Ivan P Wheaton at the Curtiss School

There aren't a ton of photos of Ivan at the Curtiss School, but here are a couple of the better ones. Once again, I'm afraid there isn't much to add to these photos, textually. You may (if I did this correctly) see a difference in the display mode for photos.  It should take you to the Smugmug gallery, where you'll be able to view the photos in a full screen slideshow.

And finally, here is a scan of the logbook entry for the first portion of Ivan's instruction at the Curtiss School.  He transcribed this from his original books toward the end of his flying career.  Unfortunately the original is lost.

Next up will be some photos of the Curtiss Twin JN.  

-kpw

The Soggy end of #3

Not much commentary on these two photos, except to say that judging by the smiles, nobody was seriously hurt.  Perhaps one of the men in the photo was the pilot?

In the above photo, I see the name Dolly Gray, which is pretty distinctive. I found references to a baseball player from early 1900s by that name, but no aviators.  I'm interested to learn more about Capt. Taylor as well, since he appears in many of Ivan's photos.

Don't forget to Share or +1 if you're finding the photos valuable or interesting!  They go a long way in expanding the reach of the blog.  Thanks!

-kpw

Grover Loening and a Sturtevant

This post centers on photos from Ivan's collection of an aircraft which I'm unable to identify with an exact model number, but Ivan's writing gave me enough information to discover a little more.

Grover Loening was an amazing figure in the aviation industry in America. He was the first American to earn a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, at Columbia University in 1910. In 1921 he earned the Collier Trophy, an annual award recognizing the greatest achievements in aviation, for his Loening Flying Yacht. He stayed active in aviation his entire life, eventually appointed as a civilian Advisory Board member to the National Air Museum under President Kennedy. A short write-up and photo featuring Steve Mac Gordon can be found here. Does anyone know the exact model of this Sturtevant airplane?

The last photo impressed me in a couple of ways.  First, the amount of aileron travel seems huge to me.  I notice the elevator travel is sometimes in excess of 40 degrees, but I've never noticed the ailerons with this much travel.  Second, I notice in a couple of photos (which are upcoming) that they used a palette or skid of some sort to chock the wheels here at the Curtiss School.  Here, you can see a mechanic or pilot dragging one into place.  I wonder when the actual wheel chock was invented?

Thanks in advance for any input on the Sturtevant, and please Share or +1 the blog with the links below.

-kpw

Scenes from the Curtiss School

I think I've been misstating the name of this place.  I've been seeing it referred to as the Curtiss School, and the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station, but not as a factory.  Ivan referred to it as the Curtiss Company.  I think the two that fit most closely are school and station.  According to the Aero Club's publication in 1915, (Flying vol 4) they explained that the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station already set up a base to expand aviation in the area, and Curtiss partnered with them.

According to the article, Curtiss planned to send Bert Acosta and Victor Carlstrom to teach students on "land machines", while Walter Lees and Victor Vernon would instruct on "water machines".  Curtiss planned to send four Model F flying boats, three JN's, and one Model 3.  In the photos I've seen, there is at least one J.N., at least two Model Fs, an at least 2 variants of Model Rs.  Curtiss also used the station as a test facility, where the Speed Scout  (as you can see in the above photo) and twin J.N. were flown.

So, Ivan flew with Walter Lees exclusively in the Model F, and I count just shy of 30 lessons with Lees and close to 120 landings from his logbook.  He was at the school from early April, 1916 to at least June 28th, which is his last logbook entry there.  He wrote there that he "flew alone for Curtiss Diploma.  Lees let me do all flying.  Take off, 5 figure 8s and one landing".  His logbook shows a tad over seven hours instruction with Lees.  Total time of instruction to the point his earned the diploma was 14 hours, 24 minutes.  Note that he didn't solo in the plane, he really just got a checkride.  His logs don't show a truly solo flight until September of 1916.  I'll post his diploma at the end of the section on Newport News.

Here are a couple of photos of Model Fs, and JNs.  The first JNs that appear in his books are 4b models, but not at the Curtiss school.

Just a little question on this JN.  Actually two: What model is this, and is there something interesting going on with the ailerons?  Leave me a comment, I'm really curious here.  Actually the same thing applies to the Model F in the second photo, but I never noticed it in the Palm Beach photos.

I'm not seeing the same thing on this JN's ailerons.  Strange.  This is one of my favorite photos of a Jenny in Ivan's collection.

Next post, I'll put up a number of aerial photos of the Curtiss School.

-kpw