An Artist's Life, Digitized: Early Aviation

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.