Viewing page 38 of 60

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

ing his Wright airplane, set a new world's altitude record of 9,714 feet during the closing days of the meet.
Knabenshue continued to arrange for top billings for the Wright Exhibition Team at the major events across the country. On November 7, 1910, Parmalee flew several bolts of cloth, weighing almost 100 pounds, from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio. This flight was one of the first uses of an airplane to carry commercial freight.
The Wright Exhibition Team suffered a tragedy on November 17, 1910, when Ralph Johnstone's airplane wings folded during a stunt and his plane plunged to earth, killing him instantly.
The exhibitions continued and in December, 1910, Knabenshue contracted for Brookins, Hoxsey, and Parmalee to fly at the forth-coming San Francisco Air Meet for $25,000. The Wrights rebuilt their little "Baby Grand" racer for Parmalee to fly in this meet.
On January 15, 1911, at the meet held at Tanforan Race Track, Lieutenant Myron S. Crissy, flying with Parmalee, dropped a live bomb, designed by himself, over the side of his Wright airplane on a target below. On January 16, Lieutenant G. E. M. Kelly of the Infantry flew with Walter Brookins in a Wright airplane at 2,000 feet through the San Bruno HIlls, California, in the first photo reconnaissance flight attempting to locate troops. It was during this same meet that Eugene Burton Ely made the first successful landing and subsequent take-off from the USS Pennsylvania, anchored in San Francisco Bay.
In the two years which Knabenshue worked for the Wrights there was only one major disagreement between them. It was about the Exhibition Team's flying on Sunday. Knabenshue said, "Wilbur didn't