lt

The Ansaldo SVA (named for Savoia-Verduzio-Ansaldo) was a family of Italian reconnaissance biplane aircraft of World War I and the decade after. Originally conceived as a fighter, the SVA was found inadequate for that role. Nevertheless, its impressive speed, range and operational ceiling, with its top speed making it one of the fastest (if not the fastest) of all Allied combat aircraft in World War I, gave it the right properties to be an excellent reconnaissance aircraft and even light bomber. Production of the aircraft continued well after the war, with the final examples delivered in 1918. Two minor variants were produced, one with reconnaissance cameras, the other without cameras but extra fuel tanks.

Probably the start of the transcontinental air race on October 8, 1919. See

Thank you for the information about the aircraft and for the likely context for the photo. We'll add information when we update the description.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineola,_New_York

Another photo of SS Somerset, ater sunk by a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor during World War II. See: www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?165061 Here's a photo taken just earlier, also in the SDASM collection:

books.google.com/books?id=_9spAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA215&l... has a picture that shows Taylor and Simons at the Mineola aviation station.

Judging from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Field_%28Airfield%29 the photo must have been taken between May 3, 1917 when Ralph L. Taylor of Stamford, CT was commissioned as Captain and August 2, 1917, when he was killed in an accident. A military airfield in Alabama was named Taylor Field after him.

books.google.com/books?id=eIkoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA247&l... shows a Henry H. Simons as a captain in November 1918.

Aerial Age Weekly, April 12, 1915 books.google.com/books?id=UWNVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA85&lp... mentions Lieutenant H.G. Smith as involved in the organization of a Canadian branch of the Royal Flying Corps. So the lefthand man may be a Canadian aviator.

Flying, Volume 7, p 341, May 1918, books.google.com/books?id=q5FMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA341&l... has a picture that includes H.G. Smith. The captain describes him as an instructor, but as in the Bain caption, he is not given a military rank, perhaps because he was not a citizen and was employed in the U.S. as a civilian. The man in the middle of the photo in Flying is compatible with the lefthand man here.