frankhburnside

This photo was published in the July 24, 1916 issue of Aerial Age Weekly (Vol. 3, No. 19), page 560, with the caption: Frank H. Burnside, Lieut. Anthony Sunderland, National Guard Student, James D. Hill, Instructor, Corp. Chas. Robbins, Ark. National Guard Student at the Thomas School of Flying. Lieut. Sunderland is Mayor of Danbury, Conn. and the first mayor in the United States to take up aviation in the interest of "Preparedness." See: books.google.com/books?id=AHjmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA560&l... Here's a photo of James DeWitt Hill from 1924 in the Smithsonian's photostream on the Flickr Commons. Hill would perish with fellow aviator Lloyd Bertaud and Hearst New York Daily Mirror editor Philip A. Payne, when their aircraft "Old Glory" (Fokker F.VIIa, reg. NX703) vanished over the Atlantic Ocean in September 1927 during an attempted non-stop flight between Old Orchard Beach, Maine and Rome, Italy. See: www.historynet.com/old-glorys-final-ill-fated-flight-new-... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_DeWitt_Hill en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_W._Bertaud

The June 26, 1916 Aerial Age adds further context to the photo: "Thomas Company to Train Militia Aviators An offer to train three aviators free of charge has been received by the Aero Club of America from the Thomas Brothers Aeroplane Company. As the Aero Club has been flooded with applications from the National Guard of practically every one of the forty eight States and from civilians who are anxious to take a course in aviation, this offer of the Thomas Company was very welcome. Following the policy of giving preference to those who asked first, the Executive Committee of the Aero Club selected three officers whose applications were received several months ago. Lieut. Anthony Sunderland, First Lieutenant, Connecticut Coast Artillery Corps and Mayor of Danbury Conn. was the first to take advantage of the Thomas Company's offer and is now training at the Thomas School at Ithaca. Lieut H.F. Wakefield of the Vermont National Guard and Lieut Keeling R. Pulliam of the Kentucky National Guard have been offered the two remaining Thomas scholarships. In the event of the Mexican situation preventing any of these officers from taking the course, the scholarships will be granted to Corporal Chas. T Robins of the Arkansas National Guard and Lieut W.E. Lewis of the Illinois National Guard. The applications from men who wish to learn to fly are flooding the Aero Club. They come from every walk of life, all of whom have one desire: to learn to fly so as to be of maximum service to this country in case of trouble." books.google.com/books?id=AHjmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA560&l...

Thanks to both of you for this excellent research. We'll add some of the information to the record the next time we update.

Earlyaviators.com has pages on Burnside, Hill, Robbins and Sunderland. www.earlyaviators.com/esunderl.htm www.earlyaviators.com/eburnsid.htm www.earlyaviators.com/ehilljd.htm www.earlyaviators.com/erobbcha.htm

The Thomas School of Flying was in Ithaca, NY. See archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NYTOMPKI/2002-11/1... "An April 24, 1915, issue of The Ithaca Journal reported that a Thomas hydroaeroplane was flying on the lake and that it was being used by pupils in the Thomas Flying School. The Thomases built two wooden hangars along the lakeshore and a small marine railway to launch and retrieve the aircraft. As international pressures built toward World War I, the U.S. Navy ordered two flying boats at $12,000 each. The Thomas-Morse Aircraft Company began the manufacture of land-based planes, especially the popular trainer known as the Scout. In 1916 the peach trees were cleared to make a proper runway for the biplanes and pilots were trained to fly them. Frank Burnside was the first pilot in Tompkins County, having moved here with the Thomas brothers."

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

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.