Viewing page 43 of 58

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

August a new dual-control, side-by-side, training setup was devised for both land machines and hydros, which vastly improved training procedures. Into November, Wildan was still instructing nine hydro pupils, and about that time they were flight testing a flying boat with a folding landing gear arrangement for beaching. On November 23rd Wildman demonstrated a new flying boat before U. S. Army officers, carrying J. D. Cooper as a passenger. Tests included speed over a one-mile course carrying a 900 lb. load and climbing 150 feet per minute. On December 2nd Wildman completed the tests on a Navy flying bout to end the flying season at Hammondsport.
     Following this Wilden went to California where he served as an instructor at the Curtiss North Island school over the winter months of 1912-1913. During February, 1913 a new military tractor biplane arrived for demonstrations and Wildman assisted in those tests. He returned to Hammondsport in April for the summer season of activities as flying boat instructor. Later that month the Curtiss Company sent Wildman to Europe to assist C. C. Witmer who was there demonstrating planes before foreign military officials. He went first to Russia where Witmer was having difficulty and succeeded in correcting the trouble, and satisfactory tests were concluded. From there they went to Wismar, Germany, to deliver a flying boat, then to Paris where they demonstrated a flying boat before Austrian government officials for the Curtiss Paris representative Louis Paulhan. Wildman and Witmer then returned to the United States at the end of May.
    That spring several prominent wealthy sportsmen bought Curtis flying boats, which resulted in a period of intensive testing and training. On May 31st Wildman started an extremely busy season when he made the initial flight tests of a new boat for G. M. Heckscher of New York City. That spring flying boats were also delivered to Chicagoans Harold F. McCormick and Logan A. Vilas, J. B. R. Verplanck of New York, Marshall Reid of Philadelphia, and Gerald Hanley of Providence, Long Island. Some of these men took instructions and learned to

4