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A small Army dirigible ascended with a little Sperry model slung beneath it. At 2,000 feet, the Sperry was released, flew off under its own power. Never before had this feat been accomplished, though it had been demonstrated before that the pendant plane could return and be attached again in midair. Major General Mason M. Patrick, U. S. Air Service Chief, called it "a new chapter in aviation," explained the advantage gained for bombing and message-sending.
Lieut. John A. Macready, of transcontinental flight fame, took up "an old bundle of bamboo sticks wrapped around with a bedsheet"—the second plane the Wrights built, 20 years old. He got it up 350 feet, flew several miles, landed perfectly.
Significance. The meet was held, as is an automobile show, to stimulate interest in the progress of aviation, to encourage improvements and invention. No speed records resulted; but speed was only one of many aims. The ease with which a cheap 18-horse plane stayed up, going as slowly as 35 miles an hour, and as fast as 100, getting as much as 50 miles to a gallon of fuel, indicated an advance toward Henry Ford's dream of "a plane for every man." The cutting of operation costs in commercial types, such as the Chicago-built Yackeys and Lairds, hinted at an era of aerial taxis.
People. The National Aeronautical Association dined together, voted that Godfrey L. Cabot of Boston succeed Frederick B. Patterson of Dayton (National Cash Register man) as President.
The world-fliers—Smith, Wade, Nelson—arrived by train from the Pacific coast in time to go to McCook Field (also in Dayton), climb into planes, appear over Wilbur Wright Field in formation just before the Pulitzer race.
Ezra Meeker, aged 94, returned from Puget Sound to the Middle West, which he had not seen for some time. Alighting from the clouds in Dayton, said he: "It was just 72 years ago that I crossed the Missouri at Omaha and started for the Oregon country. It took me six months to reach Puget Sound. And I made the return trip to Omaha in 15 hours' flying time. You bet it was flying!" Going West, a lad, Ezra had goaded his ox team. Coming East, a patriarch, he had sat comfortably with Lieut. Oakley G. Kelly, U. S. A., in the latter's plane; had pointed out land-marks— where he had hunted buffaloes, where fought Indians—along the Oregon Trail.
Absentee. Though 'his works were everywhere present, his name on every man's lip, the face and figure of Glenn Hammond Curtiss were not in evidence at Dayton. At least every other plane of those assembled bore a Curtiss motor. Not one plane but bore some evidence to the contributions he has made to mankind's knowledge of the air and his agility in it.