Chasing Icarus
Page 32
“It’s a pity to see that”: Ibid., 349.
“Let’s stick by the ship”: Ibid., 308.
“This crew seems to be made up”: Ibid., 350.
“loved the limelight”: New York Times, December 13, 1910.
“How nicely it works!”: Century Magazine, October 1910.
“the envelope appeared to take”: New York Times, October 12, 1908.
“as if some great giant was hurling”: Century Magazine, October 1910.
“It is inexplicable to me”: Fort Wayne Sentinel, October 23, 1908.
“the length of the appendix”: Fort Wayne Sentinel, October 12, 1908.
“The successful make-up of a team”: Century Magazine, October 1910.
“While we were passing above Noble County”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 20, 1910.
“Your Fifth Avenue and the constant stream of pretty women”: New York Herald, October 16, 1910.
“I will try the machine for you”: New York Herald, October 16, 1910.
“The cash prizes amount to $72,300”: New York Sun, October 16, 1910.
“So great is the interest in the secrets”: New York Herald, October 16, 1910.
“Germany has now in military service 14”: New York Times, February 14, 1910.
“German military experts are visionaries”: Baltimore American, June 12, 1910.
“A few oranges or confetti bombs”: Boston Sunday American, September 11, 1910.
“Eventually the airplane will be the feature in all wars”: Wallace, Claude Grahame-White, 110.
“and made one of his sensational sweeping dives”: New York Herald, October 17, 1910.
Chapter Three: A Sort of Bleeding to Death
“The wind has eased considerably”: Wellman, Aerial Age, 352.
“about 400 miles east of the Hampton roads”: Ibid., 317.
“The America airship will die from sheer exhaustion”: Ibid., 355.
“millions of stars are twinkling”: Ibid., 358.
“For the same amount of premium”: New York Herald, October 18, 1910.
“covered and inclosed amphitheater, where an exhibition”: New York Times, September 18, 1910. September 18, 1910.
“Sysonby’s ghost stood at the far turn of Belmont Park”: New York Herald, October 18, 1910.
“I took up flying as a hobby eight or nine months ago”: Daily Mirror, August 17, 1910.
“I found my way by compass entirely”: Daily Mail, August 17, 1910.
“That’s what took me straight to Amiens last night”: Ibid.
“cheerfulness of temperament”: London Daily Graphic, September 14, 1910.
“I have been treated right royally here in England”: London evening Standard, September 7, 1910.
“You’ll have to find out about that from somewhere else”: New York City Globe, October 12, 1910.
“They have guessed many times that I was Mexican”: Ibid.
“I do not expect to win any prizes in the Belmont Park”: New York Sun, October 9, 1910.
“made entirely of aluminum and steel”: Ibid.
THE REVOLUTIONIST FROM SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco Chronicle, October 8, 1910.
“That’s one of the greatest troubles with airplanes today”: New York City Globe, October 12, 1910. October 12, 1910.
“There is no great mystery or great difficulty about”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 13, 1910.
“since his arrival in this country have been of extraordinary interest”: New York City Post, October 13, 1910.
“He’s lucky he didn’t break his neck”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 1910.
“it is easier to learn to make the spiral”: Ibid.
“a quart of whisky, four quarts of assorted wines”: The descriptions of the provisions carried by each basket appeared in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 17, 1910.
“It’s at least forty percent luck”: Ibid.
“We are good to stay up seventy or eighty hours”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 25, 1910.
“must be something like the proverbial”: Augustus Post, “A Fall from the Sky,” Century Magazine, October 1911.
“17 miles northwest of St Louis”: An abbreviated version of the logbook kept by Augustus Post appeared in the New York Herald, October 28, 1910.
“My God, it’s a pretty sight, brother!”: Augustus Post wrote an account of the voyage for the December 1910 issue of Century Magazine.
Chapter Four: Will Launch Lifeboats and Trust to You
“As soon as the sun comes out today”: Wellman, Aerial Age, 360.
