curtisshydroplane

Picture shows Jack Vilas standing proudly for an early Curtiss Flying Boat. Remark that the caption of Bain News Service is Vilas and the LC has made Villas of it =:). There is beautiful reprint of an original book written by Jack Villas for his children in 1929, edited and augmented by Rustic Books www.rusticbooks.net/rustic_reflections.htm#aviator . It is ISBN 978-09771137-2-9 Cheers Kees

The hull of this very aircraft still exists. It is a part of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection (Inventory Number: A19490022000). Jack Vilas donated the hull of his Curtiss Model E Flying Boat to the museum in 1949.

Great that Vilas preserved this early flying boat hull during all these years. So it still exists. It must be one of the few original flying boat hulls from the period. Pity that it is far away from the public, in storage. Have you ever seen a picture of it, so the condition and / or the markings of the hull can be seen? Cheers Kees

Here's a link to a recent photo of the hull. Vilas apparently painted the hull green sometime after this flight. No markings are visible in the photo posted by the Smithsonian. collections.nasm.si.edu/code/emuseum.asp?profile=objects&...

Thanks for the information. The hull looks good for a piece dating from 1913 and having been stored in a barn or something during 36 years (!) Cheers Kees

Now that is just cool.

It was not long before the first regularly-scheduled passenger air service began between St Pete and Tampa, FL. in 1914. nice image!

Glenn Curtiss's first flying boat, the 1912 Flying Fish, is depicted in this Bain photo. Note the squarish tail. The rounded tail of the flying boat in the photo above was a feature of Curtiss's second such craft, the America, built in 1914. Photos of the America and a modern reproduction of it are on this page at the Glenn Curtiss Museum website. Curtiss tested his flying boats near Hammondsport, on Lake Keuka in the Finger Lakes district of upstate New York. The America was tested on July 12, 1914, and was the subject of this New York Times article the following day. Note that the article cites the speed of the craft as 60 mph, matching the speed cited in the caption on this Bain photo. A 1912 Times report on the testing of the Flying Fish gives the top speed of that craft as 54 mph. The photo above almost certainly depicts the America, probably on July 12, 1914.

whyaduck: Thanks for this information. We'll update the source data and reload the description.

I imagine that was a difficult shot to take with the technology of the time. I particularly like how one of the pilots appears to be looking right at the camera.

maybe G. M. Hecksher, find references to aviator of that name. A Flickr photo here with alternate spelling. www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3575394619/

Harry Angstrom: In both photos here in Flickr, the spelling is G. M. Heckscher, and a search through Google Books of published sources such as the American Aviation Historical Society journal and Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer of Aviation by Alden Hatch (Guilford, Conn: The Lyons Press, 2007), show Heckscher with that spelling, so I think the existing captions can remain. Thanks for the comment!

At Keuka Lake, Hammondsport, New York, 1913.

I found his passport application. He is Gustave Maurice Heckscher (1884-1967). He was born on 15 May 1884 in Philadelphia and it looks like he died in 1967. I will add him to Wikipedia later.