“Absolute Daredevils”
An interesting story in this morning’s newspaper.
Apparently it was 100 years ago today that Alexander Graham Bell invited three men (one British subject, one Canadian and one American) to his estate in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, to begin working on a dream that would take flight 18 months later, in 1909. The group attracted sufficient attention to cause the United States government to request that an official observer, US Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, be allowed to join.Â
These five formed the Aerial Experiment Association after the famous inventor convinced them that they could take flight in an aircraft following his own experiments with large kites on and over his Baddeck estate.
In all they created five aircraft:
- The Cygnet (1907) had no engine but carried Lt. Selfridge for seven minutes and 51 metres and “flew beautifully” before crashing into the water of the Bras d’or Lakes below Mr. Bell’s estate.
- The Red Wing (1908) designed by Lt. Selfridge and piloted by Baldwin, lifted off the ground for about a foot and traveled 318 feet in New York, qualifying Baldwin as the first Canadian to ever fly an aircraft.
- The White Wing boasted a few modifications, including the aileron (which, for the less initiated of us on TFD, moves up or down on the edge of the wing to stablize the aircraft and continues as a vital part on today’s aircraft).
- The June Bug introduced a tricycle landing gear system to the world that allowed aircraft to land more safely. The plane won a Scientific America trophy for making the first kilometre long flight in North America.
- The piece de resistance, the Silver Dart, was their first controlled-power aircraft and included “doping”, a mixture of gasoline and wax intended to reduce drag when it lifted off from the ice on on February 23,
2909Â1909. McCurty, a British subject, became the first man in the British empire to fly when he traveled a half mile over the frozen bay in less than a minute.
A month after the Silver Dart flight, the Aerial Experiment Association was officially dissolved. And, as fate would have it,  Lt. Selfridge would unfortunately go on to become the first person killed in an airplane accident in North America, as a passenger aboard a Wright Flyer during a demonstration for the US Army in Fort Myer.
For three years I lived on Cape Breton Island, about a 45 minute drive from the Bell estate. Its an absolutely beautiful location. And a very historic one, for more reasons than I first realized.
Posted by Michelle
On October 1st, 2007 under Flying, History.
Comments: 4
Comments
Comment from craig mclaughlin
Time: October 1, 2007, 6:49 pm
Thanks for posting that, Michelle. The AEA is a subject near and dear to my heart. One of the men Bell recruited was a fellow named Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a name that is familiar– or should be– to all Naval Aviators. In my view, he did more for early aviation than any other single man, or pair of brothers, for that matter. And Bell gave him his start. Bill Trimble, a professor at my alma mater, Auburn University, is working on a biography of Curtiss that is due out soon. ( Another Auburn history professor, James R. Hansen, wrote the authorized biography of Neil Armstrong. I didn’t know until I read that book that Armstrong was a Navcad–just like Nose!) One book that I have read about Curtiss– and which talks a fair bit about the AEA and Alexander Graham Bell– is called Unlocking The Sky, by Seth Shulman.
You’ll have to provide more gouge on Cape Breton Island, though. I’ve always wanted to go there.
Comment from Greg
Time: October 9, 2007, 12:44 am
I would like to know exactly how you managed to get your hands on a piece of historical information more than 900 years from now, towards the future! 
Typos aside, it is owing to such madmen that we have the kinds of technologies we do today. I mean, how many people, when they stopped to think about it, would willingly strap themselves down tighter than a straitjacket on top of what was essentially tonnes and tonnes of incendiary material designed to blow up? And yet these guys managed to reach the moon.
Of course, there are those guys who strap a few kees of incendiary material to themselves, also designed to blow up and enable these guys to reach the heavens. Them, I can do without.
Comment from Michelle
Time: October 9, 2007, 8:31 am
Only 900 years in the future??
Cuz I’m good, that’s how. And an honourary Cape Bretoner, that helps too.
“…I mean, how many people, when they stopped to think about it, would willingly strap themselves down tighter than a straitjacket on top of what was essentially tonnes and tonnes of incendiary material designed to blow up?”
Hmm… I dunno. It doesn’t sound all that much different from Lex’s work a few years back.
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Time: February 22, 2009, 8:13 am
[...] I wrote about earlier, in October, 1907, Alexander Graham Bell invited three men (one British subject, one Canadian and [...]
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