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SOME AVIATION "FIRSTS"
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1911

While Lt. Benjamin D. Foulois was out in Texas frightening horses of the Cavalry and battling to stay in position in the pilot's seat of the Wright No. 1 against the afternoon Texas gusts, and in general teaching himself to fly, many notable "firsts" were being accomplished during the year 1911.

Today there are many shockers in the horse-racing racket at Tanforan track near San Francisco, but Tanforan received its first real shock way back in 1911 on January 15th, when Lt. Myron S. Crissy dropped a live bomb on a target below while flying in a plane piloted by P. O. Parmalee.

Remember when the C. O. or the First Sergeant would tell you to take cover in small groups in the woods and foliage as protection against being spotted by liaison aircraft? That was one lesson the Army learned early - early in the historical development of the airplane. On January 16th, 1911, Lt. G. E. M. Kelly flew with Walter Brookins in a Wright plane at the tremendous altitude of 2,000 feet, in order to cross the San Bruno Hills in California, while trying to locate ground troops in the first aerial reconnaissance flight ever recorded. No, the troops were not spotted; they had taken cover in small groups in the wooded areas.

Was it a Navy man who made the first airplane landing on a Naval battleship? No! Mr. Eugene Ely, a Curtiss exhibition pilot landed and took off on the afterdeck of the anchored cruiser Pennsylvania, on January 18th, 1911, as part of the show for the San Francisco Air Meet.

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Inasmuch as the aviation arm was part of the Signal Corps in those days, it might be considered fitting that the Signal Corps was able to develop the first aerial radio transmitter. This transmitter, designed by Lt. Paul W. Beck, was air tested by him at an altitude of 100 feet by transmitting a message to a radio station on Selfridge Field, California,- a distance of one and one-half miles!

In late January of this year we had a "First in the Atlantic!" In what was at that time the longest over-water flight, J. A. D. McCurdy landed about 10 miles short of his destination, Havana, and landed in the water. He had taken off form Key West, Florida. He was picked up by a Navy Torpedo boat. This could be classified, then, as the first successful ditching in the Air Force.

If you thought that amphibious type aircraft are something rather new, consider that Glenn H. Curtiss flew the first amphibious type operation on February 17th, 1911, when he took off on land from the North Island airfield; landed on water beside the battleship Pennsylvania in San Diego harbor, was taken aboard by crane, lowered into the water again, and took off on water and landed on land.

Attention statistical-minded airlines personnel! Who was the first seaplane passenger in recorded official history? Lt. T. G. Ellyson of the U.S. Navy flew as a passenger with Glenn H. Curtiss on February 27th, 1911, in his seaplane, and is thereby accorded the honor of having been the first seaplane passenger.

Was New York the first real air-minded city? -or perhaps St. Louis? -or Chicago? -or San Francisco? On February 28th, 1911, Modesto, California inserted a clause in its charter providing for the building and maintenance of municipal airports when needed.

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