The attached 1912 Literary Digest article addresses the debt that past and future aviators owe to Louis Pierre Mouillard (1834 – 1897); an aviation visionary whose relentless study of bird flight throughout the last half of the Nineteenth Century paved the way for aviators yet unborn.
Pilot Charles Hamilton (1886 – 1914) made the first round-trip flight from Philadelphia to New York and back again flying a Curtis bi-plane in 1910:
"He flew from New York to the Philadelphia in one hour and fifty minutes. His average speed on trips to the Quaker City was 46.92 miles per hour, but returning he averaged 51.36 miles per hour."
The NEW YORK TIMES paid Hamilton $5,000.00 for this achievement.
An article on the pioneer aviator Harry Hawker (1889 - 1921), written on the heels of his his failed attempt to "beat the Yankees" in crossing the Atlantic. Australian by birth, Hawker came to Britain specifically to seek a career in the infant aviation industry. His wish was answered in 1912 when he was hired by Tommy Sopwith. Hawker saved his wages to afford flying lessons and acquired his flying permit in the September of that same year. The following month he won the British Michelin Cup with a grueling endurance flight of 8 hr, 23 min. Sopwith was impressed and Hawker was promoted to chief test pilot. The rest is told herein...
from Amazon: Hawker: Aviator, Designer, Test Pilot
Here is a short article with photographs depicting two unnamed British fighter- planes: one is described as "double-decker", with the pilot riding directly over the gunner and the second boasts of a steel fuselage construction. Photographs of one of the first attempts at night flying with wing-mounted electric lights.
Attached is a photograph and short description of "One of the latest bomb-dropping devices" that were available to French and British pilots during the earliest days of World War One.
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