“Why not draw water and fill one”: Ibid.
“So help me God”: New York World, October 20, 1910.
If you’re being “nutty”: New York Sun, October 20, 1910.
“continued to come from beneath the black”: Ibid.
“We do love our airship, but, oh, you Trent!”: Wellman, Aerial Age, 361.
“Do you want our assistance?”: The New York World, October 20, 1910, reproduced the text of the entire communication between the Trent and the America, which was also published in Walter Wellman’s account of the voyage, The Aerial Age.
“every man in the crew at work now”: New York Sun, October 20, 1910.
“knocking a hole in the forward air chamber”: Wellman, Aerial Age, 364.
“Good old America, farewell”: This quote appears in Aerial Age, 334, and although not attributed to the lecture given by Wellman aboard the Trent, mentioned in the New York Daily Sun, October 20, 1910, I have imagined it to be an approximation of what he told his audience with characteristic melodrama.
“Nothing so excruciatingly funny as the action of this machine”: This description appeared in Aero journal and was reproduced in Wallace, Claude Grahame-White, 84.
“I will demonstrate the efficiency”: New York Herald, October 19, 1910.
“In the lines and the chassis they are essentially”: Ibid.
“we suddenly struck a zone of air”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 22, 1910.
“After a sheer drop of six thousand feet there came a brief halt”: Ibid.
“We were within a hundred feet of the surface”: Ibid.
“Our attempt to land was fraught”: Ibid.
“exhibited their usual panic with noisy sounds”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
America II passed over this place: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 24, 1910.
Chapter Five: We Are in Bad Country and Grave Danger
“examined it and found that some patches”: New Orleans Picayune, October 22, 1910.
“I pulled the valve and we descended with terrific force”: St. Louis Republic, October 20, 1910.
“The lonesomeness and darkness of the place were appalling”: Ibid.
“for had it not been for this lucky sighting”: An account given by Leon Givaudan and quoted on the Web site www.pionnairge.com.
“growling and snapping and looking all too anxious for prey”: St Louis. Post-Dispatch, October 22, 1910.
“Highest altitude, 5700 feet”: New York Herald, October 19, 1910.
“while to the south beautiful soft mists”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
“this is the chance of a lifetime”: Ibid.
“Both realize that we are in bad country”: Ibid.
“made a mental survey of the country”: Ibid.
“the sun broke through the thick mist”: New York Herald, October 20, 1910.
“fairly tore them to pieces in their eagerness”: New York World, October 20, 1910.
“think we know how a ship to achieve such a voyage”: Popular Mechanics, December 1910.
“Such a ship will come as surely”: New York Sun, October 20, 1910.
“The experiment speaks for itself”: Ibid.
“He sailed forth into unknown perils”: Evening Sun, October 19, 1910.
“tends to confirm the growing conviction”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 20, 1910.
“They were sure there was going to be”: St. Lou
is Post-Dispatch, October 19, 1910.
“We will be married next spring in London”: New York Herald, October 19, 1910.
“Now listen to me”: Wallace, Claude Grahame-White, 108.
“the monoplane was seen to dip suddenly”: New York Herald, October 20, 1910.
“It was sheer carelessness and lack of forethought”: Ibid.
“Why, nobody ever gets hurt flying!”: Mansfield (OH) News, October 20, 1910.
Chapter Six: Progress Slow and Exhausting
“After talking things over and discussing”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
“the woods were putting on a dress of unearthly loveliness”: Louis Hémon, Maria Chapdelaine (Kessinger Publishing, 2004).
“awakened by the falling of the limb of a tree”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
“This is the balloon ‘America II,’ pilot”: Ibid.
“covered with a mass of rotten stumps”: New York Herald, October 28, 1910.
“I thought the log was solid”: St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 28, 1910.
“an experience which I do not care to repeat”: St. Louis Republic, October 20, 1910.
“on the edge of civilization”: Ibid.
“I intend to enter most of the general events”: New York Herald, October 21, 1910.
