights on his gun and Also, it was very difficult to maneuver to aim to turn the gun because of the limited connection there of it Moreover the War Department was not particularly impressed by this They said the purpose of the airplane is for reconnaissance duty only and it is those young officers out at College Park Who have these rather ridiculous and fanciful ideas that gunnery will ever be used during air combats? You see the War Department still had to learn a few things In October of 1911 Orville Wright Went back to Kitty Hawk to conduct some tests in gliding under the very favorable conditions that prevail there He was anxious particularly to develop some kind of an automatic stabilizer. In fact, he'd been working on that since 1907 He had with him there at Kitty Hawk his brother Lauren his nephew Horace and their friend Alec Ogilvy of England Their first job upon arrival at the old camp was to patch up the hangar and arrange housekeeping details The gliding tests continued for most of the month with various modifications made in the aircraft At times using some parts from the old machine of 19 fly which they had left there The most notable performance was on October 24 When about 20 glides were made ranging from one minute to a world record of nine minutes and 45 seconds now That's hovering you see Remaining motionless pretty much motionless over one spot marvelous accomplishment. This record was not exceeded until 1921 When Germany you see had been prevented from flying powered aircraft and then turned to gliding to keep up their flying proficiency and Then they did finally surpass that nine-minute record, but this stood for about ten years Also in October 1911 another air meat was being held in st. Louis One of the features was the carrying of mail by airplane Water Brookings here seated on the skid was the pilot This was the second instance of official airplane mail in America The first had occurred the previous month at the Nassau Boulevard Long Island air meat when Earl Ovington Wearing the crash helmet had received the bag of mail from the postmaster general himself Frank Hitchcock the postmaster general gave me this picture several years ago Now at st. Louis second assistant postmaster General Grandfield officiated. He's the gray-haired gentleman The date of October 4 is confirmed by this piece of mail addressed to a b Lambert One of the most enthusiastic patrons of aviation in those pioneered days Later became one of the st. Louis sponsors of Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight Incidentally, there's a penny postcard. You don't see them anymore. Now. Here's mr. Lambert with Walter Brookings One of the most notable pilots of right airplanes on cross-country flights was Harry Atwood His world record accomplishment for 1911 was from st. Louis to New York City a distance of 1266 miles made with 19 intermediate stops in 12 days a Right type B made by the Burgess company under license was used and required no major repairs enroute It was the same airplane. He had used in a flight from Boston to Atlantic City, New Jersey Soon after that flight at would learn that the Aero Club of Washington had awarded him its gold medal The Aero Club of America also recognized that flight The medal was to be presented by the president of the United States then William Howard Taft To receive it at would flew to Washington and landed on the southern lawn of the White House, believe it or not When I told one of our president's helicopter pilots about this flight and this landing The helicopter pilot refused to believe it until I showed him this picture He thought only helicopters could sit down in the backyard of the White House Then when I said that that would took off from the same limited space after receiving the medal as Verified by this photograph the president's pilot finally gave in but he pointed out that the trees were not as tall then as they are now But the greatest flight of 1911 and in fact one of the most notable of all time was accomplished by this pilot Calbraith Perry Rogers. He loved to fly and he loved a cigar too He not only exceeded at woods distance record But became the first person to fly an airplane all the way from coast to coast across the United States of America Rogers was the descendant of famous Americans. His father was a captain in the United States Army and fought in the Indian Wars Rogers great-grandfather was Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry Who had sailed his squadron into Japanese waters inviting that nation to engage in commerce with America back in the 1860s? Rogers grand-uncle was captain Oliver hazard Perry here over the Battle of Lake Erie in the war of 1812 Cal had hoped to be a naval officer, but was prevented by an air condition becoming interested in aviation when he visited his cousin John Rogers of the Navy while that officer was detailed to the Right school for flight instruction Cal decided to also take lessons He soloed in the remarkable time of 90 minutes instruction He attracted national attention two months later during the nine-day air meet held in Chicago when he won the award for the most time in the air Flying every day for a total of 27 hours Now back in those romantic days of the early birds There were various prizes offered for flights from one city to another remember that Curtis got the one from Albany to New York and then Hamilton got the one from New York to Philadelphia and return But then when you round off Hearst of the Hearst newspapers was going to clobber all those lesser prizes around five and ten thousand dollars With a fifty thousand dollar prize Now fifty thousand dollars was a heck of a lot of money then that still is to amuse him curator. I assure you But fifty thousand dollars for the first flight from coast to coast all the way in either direction It had to be done. However in 30 days Now Cal Rogers was among those who were determined to win that prize the others Oh, they cracked up or gave up, but he kept on he took off from Sheep said Bay Long Island on 17 December 17 September from Sheep said Bay Long Island His airplane was a right type EX single-seated with a 35 horsepower four-cylinder engine He flew right over New York City Now can you imagine sitting on a board seat? No safety belt your feet stick out on a little piece of about two by two or less than that wood