Original photograph taking at the testing of the "White Wing," with aviation pioneers Glenn Curtiss, Casey Baldwin, and Augustus Post Author: Place: Hammondsport, NY Publisher: Date: 1908- Description: Gelatin silver photograph. Inkstamp "Aviation-Manufacture" on verso. 12x17.7 cm (4¾x7"). Photograph of a group of men, and a couple of boys, crowded around a flying machine, taken at the 1908 testing the “White Wing”, at Stony Brook Farm near Hammondsport, NY. Glenn Curtiss, with his back to the camera, is sixth from the right, Casey Baldwin and John McCurdy are seventh and eighth from the right. Augustus Post (with the beard), is second from the left (discounting the two boys), next to the aircraft’s tail. The White Wing was an early aircraft designed by Casey Baldwin, and the second one (after the Red Wing), built by the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) in 1908. Unusual for aircraft of its day, it featured a wheeled undercarriage. The wings were equipped with ailerons controlled by a harness worn around the pilot's body; leaning in one direction would cause the aircraft to bank to follow. The AEA was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell It was created by J. McCurdy, Casey Baldwin, and Dr. Bell. Mabel Bell, Alexander's wife, suggested they create a formal research group to exploit their collective ideas. Being independently wealthy, she provided a total of US$35,000 to finance the Association. Curtiss, the American motorcycle designer and manufacturer and a recognized expert on gasoline engines, was recruited as a member of the association, and his associate Augustus Post assisted as representative from the Aero Club of America. Young U.S. Army Lieutenant T. Selfridge joined the team. First piloted by Baldwin himself on 18 May, the aircraft flew very well. White Wing was then piloted by Lt. T. Selfridge at Stony Brook Farm near Hammondsport, NY (where the photo was taken), on 19 May 1908 (becoming the first U.S. Army officer to fly an airplane) and then Glenn Curtiss made a flight of 1,017 ft (310 m) in it on 21 May. On 23 May it crashed during a landing by J. McCurdy, and was damaged beyond repair. It was also the first aerovane to make a public flight starting from the ground. A significant photograph in the history of early aviation. It was published in J. Stoff, “Picture History of Early Aviation, 1903-1913”, p.24. Lot Amendments Condition: A bit faded, very good. Item number: 321042a
Original photograph taking at the testing of the "White Wing," with aviation pioneers Glenn Curtiss, Casey Baldwin, and Augustus Post Author: Place: Hammondsport, NY Publisher: Date: 1908- Description: Gelatin silver photograph. Inkstamp "Aviation-Manufacture" on verso. 12x17.7 cm (4¾x7"). Photograph of a group of men, and a couple of boys, crowded around a flying machine, taken at the 1908 testing the “White Wing”, at Stony Brook Farm near Hammondsport, NY. Glenn Curtiss, with his back to the camera, is sixth from the right, Casey Baldwin and John McCurdy are seventh and eighth from the right. Augustus Post (with the beard), is second from the left (discounting the two boys), next to the aircraft’s tail. The White Wing was an early aircraft designed by Casey Baldwin, and the second one (after the Red Wing), built by the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) in 1908. Unusual for aircraft of its day, it featured a wheeled undercarriage. The wings were equipped with ailerons controlled by a harness worn around the pilot's body; leaning in one direction would cause the aircraft to bank to follow. The AEA was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell It was created by J. McCurdy, Casey Baldwin, and Dr. Bell. Mabel Bell, Alexander's wife, suggested they create a formal research group to exploit their collective ideas. Being independently wealthy, she provided a total of US$35,000 to finance the Association. Curtiss, the American motorcycle designer and manufacturer and a recognized expert on gasoline engines, was recruited as a member of the association, and his associate Augustus Post assisted as representative from the Aero Club of America. Young U.S. Army Lieutenant T. Selfridge joined the team. First piloted by Baldwin himself on 18 May, the aircraft flew very well. White Wing was then piloted by Lt. T. Selfridge at Stony Brook Farm near Hammondsport, NY (where the photo was taken), on 19 May 1908 (becoming the first U.S. Army officer to fly an airplane) and then Glenn Curtiss made a flight of 1,017 ft (310 m) in it on 21 May. On 23 May it crashed during a landing by J. McCurdy, and was damaged beyond repair. It was also the first aerovane to make a public flight starting from the ground. A significant photograph in the history of early aviation. It was published in J. Stoff, “Picture History of Early Aviation, 1903-1913”, p.24. Lot Amendments Condition: A bit faded, very good. Item number: 321042a
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