“very, very angry over the incident”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 26, 1910.
“Of one thing the public may be sure”: New York Herald, October 21, 1910.
Chapter Seven: Wait Until Orville Comes
“got a wetting so that we had to go out”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
“The northern lights lit up the horizon”: Ibid.
“last sighted Tuesday sailing over Lake Huron”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 21, 1910.
“No name since Columbus”: New York Times, October 23, 1910.
“calumny and abuse while we were forced to await”: Ibid.
“One of the things demonstrated”: Ibid.
“Any person that attempts the highly”: Chicago Daily Tribune, October 22, 1910.
“Arch Hoxsey in a Wright biplane”: New York Herald, October 22, 1910.
“heavily-built and good-natured man”: Collier’s Weekly, November 26, 1910.
“another cofferful of American dollars”: New York evening Observer, June 8, 1910.
“but not a man connected with the Wrights”: New York Herald, October 22, 1910.
“Wait until Orville comes”: Ibid.
“bird of prey:” Terry Gwynn-Jones, The Air Racers (Pelham, 1983).
“the world owed them a bounty”: Seth Shulman, Unlocking the Sky (Perennial, 2002).
“Keep out of my air!”: Ibid.
“The Wright Company has given guarantee”: Aero, September 14, 1910.
“found that the wings had been severely crushed”: New York Herald, October 22, 1910.
“We have traveled with that machine”: Ibid.
Chapter Eight: An Epoch-Making Event
“it is believed that they landed on Wednesday”: Times (London), October 22, 1910.
“Have landed thirty-two miles northeast”: Oshkosh (WI) Daily Northwestern, October 22, 1910.
“officials of the Aero Club of America”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 22, 1910.
“with the weather so cold that at times”: Gettysburg Times, October 28, 1910.
“Hawley’s leg hurt him so severely”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
“talked over the events of the voyage”: Ibid.
“to bring back a muskrat from their trip”: This anecdote is described in the New York Herald, October 29, 1910.
“At the dawn of the opening day of the great”: New York Herald, October 22, 1910. 118 “airmen have a habit of working”: New York Sun, October 22, 1910.
“coining their heroic feats at our expense”: New York City Review, October 22, 1910.
“At 50 feet the biplane appeared to have”: New York Herald, October 23, 1910.
“All our suits for infringement of patent”: Washington Post, October 23, 1910.
“confident that the courts of America and European”: Ibid.
“no Blériot, Curtiss, Farman, or in fact”: Ibid.
“that they didn’t think the Curtiss planes”: Sherwood Harris, First to Fly (Simon &Schuster, 1970).
“were taught by the Wrights that the Curtiss”: Ibid.
“The cup will remain in America”: New York Herald, October 23, 1910.
“The exact dimensions of the new”: Ibid.
“The Curtiss racer, on the other hand”: Ibid.
“He calls a ‘single surface’ airplane”: New York Sun, October 23, 1910.
“Whether it will fly well—or fly at all”: Ibid.
“vendors who hawked programmes”: New York Evening Sun, October 22, 1910.
“Popular with the man who owns the eatables”: New York Sun, October 23 1910.
“apricot-colored polo coat and bell-shaped”: Most of the New York papers devoted considerable space to the sartorial taste of the city’s high society, but the New York Herald, the New York World, and the New York Sun were the most avid.
“became so excited”: New York Sun, October 23, 1910.
“strongly opposed to flying over cities”: New York Evening Sun, October 12, 1910.
“The prize will be open to all competitors”: Ibid.
“on account of cutting slightly inside a pylon”: New York Herald, October 23, 1910.
“growing smaller and smaller”: Ibid.
“so blinded by rain that he couldn’t make”: Ibid.
“has won for him a host of friends”: Ibid.
Chapter Nine: Tears Started to Our Eyes
“Each of us realized without mentioning”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
“Dear God, the best friend of all”: Boston Daily Globe, October 29, 1910.
