Aviator portraits, Part III

Here's another small batch of early aviator portraits, starting with Walter Lees at the controls of a Curtiss Flying Boat, and an oddly perched photographer.  I wonder if this isn't Frank Conway?  His photos are a different format from this photo, and you see the initials FJC in white, and a number in his photos, or sometimes just the white numbers.  The large format camera makes me think that not many of the photographers probably carried such equipment, and I doubt that anyone would be given this kind of access to a plane unless they were on the payroll, as Mr. Conway was.  I also highly doubt that this type of "saddle up" riding was allowed on a flying boat.  Fun photo, though.

Most of the photos have some caption indicating the person or persons in the photo, but this next photo lacks one lacks one, unfortunately.  I included it because I like the photographic framing, the eyelines (where he's looking) and the "flaps up" style of his flight helmet.  It's just an interesting photo.

The gentleman below will be featured in a series of photos concluding the album.  Edgar "Happy" Bagnell was a zany guy, if the photos in Ivan's collection are any indication of his temperment.  I guess his nickname is a giveaway, and I found a reference to him as a "humorist" in a Nebraska paper.  He was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Nebraska Aviation Corps six months before he learned to fly, and by 1920 he ranked Captain. 

I'll wrap up the people photos with this tiny photo of a poker game.  Looking closely, you can see that there are only chips in the center, but one guy has a dollar bill going onto the table.  I like the one guy glancing up at the camera, cigar in hand.  If Ivan took this, I applaud his ability to do candid shots.

I've been looking into the Preparedness Day parade in Washington D.C. as the basis for a post.  I have a number of great photos from this event coming up next.

-kpw

Aviator portraits at the Curtiss School, 1916.

The lead photo is not captioned, and I don't really recognize this face among the rest of the photos.  I do love his combination goggles and face mask, though.  The goggles are actually sewn right into a mask that covers his nose.

Next is a photo of Steve Mac Gordon (L) and Warden Leonard Bonney (R).  I've previously written nearly all that I could find regarding Steve Mac Gordon.  By accounts he was a likeable gentleman and excellent instructor.  I have a few more photos in the collection of Mr. Mac Gordon, but the two in this post will be all I'll publish.

Warden Leonard Bonney learned to fly under Orville Wright in 1910 and flew in the Wright Exhibition Team.  He was killed on May 4, 1928 when his experimental Bonney Gull suddenly pitched down and crashed shortly after takeoff.  A tribute film to Bonney may be found here.  I've made references to an unknown aircraft which I will post in the future, which may have influenced Bonney in his theories.

 

This next photo has Walter Lees (L) and Howard Wehrle (R) in the Curtiss Twin JN.  Walter Lees was Ivan's instructor in the Model F flying boat, but here he is in a Curtiss Twin with Howard Wehrle. Lees' son in law has written a great deal about his life and exploits at this site.

Howard Wehrle was a student at the Curtiss School who joined at the same time Ivan was training there.  He went on, as Ivan did, to Mineola, New York with the Aviation Section Signal Corps.  He served at the Handley Page Training Station No. 1, according the the Who's Who in American Aeronautics of 1922.

 

Finally, an iconic photo of aviators Steve Mac Gordon (L) and Max Goodenough (R) in front of a Curtiss model R.  Max Goodenough was the second member of a team who attempted to break the world's record time aloft in 1921, but beyond that I was able to find little regarding this man.  I believe I have photos of him at Mineola in another album.  Perhaps some facts will surface as I find more photos and newspaper articles.

More aviators from the Curtiss school in the next post...

-kpw

Meet your new flight instructor.

Meet Ivan's instructor at Newport News, Virginia - Mr Walter Lees.  Ralph Cooper has dedicated a site to this man, who happens to have been Ralph's father-in-law, and was also an Early Bird.  I hope he was less intimidating than this photo of him!  I think this photo also contains the world's smallest prop spinner.

This photo seems a fitting way to open up the blog on Ivan's time spent in Newport News, Virginia: The instructor, and the flying field.  If you're able to see them in the photo, there are some very interesting planes outside of the factory.  The one outside the main opening has interplane ailerons similar to a Model F.  I make out a Model F at the end of the ramp at the water's edge, and another closer to the factory.  The tail of on JN has the number 2 with a circle around it.  Anyone have info on these planes? (edit: I discovered that one of them is probably a Model R with a single cockpit, and behind it I can make out the fuselage of a S-1.  An R-2 is to the far right)

By the way, I don't mention this very often, but all of these photos are available in my galleries at Smugmug.com. You can view the photos at full resolution there.  I'll put a link up somewhere more conspicuous before too long...

Ralph Cooper also created the site dedicated to the Early Birds, and I found this snippet on one of Ralph's pages that my grandfather wrote in the publication they called "Chirps".  Unfortunately, the page dedicated to Ivan on the Early Bird site has been blank for some time now, and it contained some great info.  I'm not sure if Ralph is still maintaining the site.

As I had very little experience on landings, I decided to go to the Curtiss School of Newport News, Virginia. Capt. Thomas Scott Baldwin, manager and friend of Glenn Curtiss, made me a proposition. --- be Walter Lee's mechanic and give him $150 and they would make me into a real pilot. So from early April until early June 1, I did hundreds of landings to a buoy and figure eights galore in another F boat with Glenn Curtiss' original control wheel to rudder, and shoulder yoke for ailerons. Also the boat had a foot throttle. They gave me a letter of recommendation as a careful pilot and a mechanic who could take care of his plane as well, signed by Walter Lees and Capt. Baldwin; also a beautiful diploma from the Curtiss School of Aviation.

If you look closely at the photo of the factory, you'll see the buoy that Ivan mentions just offshore.  I also have the letter he mentions and the proof that they made him into a real pilot - the diploma, signed by Walter.

We have a plethora of photos of JNs and various Curtiss models in the coming posts!

-kpw