earlyaeronautics

Presumably Wilbur R Kimball who made some fantastic looking machines: www.earlyaviators.com/ekimball.htm

Wilbur R. Kimball, pilot, inventor, airplane builder, aviation pioneer, was Secretary of the Aeronautic Society of New York.

Another Bain/LOC photo gives us a closeup glimpse of Wilur R. Kimball:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_R._Kimball

Kimball was one of the first to rent a hangar at Belmont Park (New York) racetrack in 1911. Kimball tested this aircraft at Belmont Park during June and July 1911. This photo was taken at Belmont Park. The names of the aviator's from the October 1910 International Airmeet are still visible on the hangars. Kimball never received a pilot's license from the Aero Club of America.

The captioned identity of the aviator in the photo is incorrect, although understandable. It is not Lieutenant "Ellis," but actually Lieutenant Theodore Gordon Ellyson (USN) (b. 1885 - d. 1928). "Spuds" Ellyson was designated "Naval Aviator No. 1". Given the sequence of photos (see the photos of Helene Dutrieu, Earle Ovington, George W. Beatty, Tom Sopwith, etc.), and Ellyson's state of dress, I suspect this photograph was taken at the International Aviation Meet at the Nassau Boulevard Aerodrome on Long Island in September 1911. Here's a flickr photo of Beatty taking off at the meet with Ellyson's hangar in the background: See: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50913FA3D5813738... AIR GAME THRILLS AERODROME CROWD; Toy Balloons Elude World's Greatest Aviators at International Meet Wikipedia's entry on Ellyson: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Gordon_Ellyson Here are a couple of photos of Ellyson from the era posted at the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives (on flickr) for comparison:

TVL 1970: Thank you very much for providing the proper identity of Mr. Ellyson, and for linking to sources for verification. We will correct the caption to reflect his correct name. Interestingly, when searching in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog for other images that might need fixing as well as other images of Ellyson, I ran across a few other images of Ellyson in the Harris & Ewing Collection, another collection which contains early 20th century news photography. Here are those other images of Ellyson if you are interested. Thanks again for the information!

T. G. Ellyson Aero Club of America Pilot# 28. July 2,1911 Curtiss Hydroplane Hammondsport, New York Killed February 27, 1928 Chesapeake Bay crash

Flying above this city is an early Breguet Biplane Type 1910. Interesting feature of this machine are the small rudders between the wings on left and right. The caption is false, the name of the flyer Beregi is surely the name of Louis Breguet misspelled. The famous designer was early in hs career also a great flyer. The city that is overflown by Louis Breguet looks distinctly Arabic. Maybe a town in Marocco Cheers Kees [aka Varese2002]

Thanks for this information. We'll add it to the source catalog.

Indeed, it's a Moroccan city, and I'm pretty sure it's the city of Fez with it's distinctive surrounding landscape.