“Our ambitions, which had been at rather”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
“There was plenty of driftwood and birch-bark”: Ibid.
ALL SAFE. 1230 MILES: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 23, 1910.
PERKINS OF BOSTON AND GUERICKE SAFE: Boston Globe, October 23, 1910.
“dropped eighteen thousand feet in nine minutes”: New York World, October 26, 1910.
“literally had to cut our way through the underbrush”: Ibid.
“we heard wolves and other wild animals”: Ibid.
“had seen tracks of very large animals”: New York Times, October 30, 1910.
“the wild Nipigon country”: New York American, October 23, 1910.
“winter has already begun in Canada”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 23, 1910.
“flying in a wind is rather in the position”: Claude Grahame-White and Harry Harper, The Aeroplane (Jack Publishers, 1914).
“the unfortunates who were promenading”: New York Sun, October 24, 1910.
“dressed in a severely plain costume”: New York Herald, October 24, 1910.
“the steering wheel jammed me back”: New York Times, September 11, 1910.
“I really believe that this game has gotten”: Popular Mechanics, December 10, 1910.
“I see the crowd below me looking upward”: “Fatalism of the Fliers,” Century Magazine, November 1912, posthumously quoted Ely.
“what they want are thrills”: San Antonio Light & Gazette, December 4, 1910.
“he needed all his caution”: Washington Post, October 24, 1910.
“a man who keeps his head can never be injured”: Wallace, Claude Grahame-White, 39.
“accused the committee of attempting to deceive”: Cincinnati (OH) Post, October 24, 1910.
Chapter Ten: A Death Trap
“the celebrated mountain police will begin”: Syracuse (NY) Post Standard, October 24, 1910.
“We have no idea of the location of the America II”: St. Louis Republic, October 24, 1910.
“which would carry it east of Lake Superior”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 24, 1910.
/> “It is within the range of possibilities that: Chicago Daily Tribune, October 24, 1910.
“gave an exclamation of surprise”: Century Magazine, December 1910.
“was to be used as a wedge in getting bark”: Ibid.
“Post, if anyone asks me what heaven is”: Ibid.
“I had not gone far when I saw a cache”: Ibid.
No admission without business: Ibid.
Oct. 24, 1910. Alan R. Hawley and Augustus Post: Ibid.
“with a smart fire burning in the stove”: Ibid.
“The international course as it has been laid”: New York American, October 24, 1910. 144 “If I were to tell the truth about the track”: New York Herald, October 24, 1910.
“Most emphatically do I say”: New York Sun, October 24, 1910.
“tried to make that turn at the acute angle”: Ibid.
“Mr. Curtiss had to fly over houses and trees”: New York Herald, October 24, 1910.
“aviators who fly above certain adjacent properties”: New York Sun, October 24, 1910.
“childish:” Ibid.
Ryan picked up a copy of the New York: The confrontation between Ryan and the head of security is constructed from reports carried in the New York Sun, October 24, 1910, the New York Evening Sun, October 24, 1910, and the New York World of the same date.
“Mr. [Cortlandt] Bishop again went over the course”: New York Sun, October 25, 1910.
“a navy blue suit with the skirt”: Ibid.
“leather with several inches of padding”: Ibid.
“which are built around murders or suicide”: New York evening Mail, October 21, 1910.
“with a bow and a smile, cut off an animated”: New York World, October 25, 1910.
“The Four Hundred had at last discovered a new”: New York Evening Mail, October 24, 1910.
“the crowd watched fascinated and motionless”: New York World, October 25, 1910.
“the softly moving lips of Wilbur Wright”: New York Herald, October 25, 1910.
“and if my luck held, I’d break the gliding record”: Harris, First to Fly, 165.
“plodded unsteadily over the field to his hangar”: New York World, October 25, 1910.
“It was beastly cold”: New York Sun, October 25, 1910.
“When she first leaves the ground”: Ibid.
“No policeman in Central Park would stand”: Ibid.