Viewing page 8 of 179

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[newspaper clipping]]
THE BIRD MAN ON THE GROUND
[[short line]]

Paul Studensky and His Aeroplane on Hand Monday to Make the Advertised Flights.

Weather Unpropitious, but Flights Reasonably Certain - The Aviator Interesting.

[[left column]]
All day today crowds have been pouring into the city to see the aeroplane flights, advertised for the Fourth of July but because of accident not produced at that time, and now provided as evidence of good faith of the Order of Eagles who conducted the Fourth of July celebration.
 
The aeroplane arrived on schedule time Sunday evening and under the direction of the aviator, Mr. Paul Studensky, was immediately uncrated and made ready. However the weather conditions today have been very unpropitious, so that hours for the flights were placed as late as possible - at five and seven o'clock p.m. The humid atmosphere, according to Studensky, has much the same effect upon an aeroplane as upon salt in a saltceller, making the flying machine heavy in the air, and making altitude trials practically impossible. 

However Studensky assured the Journal-Chronicle that flights would be made if the weather did not become worse. 

Studensky is an interesting chap. He is a Russian by birth, a graduate of St. Petersburg University, and speaks very good English to with a very strong French accent He studied aviation in France and was granted his license two years ago. He has been in America only about a year, but within that time has made some notable flights. He was the first authorized aerial carrier of mail in Texas, making mail-carrying trips from Galveston Island to the city. This spring he carried mail from Chicago to Wheaton in the largest aeroplane ever in America. Studensky is short in stature but well build and athletic, with a clear-complexioned, full face, and what is in the west termed "the shooting eye," betokening cold nerve. He is very much of a gentleman and has made an excellent impression upon all who have met him.

The aeroplane used by Studensky is of the bi-plane type, modeled after the French military machines and driven by a fifty-horse power seven cylinder rotary engine. It is propelled by an eight-foot blade driven at the rate of 1200 revolutions per minute. The engine is the same as used by Graham-White in some of his record-making flights. The machine is built and owned by the National Aeroplane Company of Chicago and is known as the Beach-National type. 

The only place about the city found [[last sentence is cut off]]

[[/left column]]
[[right column]]

on M.S. Alexaneder's farm on west Bridge street. About one hundred and fifty yards of smooth ground are necessary for the start, and this was found nowhere else, in Mr. Studensky's study of the locality. He stated to Journal-Chronicle that after rising from the ground he would circle about a bit, and then, if everything worked right, would direct his flight over the city.
[[/right column]]