OCR Text |
Show FLYING DOAT IS A GREAT SUCCESS j Hammondsport, X. Y.. June 23. Twice todaj ;in1 for the first time the Curtlss flying boat America denv I onstrated In glorious soaring flight that desplti- ber huge bulk and cumbersome cumb-ersome body she could travel through the air like a swallow. Eastward over the glassy surface of Lake Ketika. cer the purple vine yards of Pleasant Valley she swung ike i happ living thing until she lost herself in the skies of the late afternoon. And then back to the water she gild like a nipsscneor from above on the broad range path of the j petting sun Glenn Curtis, who despite his prom ; ise to eschew flying piloted the America ou her premier trip over the lake, declared thai Bhe exceeded all I his expectations A few minor short Comings yes but she was wonderful tinder the circumstances, nude as dlf- fit ult as possible. And the taciturn Englishman who is to pilot the great whale-like flyer through the mysterious air pockets over the riotous Atlantic, became oluble. I Ripping bj Jove Ripping" he cried as he clambered from the 1 1 n cabin after pllotinp the America on her second flight. Finest machine I ever handled She is as steady as a blooming rock We bad tons of horsepower and she insisted on planing plan-ing rlslne. you know all the tim It was all 1 could do to keep her down Fly across the ocean" Ty friends, she'd keep on over fill Europe." Eu-rope." At ?, 20 p ni . with Glenn Curtiss at the wheel and Lieutenant Cyril Porte and George Hallet, the two men who will try to pilot the America over the Atlantic in less than fifty hours, at his Bide the Hying boat started forth on her maiden voyage For px-perimehtal px-perimehtal purposes one of her big propellers was set whirling at the rate of 750 revolutions per minute The other propeller was speeding up The big flyer seemed sluggish and j hea as ,h' began to plow through I the watei She rolled like a ship In heavy seas and left In her wake a furrow which almost capsized the lit i Me launches which tried to cross be-j hind her Despite the difference in j ilit speed of her opposed propellers, she Bped straight east toward Bluff I'oint. and a? her speed increased she teased roll ins and began to skim over! the top of the water like a shell ton of the u-ater liWn a shell One Ton of Ballast. clinging to the superstructure of tin- Aim-iira were .limmio Lamont ana George Robinson, mechanicians In the Curtiss factory. The America, in lieu of the one-ton of gasoline with which she will be ballasted when she sets forth from Newfoundland next month, carried In her body several bags or 1 s.i ad. Four minutes after sh,- had been started she arose from the lake Gone waa all the sluggishness She soared to a height of fifteen feet and, raakiug no less than fifty miles an hour, she rushed toward the bluff like a featner before a hurricane She turned like a hawk and amazed the crowds by reversing re-versing her direction in less than 100 yards Then with the ease of a lark-she lark-she flew skyward until the fast fading fad-ing daylight showed between her rounded bottom and the close-cropped knoll of Paradise hill. Slowly she descended at the base of Bluff point, where Robinson and Lamont left her for the newspaper motorboat Then back again to her moorings The second and most brilliant flight started just before sunset and ended while evening was folding Lake Keu-ka Keu-ka in a purple mist Porte was at the wheel and Hallet and Lamoni were at his side. The America arose a few seconds after she had been skimming down the lake. Her engines were roaring like a distant battle She skipped 1 over the surface for 200 yards and then with majestic ease soared twen i ty feet into the air, directly above the head6 of the charmed group in I the newspaper motorboat. Far on the outside of the America leaned Lamont. waving the stars and stripes and shouting that the Azores were straight ahead The lank mechanician takes the whole prospect pros-pect as a huge Joke. He declines to consider possible failure or positive danger Over Paradise Hill, down the lovelv Lrbana valley and a ride to Bluff Point, mounting, mounting always, the America flew like a dart She swung as if on wires She swooped so near the lake ns to send a shudder shud-der through the watchers At fifty-five fifty-five miles an hour she ascended into the skies until Bhe was fifty feet above (be hilltops and sharply silhouetted sil-houetted against the sky. |