airplane in action when the Harvard Aëronautical Society sponsored a
great aviation exhibition at Squantum, Massachusetts. The prizes,
amounting to $100,000, attracted the largest group of pilots and planes
ever to assemble in the United States. Claude Graham-White, the
Englishman, flew a French Farman biplane and a speedy Bleriot monoplane.
Another Englishman, A. V. Roe, who today builds the Avro-Lancaster,
exhibited his big triplane, and the spectators were thrilled as the
daring Wright and Curtiss pilots demonstrated America’s best planes.
[Illustration: THE HARVARD-BOSTON AIR-MEET. FRENCH FARMAN(1) WRIGHT
BIPLANE(2) BLERIOT’S MONOPLANE(3) SANTOS-DUMONT’S MONOPLANE(4) WRIGHT
PILOT DROPS BOMB ON A DUMMY BATTLESHIP(5) GLENN CURTISS BIPLANE(6)
A.V.ROE’S ENGLISH TRIPLANE(7)]
[Illustration]
The Boston air meet was followed by an equally successful one at Belmont
Park, N. Y., in October, 1910. Here daring pilots flew their planes in
rain and wind, and tried many new stunts.
Ralph Johnstone, a daring Wright pilot, thrilled the crowds when he
turned his plane sidewise to an almost vertical angle and then descended
in a tight spiral. Walter Brookins, another Wright flier, performed his
famous “short turn” in which he stood his plane vertically in the air
and revolved about one wing as on a pivot. Though these pilots
constantly endeavored to create new thrills for the crowds, they
unconsciously were testing the capabilities of their airplanes. They
also were creating the technique of flying. These early meets were the
testing laboratories of aviation.
[Illustration]
The meetings at Boston and Belmont Park served another purpose in
addition to thrilling the crowds and testing the airplanes. They paved
the way for the beginning of United States naval aviation. Lieutenant
Charles A. Blakely, U.S.N., was ordered by the Navy Department to attend
the Boston meet as an official observer. He not only observed, but he
flew with Charles Willard in a Curtiss airplane. His report on the
possibilities of the airplane was so enthusiastic that the Navy ordered
Captain Washington Irving Chambers to keep the Navy Department informed
concerning the progress of aviation in relation to its use in naval
tactics.
Many of the older naval officers of that period were aligned against the
airplane. They could not visualize a land airplane being used in
connection with a sea-going Navy. Captain Chambers was interested in
engineering and, furthermore, he was somewhat of a dreamer. But his
dreams were practical. He came away from the Belmont Park air meet with
the firm conviction that the airplane was satisfactory once it was in
the air, and that it could be of great value to the Navy for scouting,
gunfire observation, and bombing. However, to be of any great value, the
airplanes must go to sea with the fleet. The airplane would offer the
captain of a ship or the admiral of the fleet a magic power capable of
revealing to them what lay beyond the horizon. This was Captain
Chambers’ dream. The Navy was fortunate in having such a farseeing
officer.
As there was available at that time no airplane capable of operating
from the water, the Navy was forced to adopt the idea of using a
landplane. There had been considerable talk in 1910 of flying a
landplane off the deck of an ocean liner for the purpose of speeding
transoceanic mail delivery. In fact, arrangements were then being
completed for such a test from a Hamburg-American ocean liner in New
York. But Captain Chambers was not a man to allow the United States Navy
to come in second in such an experiment. If an airplane could be flown
from the deck of a vessel, let it be a Navy ship. The cruiser U. S. S.
_Birmingham_ was placed at the Captain’s disposal and he went to work
immediately preparing for the first attempt to fly an airplane from the
deck of a ship. He had a temporary platform erected on the fore deck of
the _Birmingham_. It was built of planks, was eighty-three feet long and
twenty-eight feet wide, and sloped downward toward the bow of the ship.
[Illustration]
As the Navy had no pilots, a civilian flier, Eugene Ely, was lent for
the test by Glenn Curtiss, whose plane was being used. On Monday,
November 14, 1910, in the most unfavorable weather, Ely rolled across
the platform into the rain and mist. At the end of the platform his
plane dived toward the water. Ely pulled up on his elevators and flew
on. He landed on a sand bar after a flight of two and one-half miles,
and another chapter in naval history was made.
[Illustration]
THE ARMY AND NAVY SPREAD THEIR WINGS
Although successful, Eugene Ely’s flight from the deck of the
_Birmingham_ had little effect on the Navy’s conservative attitude
toward aviation. At times, as the skeptical comments of naval officers
continued, it appeared that Captain Chambers was being dared to prove
the value of the airplane to the Navy. It was fortunate for the United
States that the Captain was an officer willing to accept the challenge.
