14 November 1910-
Pioneer #Aviator Eugene Ely in the Curtiss
built “Hudson Flyer,” took off from the cruiser Birmingham, thus completing the
first flight from ship to shore—the birth of Naval aviation.
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| Aviator Eugene Ely |
(An excerpt from Eugene
Ely, Daredevil Aviator)
On Monday morning, November 14, Orson Harrington who was
still Gene’s head mechanic, arrivedBirmingham steamed out onto the Hampton
Roads, Gene eased the tension in his mind by inspecting the motor and poring
over every inch of his machine. The original idea was to steam out as far as 50
miles onto Chesapeake Bay, turn the ship into the wind, and then attempt a
takeoff and flight up the Elizabeth River back to the Norfolk Navy Yard. But
the weather was bad. An observer on the edge of Chesapeake Bay reported fog so
thick he couldn’t see further than four miles, and though he should have been
able to see the Birmingham by now, he
couldn’t. The clouds were dark and swirling and by 1:30 that afternoon, the
light mist was turning to intermittent rain squalls speckled with hail. White
caps licked at Birmingham’s hull as
it sliced through the water. “The thickness of the weather rendered landmarks
so obscure,” Chambers said, “that the ship was anchored off Old Point Comfort
to await a possible improvement.”
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| Aviator Eugene Ely on cruiser Birmingham |
The rain let up for just a moment, but black clouds were in
the distance and another squall was coming on fast. Visibility was already down
to less than a half-mile. Gene turned back to see what was happening on the
bridge. Nothing! The Navy was too slow. If he didn’t go now, he’d never go. “I
was anxious to complete the test without waiting any longer for more auspicious
conditions,” he said later. He throttled his engine to full speed and gave
Harrington the thumbs up. Harrington hesitated and Gene pushed his thumb even
higher into the air and shook his fist. Harrington shouted to the sailors who
were helping hold back the machine and all at once they let go.
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| Aviator Eugene Ely flies away from the cruiser USS Birmingham |
After four minutes in the air, uncomfortably cold and wet,
Gene was lost. “By the time I had succeeded in drying my goggles, I lost track
of the landmarks by which I intended to guide my flight over Norfolk to the
navy yard,” he said. “Anyway, it was a very dark day.
He tried to get his
bearings. Through the fog and rain, he could barely see a sandy strip of beach
known as Willoughby Spit, directly across the water from Old Point Comfort. “I
found myself making for a beach and choosing a convenient spot near the Hampton
Roads Yacht Club.” He made it sound so simple. “I felt that it would be better
to land than to attempt to continue the flight,” he said. It was a smart move.
He didn’t know at the time that when he had left the Birmingham and hit the
water, the driving edges of his propeller tips had splintered, and one edge
looked as if it had been cut off by a saw. He landed in the soft sand and until
he saw the damage to his propellers, he thought he might try to takeoff and
continue his flight. “I landed with no trouble,” he said. “Had it been
necessary I could have started the machine up again and tried to fly back to
where I came from.” He said he was not fond of the water, but he was proud that
he overcame his fears “long enough to accomplish my purpose.”
Eugene Ely had flown the United States Navy into the air.
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| Eugene
Ely, Daredevil Aviator) |
