jackvilas

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

The date on the lower left side of the image says 6-11-13 I don't know what type of flying machine they're sitting in, but they certainly did not go anywhere in it. They were dressed for photo opps, not flying. :-)

It looks like there is something about this in the Smithsonian Arcihves, NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE ARCHIVES Ernest Jones Aeronautical Collection Accession XXXX-0096 (PDF), p. 21: L.A. "Jack" Vilas's flying boat, 1913, with portraits of F.J. Bersbach, H.F. McCormick and Vilas I'm not sure if that really adds any information! Harold McCormick seems to be: Harold Fowler McCormick (1872 – 1941) was chairman of the board of International Harvester Company. (Wikipedia article).

They do appear to be in Vilas's flying boat: www.aviationhalloffamewisconsin.com/inductees/vilas.htm

According to memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=hhdatapage&fileN... a Frank J Bersbach was the son of Alfred Bersbach, owner of a Wilmette Illinois house documented in the HABS survey. See hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.il0312

Harold F McCormick left a collection of aeronautica to Princeton: diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?eadid=C0496 He appears to have been one of the organizers of the first International Aviation Meet held in Grant Park, Illinois, in 1911 and the owner of a hydroplane built for him by Glenn Curtiss. So this may be his own plane.