Early Aviation - Rare Photos & Art

Visit the Award-Winning Website by Elora Lyda:  The WRIGHT Brothers with the WRONG Idea

Below are Selections from the Jack Carpenter Collection
Learn to Fly -- Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Nice Meeting, April 1910
Olympia Aero Exhibition, London
American Airlines' Nazi Zeppelin, the doomed Hindenburg Airship
Rouen Race, June 1910
Bruxelles, September 1914
Franfurt, October 1909 
Roll 'em Out, Aluminum Company of Canada
Postcard - Curtiss Jenny, 1978
Postcard - Rather Be Flying
Postcard - Wright Flyer, 1978
Postcard - Aviation Pioneers, 1980
Wright Flyer at Electrical Show, Chicago, January 1910
Curtiss Seaplane, 1929
First Official Flight, July 1908
To celebrate author/webmaster Jack Carpenter's birthday on July 24, 2003, I altered the "First Flight" poster by replacing the face and name of Glenn Curtiss with Jack's
Lt. Thomas Selfridge, First Death in an Aeroplane Crash, with Orville Wright at the controls -- Fort Myer, Virginia, September 17, 1908

Advertisement - Curtiss Flying Boat, 1911
Advertisement - Curtiss Trophies, 1912
Advertisement - Water Flying
Common Stock, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, 1932
Flying-Machines Patent, 1911
Curtiss Biplane
The Waterman "Arrowplane," ready to fly east, at Clover Field in Santa Monica, July 1935
Beachey Biplane
Curtiss Biplane and Crowd
Curtiss Flies the Red Wing
Charles Witmer, with USS Pennsylvania in background, May 1911
Glenn Curtiss Portrait
Curtiss by the Lake
Curtiss Flying Tiger
Curtiss Navy Racer, 1921
Curtiss Biplane, 1912
Curtiss with Monoplane
Flyer Clouds, International Aviation Meet, Los Angeles, January 12, 1910
Flying Over Water
Flying Boat Over Lake
Flying Boat in Miami, 1929
Flying Boat in the Atlantic, 1929
Flying Boat on Dock
Giant Curtiss Plane
The following article is from Air Travel News, December 1927, at the beginning of commercial passenger air travel

HOW TO ENJOY FLYING
1. Don't Worry.
Relax, settle back and enjoy life. If there's any worrying to be done, let the pilot do it; that's what he's hired for.

2. The Pilot Always Takes Off and Lands into the Wind.
Be patient while the plane taxis to the corner of the field before taking-off. The luxury of flying doesn't appear until you begin to use the third dimension.

3. The Pilot Always Banks the Plane when Turning in the Air.
Just as a race-track is banked at the corners, so an airplane is tilted when making a perfect turn. Take the turns naturally with the plane. Don't try to hold the lower wing up with the muscles of the abdomen -- it's unfair to yourself and an unjust criticism of your pilot.

4. The Atmosphere is like an Ocean.
It supports the plane just as firmly as the ocean supports a ship. At the speed you are traveling, the air has a density practically equivalent to water; to satisfy yourself, put your hand out the window and feel the tremendous pressure. That ever-present pressure is your guarantee of absolute safety.

5. The Wind is Similar to an Ocean Current.
At flying levels it is usually as regular as a great, smooth-flowing river. You can study its direction by watching the shadows of clouds on the country below, or the smoke from chimneys. Once in a while the wind is gusty and rough, like the gulf stream off the coast of Florida. These gusts used to be called "air-pockets," but they are nothing more than billows of warm and cool air and nothing to be alarmed over.

6. The Air-Pressure Changes with Altitude.
Some people have ears that are sensitive to the slight change in air-density at different altitudes. If so, swallow once in a while, or breathe a little through the mouth, so that the pressure on both sides of the ear-drums will be equalized. If you hold your nose and swallow, you will hear a little  crack in your ears, caused by the suction of air on the ear-drums. Try it.

7. Dizziness is Unknown in Airplanes.
There is no discomfort in looking downwards while flying because there is no connection with the earth; only a sense of confidence and security, similar perhaps, to what birds feel. Follow the route on the map, and identify the places you pass. Owing to the altitude, you may think you are moving very slowly, although the normal flying speed of the plane is 95 miles an hour.

8. When About to Land.
The pilot throttles the engine, preparatory to gliding down to the Airport. The engine is not needed in landing, and the plane can be landed perfectly with the engine entirely cut off. From an altitude of 2,500 feet, it is possible to glide, with engine stopped, to any field within a radius of 4 miles. Under no occasion attempt to open the cabin door until the plane has come to a full stop.
In 1930, Boeing Air Transport 80As introduced aviation's 1st stewardesses, 1 per airplane, who were also required to be registered nurses

Guy and Gal Pilots in the Movies, 1919
Lady Pilot Priscilla, 1919
Famous acrobatic pilot Lincoln Beachey dies from drowning after crashing into San Francisco Bay, 1915
Lindbergh, Long Beach, 1927
Rare photo of Lindbergh spinning Spirit's propeller, San Jose, Costa Rica, January 9, 1928
Charles Lindbergh, 1928
Mounties with Flyer
Navy Hydroplane
Towers and Ellyson
 Neta Snook and Amelia Earhart -- July 16. 1921
Wright Flyer, Smithsonian
Mrs. Curtiss
These rare photos, art, & aviation memorabilia were collected by author/researcher Jack Carpenter for his GlennHCurtiss.com website. His site disappeared after his death, but his friend Grady Lyda rescued these precious items for future reference.

Waldo Waterman (1894-1976), Aviator, Engineer, Test Pilot and Inventor, seen here in a Boeing seaplane while performing in the movie "Mantrap," from a Sinclair Lewis novel, starring the famed silent film star Clara Bow, at Lake Arrowhead, California, 1926
Jane Waterman (Waldo's daughter) and Jack Carpenter in San Diego, 1990. Jack spent many years interviewing Waldo Waterman to document his amazing life story...

In this video about unconventional flying machines, Waldo briefly appears at 7:10 showing off his "flivver plane" (flying car)
"Waterman Aerobile 6". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waterman_Aerobile_6.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Waterman_Aerobile_6.jpg
This is Waldo's "Aerobile" at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. If you think flying cars only existed on THE JETSONS, you might want to reconsider... Why don't we have them now? They were already perfected and safely flown in the 1930s by Waterman. WHO is telling us, "DON'T DO THAT"? We need to find that crazy guy and shut him up. 
See the story of Elora's Wright Brothers Project here: Wright Brothers 2003

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