georgeeahallett

John Cyril Porte, a retired Briish aviator, and George Hallett, were pilot and co-pilot on a project to attempt a non-stop Atlantic crossing by air. They were to fly the Rodman Wanamaker airship, America, from Newfoundland to Ireland in the summer of 1914. The original plan had been to fly in June, but problems with the plane's design led to postponement well into July. Porte insisted on flying at night during the full moon so that he could navigate by the stars. By the time the America was ready to fly, the next avialable date that met Porte's criteria was in August 1914. Unfortunately, the outbreak of The Great War that month caused the ocean crossing to be cancelled.

Other Bain/LOC photos of the flying boat, "America": and another Curtiss boatplane:

I started an entry for Hallett: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eustace_Amyot_Hallett

puzzlemaster, Wystan and Richard Arthur Norton, Thanks to all for both bringing more information to these photographs as well as gathering related images. We will be adding new information to quite a few photographs related to the 'America' when we update our records.

The earlier version of "America" had only two engines:

The same photo was published in Aerial Age Weekly, July 19, 1915, p. 423. The photo, at the bottom of page 423, has a caption which states: "A group of enthusiasts taken at San Diego, Cal. From left to right, George Hallett, Raymund V. Morris, Katherine Stinson, Lieut. R.A.B. Sutton, Lieut. Jose Morrow, Lieut. Bown, Lieut. Walter R. Taliaferro." books.google.com/books?id=znbmAAAAMAAJ&printsec=front... There are some slight misidentifications in the Aerial Age caption of the photo - "Raymund V. Morris" is Raymond V. Morris, "Lieut. R.A.B. Sutton" is Redondo B. Sutton (who would come to later infamy in a 1920's swindling scheme), "Lieut. Jose Morrow" is Joseph C. Morrow, Jr., and "Lieut. Bown" is Thomas S. Bowen. Given the identity of those in the photo, this almost certainly was taken at the Curtiss Aviation School at North Island sometime in the first half of 1915.