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^[[P121]] [[newspaper clipping]] AERO CLUB STARTS SERIES OF AIR FEATS [[short line]] Exhibition Flights, Races and Other Features Are Shown at Cicero Field. [[short line]] COMMERCIAL USE DISPLAYED [[short line]] Mail and Express Packages Carried and 'Taxiplanes' Transport Passengers. [[short line]] Spectacular exhibition flights, races and novelty feats in midair marked the official opening yesterday of the Cicero flying field by the Aero Club of Illinois. There were no accidents to mar the affair. Among the features of the day were demonstrations of the adaptability of the airplane to commercial uses. Mail and express packages were picked up and delivered, while "taxiplanes" predicted to be soon the rivals of taxicabs, transported passengers. Yesterday's meet was the first of the series which is to close Sunday afternoon. The second of the series will be held this afternoon and the third tomorrow. A typical holiday crowd watched the aviators perform. Applause for graceful spirals, two exciting races and slow, bird-like glides from high altitudes rose above the deafening whirr of the aeroplanes' propellers. COMMERCIAL USE SHOWN. The practicability of the air machine as a grocer's cart or express wagon was demonstrated by Otto W. Brodie, one of the two Chicago aviators participating in the meet. He received a package from Andrew Drew, field director, circled the field for more than a mile at a low altitude, delivered it to a man among the spectators and received a receipt for it. All was accomplished in two minutes. George Mestach, a French aviator, was sworn in by Postmaster Peter McDonald of Cicero as a mailcarrier and received two sacks of mail for delivery at the Wheaton and Elmhurst postoffices. He deferred his trip until today because of the absence from the field of Max Lillie. FIRST GIRL IN MONOPLANE. Miss Rose Machek, 4145 Indiana avenue, won the distinction of being the first Chicago woman to ride in a monoplane when she induced Aviator Mestach to take her as a passenger. They circled the field two times at an altitude of about 500 feet. In a five-mile handicap race Otto Brodie, in a Farnham biplane, defeated Marcel Tournier, in a Newport monoplane, by thirteen seconds. Brodie had a handicap of one minute and a flying start. [[underlined in red]]Mestach, driving a Borel monoplane, defeated Paul Studensky, in a Wright biplane, by one second in a five-mile handicap race. Studensky had a handicap of one and one-half minutes.[[/underlined in red]] Mestah made the best time of the afternoon, making the five miles in 5:40. While the meet was in progress James Ward arrived on the field in a Curtiss biplane, which he had driven from Riverview Park. Andrew Drew made a partially successful flight in the McCormick-Romme "umbrella-plane" which has been entered in the meet for experimental purposes. He succeeded in flying several hundred yards, but could not get the machine higher than twenty feet from the ground. In alighting the propeller on the machine was splintered. No one was hurt. [[/newspaper clipping]] [[newspaper clipping]] Large Crowd at Cicero. A large crowd of aviation enthusiasts enjoyed flights by various machines at the Cicero field, the paddocks being fairly well filled. In two five mile heats Otto Brodie in a Farman biplane, with a minute handicap, defeated Marcel Tournier in a Nieuport monoplane; time, 7:33 and 6:46, respectively.[[underlined in red]] Mestach was faster by a second than Paul Studensky in a Curtiss biplane, overcoming a minute and a half handicap; time, 5:40 and 7:11, respectively.[[/underlined in red]] Studensky went up at 5 o'clock for exhibitions with the big National biplane, made in Chicago, the largest in America. Andrew Drew, field director, kept the crowd's interest with several hopping flights in the H.F. McCormick "umbrella plane". Jimmy Ward, in his Curtiss "Shooting Star" paid an unexpected visit to the field at 5 o'clock, flying in from an amusement park where he is exhibiting. He returned after a half hour rest. Mestach, who is adept pilot of the Morane-Borel monoplane, was sworn in by Cicero Postmaster Peter McDonald as official United States aerial mail carrier, with an appointment from Postmaster General Hitchcock. Service was delayed until today, as it was thought the substations at Elmhurst and Wheaton golf links could not be kept open on a holiday. Today is a "society matinee" at the field flights, more than 10,000 invitations having been sent to "blue book" names by the Aero Club of Illinois. [[/newspaper clipping]]
