burnside

Another photo with him:

see comment there

Frank H. Burnside was the primary test pilot for Thomas Brothers Aeroplane Company (predecessor to the Thomas-Morse company). Here, he is posing next to the Thomas D-2 observation aircraft. The identify of this aircraft is confirmed by the photograph in the bottom panel on Page 12 of the March 20, 1916 issue of Aerial Age Weekly (see link). The text accompanying the photo reads: Photograph of Thomas D-2 type military tractor, taken before its speed trials, which resulted in a new American record of ninety-five miles an hour. The compact Thomas 135 H.P. Aeromotor, with which this machine is equipped, makes possible a very neat installation. Attention is called to the single exhaust pipe, which is in the path of the down draft from the descending propeller blade, sweeping the exhaust gases under the fuselage and away from the pilot and passenger. The next photo in the LoC photostream is another photo of the Thomas D-2. Another photo of Burnside:

Thanks for the information about Burnside and the link to a resource that provides convincing evidence for the identification of the airplane. We'll add information to our description.

Frank Burnside was living in Ithaca, NY with occupation of Aviator for the 1920 census. See his record in HistoryForge for Tompkins County at tompkins.historyforge.net/people/160352

I'd never heard this story. Incredible.

Someone stuffed up

It's a 'rivetting' story - they used dummy bolts! Lots of argy-bargy in the contemporary newspapers. See - trove.nla.gov.au/search/category/newspapers?keyword=braes... The burning of the 'Braeside' - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16117947 Some background - www.ryde.nsw.gov.au/Library/Local-and-Family-History/Hist...

The fellow in the white suit and dickie tie has an "Oops!" look about him.

It would be the 'Braeside' as the focus of the photo. The 'Burnside' to the left. Braeside was launched in April 1920 with the Burnside construction less advanced. Until it was cancelled - the contract of sale for the two ships to Burns, Philp & Co saw them name the ships - and the names Burnside (1940) and Braeside (1949) would yet be seen in their fleet - albeit - built in Scotland - and not of wood.

Frank Herbert Burnside (1888-1935): earlyaviators.com/eburnsid.htm

Though the caption on the slide says "Veck," the British aviation journal Flight, using this very photo (in better shape), identifies this aviator as Hugh Peck, with a "P." See: www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1915/1915%20-%200635... Also, read here of the third reunion of most of these and other Canadian ex-Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) aviators at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal on December 10, 1922 (once more, Hugh Peck is among those listed as attending): www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1922/1922%20-%200059... See also: Frank McGill en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_McGill George Hodgson en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hodgson

pennylrichardsca and TVL 1970: Thanks for the information on these aviators and for the correction in Hugh Peck' s name. We will update the description.

The journal cited by TVL1970 is now only available by subscription. See www.flightglobal.com/flight-international/digital-issues-...

Page 668 of Flying, Volume 4, September 1915
www.google.com/books/edition/Flying/st1LAAAAYAAJ?gbpv=1&a...
shows that the four men other than Frank Burnside were awarded pilot certificates for a hydro-aeroplane.

Frank Burnside was chief test pilot for Thomas Brothers, according to
www.mccarran.com/NVAHOF/BiosTouchScreen/Burnside
See also www.earlyaviators.com/eburnsid.htm and

@swanq Thanks for adding new links to info now that the other has a paywall.