Captain Chambers asked for funds to purchase several of the existing
types of airplanes for the purpose of training navy personnel in the art
of flying. As no money was available, the Captain had to continue his
experiments in co-operation with aircraft manufacturers and civilian
fliers. Spurred by the successful flight of Ely, Glenn Curtiss willingly
aided Captain Chambers. Curtiss was so enthusiastic about the future of
naval aviation that he approached the Navy Department with the offer to
train, without cost to the service, an officer to fly. After
considerable discussion in the Department, Lieutenant Theodore G.
Ellyson, U. S. Navy, was ordered to join Curtiss.
Curtiss moved his flying activities to San Diego, California, in 1910,
and it was there that Lieutenant Ellyson became the first American naval
officer to learn to fly. This was eight years after the first flights of
the Wright Brothers.
[Illustration]
Curtiss had collected a group of skilled pilots to fly under his
direction. In this group were McCurdy, Willard, Witmer, Ely, and the
famous Lincoln Beachey. With this assemblage Curtiss was able to make
great strides in the progress of flying and aircraft development.
Curtiss and Captain Chambers, working closely together, laid their plans
for proving to the Navy Department the capabilities of the airplane.
Both men were convinced thoroughly that it was possible to take off in
an airplane from the deck of a ship, fly to a designated spot, fly back,
and land on the deck. There was a great amount of ridicule at this idea,
but Curtiss and Chambers went ahead with their plans and erected a
120-foot platform on the deck of the cruiser U. S. S. _Pennsylvania_. On
January 18, 1911, a Curtiss landplane, with Eugene Ely at the controls,
soared from the deck, circled out over the water, and approached the
cruiser. Twenty-two pairs of fifty-pound sandbags were attached to lines
drawn taut across the deck platform. The plane was equipped with steel
hooks for use in catching the deck lines. Ely flew in at the speed of
thirty-nine miles an hour. Sailors aboard the _Pennsylvania_ ducked for
cover, expecting the plane to overshoot the platform. Just as he reached
the end of the platform, Ely pulled up the nose of his ship, and cut off
the engine. The plane settled to the deck. Then and there were the
beginnings of what eventually was to become the most effective weapon of
the United States Navy--the _aircraft carrier_.
During the winter of 1911, Curtiss designed the first American seaplane,
or hydroplane as it was then called. On January 26th, he made a flight
of thirty-one seconds and landed smoothly on the water. That afternoon
he made a number of flights, to the delight of the crowds that lined the
Coronado shores of the Spanish Bight off San Diego. Little did the
onlookers dream that years later flying boats of the United States Navy
would fly over the Seven Seas, even remaining aloft for a day at a time.
In addition to Lieutenant Ellyson, Captain Chambers succeeded in having
Lieutenants John H. Towers and John Rogers ordered to report for flight
instruction. These three men became Navy Pilots One, Two and Three.
Pilot Number 3 was Lieutenant (now Vice Admiral) John H. Towers, who
ever since has made his name synonymous with the progress of naval
aviation. In July, 1911, the United States Navy took delivery of its
first airplanes, one Wright and two Curtiss landplanes. Later that year
the Navy established its first aviation camp on the banks of Severn
River just across from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.
[Illustration]
During this time the United States Army was making some progress with
military aviation. In March, 1911, Congress was prevailed upon to
appropriate $125,000 for aëronautics. The Army bought three more
airplanes, the first since the purchase of one Wright airplane in 1909.
In July, 1911, the first military aviation school was established at
College Park, Maryland. The Army’s first instructor was Army Pilot
Number 1, Lieutenant Frank Lahm. The first students were Lieutenants
Benjamin Foulois, Thomas DeW. Milling, and the man who was destined,
thirty-two years later, to lead the world’s greatest air force, Henry H.
(“Hap”) Arnold, Commanding General, United States Army Air Forces during
World War II.
[Illustration]
Flying in two Wright and one Curtiss biplanes, the fledgling Army fliers
conducted experimental work in aërial photography and radio. But these
forward-looking young men, even then, saw the airplane as a weapon and
began seeking ways of dealing out destruction to an enemy. They fired
machine guns at ground targets, tested a bomb sight, and dropped small
bombs from their planes.
[Illustration]
In 1905 a newspaper in Salina, Kansas, had carried a story of two
brothers named Wright. This story robbed the budding “auto” industry of
a promising young mechanic, Glenn L. Martin by name.
