Viewing page 14 of 19

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

with a camera attached near his seat. He also carried a number of passengers.

The Rieflin brothers dropped out of the venture after that season, but Eells remained in Rochester during the early part of 1912 flying this plane on floats at Irondequit Bay. Called the Wells hydro, it still used the Wells & Adams engine. On June 27th Eells made a 73 mile flight there with this plane in one hour and twenty-three minutes, but was forced down when he ran out of fuel. He flew at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 3rd and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania October 12th, including several flights over the battlefields.

In early 1913 Eells became associated with the Thomas Brothers at Bath, New York, on flight test, instruction and exhibition activities. A flying school was started at Consensus Lake with a Thomas biplane hydro with Eells as Chief Instructor. [[strikethrough]] There [[/strikethrough]] He also did some of the initial flight testing of the new Thomas flying boat intended for the Great Lakes Cruise Contest. He made flights at Glen Haven, New York, the last two weeks of July with Walter Johnson and Charles Hermann, then flew a Thomas hydro alone for one week at Monessen, Pennsylvania, in early September at an "Old Home Week" celebration. From there Eells flew the hydro at the Perry Centennial Celebration at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, September 19th to 26th. This was a water flying event held by the Inter-Lakes Yachting Association in commemoration of Perry's victory in the Battle of Lake Erie. Also flying at this event were Walter Johnson and Frank Burnside of the Thomas Brothers Company, Tony Jannus and William Bleakley of the Benoist Company and Beckwith Havens if the Curtiss Company.

Eells' aviation activities are unknown through 1914 to 1916, but reportedly he was in France at the start of World War I, at which time he returned to the United States and became a Naval Aviation Instructor at the Hampton Roads Naval Air Station, Virginia. There he was also engaged in some bomb-dropping experiments. During this period he enlisted in the Navy and was enrolled as Chief Quartermaster on January 21, 1918. Released from active duty [strikethrough]there[/strikethrough] November 30,1918, he remained in the Reserves. Eells received an honorable discharge on September 30,, 1921, as Chief Radioman, from the 9th Naval District, Great Lakes, Illinois.