to brace your feet on You look down at all those skyscrapers reaching up at you He flew right over New York City, but then he spotted on the New Jersey tracks this white painted car Now that says Vin fizz Then fizz was a drink now not gin fizz Vin fizz was a drink So for five cents put out by the armor company who were meat packers So I don't know what to put in the drink. They said it had grapes in it but they were paying part of his expenses $5 a mile and This was one of a train of cars. This had his spare parts in it had another airplane Had a spare engine his wife was in there. I didn't mean to say she was a spare part No, she rode in the Pullman car. It was also a diner There was this train that accompanied him and sometimes he'd catch up to the train sometimes the train would catch up to him Now here is Cal landing in Middletown, New York That was his first stop a wonderful flight. He said it was a good landing because it did not the ashes off the end of his cigar He'd flown 84 miles in 105 minutes now here. He holds up his only instrument. That's a piece of string Was a corset string his wife donated that but that was fastened to a Wire in front of him and it would wave at him and if it waved to right or left He knew that he was drifting side to side if it waved up or down He knew that he was climbing or descending it's a very good instrument, but that's all he had no compass at all Nothing with that little piece of line Now taking off from Middletown the next morning His wheels brushed the top of a tree and he landed in a chicken yard. That's no place to set it down Repairs took three days He had you must realize he had no advanced weather reports no compass no accurate information about the route ahead Only the railroad tracks to guide him and sometimes he took the wrong switch He flew on His route lay across New York State a corner of Pennsylvania into Ohio, Indiana Chicago then he turned southward because he knew he couldn't get over the high Rockies through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas He had more than a dozen serious crack ups some real washouts, but with the help of the mechanics. He he kept on Charlie Taylor was sometimes sent to help him from the right company there in Dayton as he got to Texas There was an eagle there that disputed Cal's right to invade those skies Also in Texas. He met Bob Fowler who was trying to win the Hearst Prize by flying from California to the East Coast Fowler eventually reached the Florida coast near Jacksonville That was the next year took him a hundred and twenty-two days as I stand here. The record is a hundred and twenty-three Minutes same distance of B-58, but now we're back in 1911 After 49 days Rogers arrived at his official destination that was Pasadena, California Here he received enthusiastic acclaim as you can see He had exceeded the 30-day stipulation so he didn't get the prize. Nobody got the prize It's all of a dirty trick I think but he did get the American flag around his shoulders And that's a good enough price for anybody But now he wanted to take off and actually reach the Pacific Coast Here he is. He's gonna go about 15 miles on to Long Beach But over Compton his engine quit and he really pranked it down He landed head first in a plowed field both legs were broken also his collarbone and he had a brain concussion It was unconscious for 24 hours. He was in the hospital a month But then with his good wife's help now, that's Mabel at the left. His mother has on that rather large hat But then they got him out in a wheelchair He got on board a pair of crutches He hobbled over to his beloved Vin Fizz which had been repaired by his faithful crew an Enormous crowd awaited him at Long Beach and there sure enough. He landed and rolled those wheels in the surf with the Pacific This was a glorious moment. He had flown from coast to coast in 84 days a distance of 4,320 miles the way he flew it the first person to cross the United States of America by air He was faded back and forth Banquets on the East Coast the West Coast But finally he returned to California and then on April 3rd. He was giving an exhibition flight over Long Beach in his right B He flew over to pier and there was a bunch of seagulls that rose up rather frightened one of them jammed itself into the controls and Down went Cal. He did not walk away from this one. He died April 3 1912 Today in the National Air and Space Museum in This old tin shit and I'll put in a plug for a new building because this is the most permanent temporary building in Washington There is the Vin Fizz flyer restored by the Smithsonian crew a wonder to everyone who sees it This marvelous aircraft that did make the first coast-to-coast flight Another development in 1911 is especially pertinent to this series of talks that we're giving There's the Navy's first air station and there is the right type B There at Greenbury Point, Maryland across the Severn River from Annapolis Det. Rogers who was Cal Rogers cousin had been taught to fly at the Wright Brothers School and Was sent there to fly the plane. There's John Rogers in the foreground With the showing of this picture. I want to identify and thank the sailor in the white cap He is Dale Ziggler by whose kindness I obtained these pictures of the B1 I'll speak about him further in our next program The B1 was operated either as a land plane or a sea plane Here is one configuration with two floats and here one float only is used with the addition of wingtip floats to keep it balanced in rough water flights were made in the B1 to Baltimore and to other areas of the Chesapeake and Then in December with wintry weather making flying difficult The aviators at Greenbury Point were ordered to transfer with their equipment to North Island, San Diego, California There the dear old B1 finally was washed out Here is how a naval aviator kept his feet dry when going ashore from his aircraft riding piggyback on some sailor The dear old B1 as I said was finally washed out after about two years of service But we're so grateful that one piece of it has been preserved and that's the engine that you see here on this model I'll tell you about that in our next program. I think it's a wonderful story. Thanks to the foresight of the Navy Thanks a bit to the museum. We have kept it and It's a wonderful part the oldest relic of naval aviation