As a boy, Glenn Martin built and flew the very best kites in Salina. As
he grew older he was thrilled by the appearance of the horseless
carriage. As soon as he was old enough he took a job in Dave Methven’s
garage, convinced that there was a future in the noisy “gas-buggies.”
In the surge of interest in automobiles, Glenn Martin had all but
forgotten the stories of Chanute and Lilienthal and the old urge of the
winds in his kites. In 1905, after reading the newspaper story
concerning the Wrights, he excitedly told his mother, “I am going to
fly, too!” And he did.
A short time after he made that remark, Glenn’s family moved to
California and he soon became a successful automobile salesman. But he
did not forget his decision to fly. With his mother’s support, he began
to build his plane by night, after selling cars all day. With his mother
holding a lantern for him, he often worked most of the night in the
abandoned church that served as his workshop. In spite of neighborly
criticism, Glenn finished his plane and flew it from a Santa Ana cow
pasture, on August 1, 1909.
[Illustration: 1909-1910
WINGSPAN 30 FEET
LENGTH 20 FEET
GLENN L. MARTIN DESIGNED HIS OWN AIRPLANE AND BUILT IT HIMSELF WITH
MONEY EARNED BY SELLING AUTOMOBILES.
POWER
ONE 4-CYLINDER 20-HP. FORD ENGINE
MARTIN USED A SECONDHAND FORD AUTOMOBILE ENGINE TO CREATE THE POWER FOR
HIS FIRST PLANE.
SPEED
ONE HOUR
30 MILES
RANGE
75 MILES
CEILING
3,000+ FEET
PAYLOAD
ONE PERSON
GLENN MARTIN’S FIRST AIRPLANE, BUILT WITH THE HELP OF HIS MOTHER IN AN
OLD ABANDONED CHURCH, WAS A LANDPLANE OF THE PUSHER TYPE SIMILAR IN
APPEARANCE TO THE CURTISS AIRPLANE. MARTIN BUILT BOTH LANDPLANES AND
SEAPLANES OF VARIOUS SIZES AND POWER. HE SOLD HIS PLANES MOSTLY TO
EXHIBITION FLYERS AND WEALTHY SPORTSMEN. IN THOSE EARLY DAYS NO ONE
WOULD HAVE EVER DREAMED THAT HE WAS LATER TO BUILD AN 80-TON PLANE.
GLENN L. MARTIN WAS ONE OF AVIATION’S MOST ENERGETIC PIONEERS. HE BUILT
MANY AIRPLANES OF VARIOUS TYPES. THEY WERE ALL SUCCESSFUL. HIS GREATEST
CONTRIBUTION TO EARLY AVIATION, HOWEVER, WAS THAT HIS FLYING EXHIBITIONS
INTRODUCED THE AIRPLANE TO THE PUBLIC ON THE PACIFIC COAST.]
[Illustration]
As soon as he had successfully flown his first airplane, Martin began to
plan better machines. He gave flying exhibitions all over southern
California to earn the money to build more Martin planes. In January,
1912, he flew the first mail from Dominguez, California, to Compton,
California. In April of that year he flew twenty-four miles in
twenty-five minutes, to deliver newspapers from Fresno, California, to a
neighboring town. On May 10, 1910, Martin flew thirty-three miles over
the ocean from Newport Harbor, California, to Catalina Island. This
first trans-Pacific flight was made in a hydroplane of Martin’s own
design.
UNITED STATES MILITARY AND NAVAL AVIATION WORLD WAR I
Although America was actually the birthplace of the airplane, many years
passed after the first flight of the Wright Brothers before there was
any real consideration of the military or civil values of aviation. That
aviation did progress at all in its early years was due to the efforts
of a few fledgling military fliers, a group of barnstormers, and a
handful of aircraft builders.
Working closely together, these men flew and experimented with our first
flying machines. They risked their lives time and again in order to
learn everything possible about flying and the flying machine. As a
result of crashes and hairbreadth escapes, these men discovered many
faults and set about correcting them.
Each make of plane had a different control system, and an all-around
flier had to master several varieties of levers and wheels in order to
be able to fly all types of machines. A pilot originally was forced to
fly his plane while sitting on an exposed and uncomfortable perch at the
edge of the wing. Just back of his seat was mounted the heavy engine
ready to topple over on him in case of a crash.
