hydroplane

This would be Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson CMG, DSO & Bar, AFC (8 July 1883 – 5 February 1931) the British naval aviation pioneer. You can read more about him here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rumney_Samson

best shot

This beauty of a photograph (together with the one before) shows the very early Short S.41 Tractor Biplane which was completed in March 1912 as a landplane. It was later converted as a seaplane, with two central floats and three streamlined air-bags (!). Commander Samson used the machine in the Naval Review in 1912. Source: C.H. Barnes. Shorts aircraft since 1900, page 80. Cheers Kees

Richard Arthur Norton and Varese2002: Thank you! When we update the source record, we will add the expanded descriptive information.

looks like the same model as"

Date is inscribed in reverse on lower right hand corner of negative.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starling_Burgess William Starling Burgess (December 25, 1878 - 1947) was a yacht designer, aviation pioneer, and naval architect.

His wife is pictured at
www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/4865582425/


and to judge from the flowers at left in the picture of him, the two pictures were taken on the same occasion.

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1900-08-05/ed-... has an article about him inventing an automatic gun while an undergraduate at Harvard. The article starts near the top of column 1 and has a picture of him at the bottom of that column.

Aero Club of America Pilot # 136 June 15,1912 Aircraft used for license Burgess Hydroplane Location of license Marblehead , Massachusetts

Thanks to all of you for the information. We'll fill in the name in the caption and add the date the next time we update the record.