Viewing page 7 of 20

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

eight flights at the Greensboro Central Carolina Fair. October 27th he flew at Union, S.C., and on October 28-31 he made eight flights at the Charlotte, N.C. Fair. November 4-7 he flew at the Waterboro, S.C. Annual Fair. Following this he flew at Florence, N.C. While in the south, Waite flew Wright Model B and Burgess-Wright planes with Howard Rinehart and George Gray.

Returning to Massachusetts, Waite assisted A. A. Merrill and Chauncey Redding design and build an experimental tailless tractor biplane, using a 7-cyl. Gnome rotary engine, at M.I.T. during the winter and spring months of 1913-1914. Waite made several flights with this plane in June, 1914, which ended in a bad smash-up, but luckily he escaped serious injury. During 1914 he again did considerable flying for the Burgess Co. Later that year his Burgess-Wright was wrecked beyond repair when his friend Chauncey Redding was flying it with Phil Bulman as passenger. Both were killed in the accident. Following this, Waite gave up active flying after approximately 2,000 flights and 250 hours of flying time.

In 1915 Waite accepted a position as Foreman for the Sturtevant Aeroplane Co., Jamaica Plain, Mass. Grover Loening was Chief Engineer there at that time, and together they designed and built what was probably one of the very FIRST aeroplanes with metal construction. During 1916 Waite also acted as the first Inspector of aeroplanes for the state of Massachusetts. He left the Sturtevant Co. June 9, 1917 to join the Pigeon Hollow Spar Co., East Boston, Mass. builders of the first blimp fuselages for the Navy and who also constructed the tail spars for the famous NC Flying Boats used by the Navy in the first crossing of the Atlantic. In August, 1917, Waite left to become Shop Superintendent for the newly formed Loening Aircraft Engineering Corp., Long Island City, N.Y., where he remained until he accepted a position with the Bureau of Steam Engineering, Navy Dept., as the Navy's FIRST civilian aircraft inspector during World War I. In 1918 he was transferred to the Bureau of Construction and Repair, Navy Dept. When the Bureau of Aeronautics was established in July, 1921, Waite was transferred into the new Department as Technical Advisor. This was the beginning of a long and worthy service with the Bureau, during which time he received many high honors and later became Senior Administrative Assistant, where he remained until his retirement on May 19, 1952, after 35 years service with the Navy. On that date he was given a Special Service award and particular mention was made of the Catalog of Naval Aeronautial Materials which he had prepared and put into general use.