[Illustration]
The first step in correcting some of the faults of the early airplane
came with the development of a body, or fuselage. The first fuselages
were built of spruce frames covered with fabric and strengthened with
wire. They were mounted between the wings and braced to them. The engine
and propeller were housed in the front of the fuselage. Farther back an
enclosed compartment, or cockpit, was provided for the pilot. Thus he
was moved from his perch on the wing with the engine at his back into a
safer and more comfortable location.
The development of the fuselage caused the elevators to be taken away
from the front of the machine. These were combined with the stabilizer
and rudder attached to the rear of the fuselage. The Wright method of
wing warping to produce lateral control was dispensed with and the
Curtiss type of aileron was moved up from the wing struts and hinged to
the trailing edge of the wings. This established the ailerons as part of
the _lift_ surfaces of the wings, giving them a more direct influence on
the lateral movements of the airplane.
With the new positions of the control surfaces came the second important
step, the standard control system. This system made use of a single
control column, or stick, and a rudder bar. The stick was attached by
means of cables and pulleys to both the ailerons and the elevators. A
hinged arrangement allowed the stick to be moved forward and backward,
and to the right or to the left. The forward and backward movement of
the stick controlled the up and down position of the elevators. The
right and left movement of the stick raised or lowered the ailerons.
Steering to right or left was accomplished by pressure of the pilot’s
feet on a bar that was attached to the rudder by cables. All positions
of the airplane were caused by gently pressing the control stick and
rudder bar in the direction of the flight movement desired by the pilot.
By 1915, American airplane builders had adopted a standard biplane
design with an enclosed fuselage and a two-wheel and tail-skid landing
gear, typified by the Curtiss _Jenny_ at the left.
The beginning of World War I, in Europe, saw the first use of the
airplane by the military. At first, warring pilots flying over the
battle lines actually exchanged friendly waves in passing. This was the
expression of brotherly feeling among men who already had risked their
lives to conquer the flying machine.
But this knightly feeling did not last long. One belligerent flier
carried a rifle aloft. This rifle inspired the thought of the machine
gun, and war in the air, as in the trenches, became a survival of the
fittest.
In the United States, the Aviation Section, Signal Corps, U. S. Army,
was just two weeks old. When it was created on July 18, 1914, the
Aviation Section had an authorized personnel of 60 officers and 260
enlisted men, and a few airplanes. In Europe, every major power boasted
of hundreds of planes.
The year 1916, two years after the start of World War I, saw Army
aviation in its first offensive action. Eight low-powered planes engaged
in a punitive expedition against Mexican bandits. The chief result of
this expedition was the severe newspaper criticism of the poor showing
made by our fliers and America’s lack of improved types of combat
planes.
As the result of the criticism created by the Mexican expedition,
Congress, in June, 1916, voted funds for the expansion of Army aviation.
But aviation development required time and, actually, when the United
States went into World War I on April 6, 1917, Army aviation consisted
of but 65 officers (including only 35 fliers), 1,087 enlisted men, and
55 airplanes. All of the planes were obsolete and none carried machine
guns.
Thus, with no military planes suitable for use against a well-equipped
enemy, no fliers trained in the use of high-powered fighting planes and
aërial machine guns, and with few factories that had had any previous
experience in the production of airplanes, America plunged into the
midst of World War I.
Although a little late, America went to work. Having no good combat
designs of our own, our fliers fought in British and French airplanes.
We developed the best training plane in the world, the Curtiss
JN-_Jenny_ (page 32), and trained 15,000 flying cadets. By March, 1918,
our Army Aviation strength was 11,000 officers and 120,000 enlisted men.
At the time of the Armistice we had 757 pilots, 481 observers, with 740
planes at the front and 1,402 pilots and 769 airplanes in the Zone of
Advance, ready for combat. Our pilots were credited with the destruction
of 491 enemy airplanes, of which 462 were accounted for by 63 airmen. We
had produced 26 aces, each of whom had destroyed five or more enemy
aircraft.
[Illustration: FIGHTING PLANES OF WORLD WAR I
BRITISH DH-4
BRITISH _CAMEL_
GERMAN _ALBATROS_
GERMAN FOKKER
FRENCH _SPAD_]
[Illustration]
THE FIRST TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT
United States naval aviation had made slow but steady progress in the
years just preceding World War I. Bombing and scouting practice was
engaged in by naval planes and considerable headway was made in the
development of larger flying boats and amphibians.
When war was declared in 1917, naval aviation consisted of 54 airplanes,
38 pilots, and 163 enlisted men. By rapid expansion it had reached the
strength of more than 50,000 men and over 2,000 airplanes by the end of
the war. Some 17,000 men and 540 airplanes were sent abroad during the
conflict. Extremely successful anti-submarine and patrol operations were
carried on throughout the war, and our naval aviators served with great
distinction.
Our early models of big flying boats, like the F5-L above, were so
successful that the Navy ordered even larger ones. The “big boats” as
they were termed, were giant four-engine planes with a wingspan of 126
feet, the largest built to that time. Their size created a difficult
shipping problem and it was decided that they were to be flown overseas.
Commander John H. Towers, pioneer naval operator, was assigned to the
task of supervising their construction and flight tests. The planes were
ordered in December, 1917, and ten months later the first of the “big
boats” proved its ability in a series of test flights. The planes were
designated the NC’s, Navy Curtiss. With everyone rushing madly to finish
the NC’s for their overseas flight, the war ended abruptly.
[Illustration: 1919
WINGSPAN 126 FEET
LENGTH 68 FEET
POWER
FOUR 12-CYLINDER 400-HP. _LIBERTY_ ENGINES
THE GIANT CURTISS NC FLYING BOATS WERE THE LARGEST PLANES THAT HAD BEEN
BUILT AT THAT TIME. THEIR BIG WINGS SPANNED A DISTANCE GREATER THAN THAT
COVERED IN THE FIRST AIRPLANE FLIGHTS.
SPEED
ONE HOUR
100 MILES
RANGE
2,000+ MILES
CEILING
5,000+ FEET
PAYLOAD
SIX-MAN CREW
THE BIG BOATS HAD A GOOD TOP SPEED CONSIDERING THEIR SIZE. THEY COULD
CARRY 1,800 GALLONS OF GASOLINE, AND ON A TEST FLIGHT ONE NC FLYING BOAT
SOARED ALOFT WITH 51 PASSENGERS.
THREE PROPELLERS WHIRLED IN FRONT OF THE NC’S WINGS AND ONE OTHER, A
PUSHER, TURNED BEHIND THE CENTER OF THE WINGS.
THE HUGE NC FLYING BOATS WERE THE FIRST FOUR-ENGINED AIRPLANES BUILT IN
THE UNITED STATES. THEY NOT ONLY PROVED THAT WE COULD BUILD BIG
AIRPLANES, BUT THAT SHIPS OF THIS TYPE WERE PRACTICAL FOR OVER-OCEAN
FLIGHTS. THEY ALSO SHOWED THE POSSIBILITIES OF GIANT, LONG-RANGE NEW
PATROL PLANES.]
[Illustration]
After the Armistice the NC’s were not needed in Europe, but they were
ready and the Navy felt sure that they could fly the Atlantic. On May 6,
1919, three NC’s took off from Far Rockaway, New York, on one of the
most significant flights in history. After making a stop at Trepassey
Bay, Newfoundland, the NC’s with “Jack” Towers in command, flew through
the stormy Atlantic night to land the following morning on the water
near Horta in the Azores. The planes were badly battered, and the crews
were weary. Only the NC-4 Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read in charge,
flew on to Lisbon, Portugal, and finally to Plymouth, England, in the
first transatlantic flight.
[Illustration]
A month after the first transatlantic flight of the U. S. Navy NC boats,
two Royal Flying Corps pilots, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur
Brown, flying a two-engined Vickers Vimy biplane, flew nonstop from
Newfoundland to Ireland. To those two hardy adventurers goes the credit
for the first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic by airplane.
MEN AND MACHINES WORLD WAR I
Slow as she had been in starting, America picked up speed and finished
World War I with a record definitely creditable. American aviation
discarded its swaddling clothes forever. At the time of the Armistice,
American fliers had flown more than 3,500,000 miles in battle and
dropped 275,000 pounds of explosives on the Germans. In plane-to-plane
combat our military pilots showed a courage and initiative unequaled by
ally or foe.
With our entry into the war, our infant aviation industry also picked up
speed. With typical American energy it built up an enviable production
record before the end of the war. As America had no combat airplane
designs at the start of the war, our industry turned out planes and
engines of foreign design. Aircraft factories built English DH-4
observation planes, Handley-Page bombers, and SE-5 fighter planes. We
did build one plane of American design, the Curtiss JN-4 _Jenny_
training plane. The _Jenny_ was the best training plane in the world at
that time. Our factories built hundreds of them in 1917 and 1918.
Practically all American and many Allied fliers received their flight
training in the famous old _Jennies_.