Curtiss Flying School - nnapprentice.com

CURTISS FLYING SCHOOL
Newport News, Virginia
SYNOPSIS: Between 1910 and 1915, Glen Hammond Curtiss, aviation pioneer
and widely acknowledged founder of American aircraft manufacturing established
a series of flying schools in the United States. One of these rudimentary
institutions of flight training was created at Newport News Point. Curtiss
purchased twenty acres of flat, undeveloped land on the shores of Hampton
Roads in 1914 from the Old Dominion Land Company, which once owned most
of the property at the lower end of the Virginia Peninsula.
This particular Curtiss Flying School was originally given the grandiose name of
The Atlantic Coast Aeronautical School, but soon became known simply as the
Curtiss Flying School. Its original purpose was to train civilian wannabe pilots, but
preceding and during World War I, the school also qualified several of America's
World War I flying aces, including Eddie Rickenbacker. The school also trained
several Canadian civilians, who later served with the Canadian Royal Air Force.
A variety of aircraft, mostly designed and initially
test flown by Glenn Curtiss, pictured on the right
were utilized in the few short years that the Newport
News school flourished. But wartime eventually led
to the creation of military flying schools at nearby
Langley Field and across Hampton Roads at
Norfolk's Naval Operating Base.
Faced with this competition, and limited space in
which to expand, the Curtiss Flying School in
Newport News was shut down in 1922.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The site selected for use as a flying school and
the surrounding area abounds with both aviation and military historical
significance. In 1862, the two day Battle of Hampton Roads took place just off
Newport News Point, where a Union encampment called Camp Butler existed.
On the first day, the CSS VIRGINIA rammed and sank the USS CUMBERLAND
in the James River, just upstream of Newport News Point. Then she severely
damaged, ran aground and burned the USS CONGRESS as her crew swam
ashore. On the second day, the nature of naval warfare was changed forever
when the ironclads USS MONITOR and CSS VIRGINIA battled to a draw.
During the previous year, Union forces had conduced the first aerial
reconnaissance supported by a naval vessel in American history over Hampton
Roads. A manned hot air balloon, tethered to a small steamer, the USS FANNY,
was guided near the Confederate positions in and around Norfolk. While under
fire from rebel ground forces, the balloon's sole occupant mapped defensive
positions at Sewell's Point and Craney Island.
By the end of the 19th century, railroad baron Collis Potter Huntington had
established Newport News as the eastern terminus for the Chesapeake & Ohio
Railroad, started a ship repair enterprise nearby that became Newport News
Shipbuilding, and created the Old Dominion Land Company.
In 1910, Eugene Ely, who was
employed by the Curtiss Aircraft
Company as a demonstration pilot,
flew a Curtiss pusher biplane from
the improvised flight deck of the
USS BIRMINGHAM, which was
anchored in Hampton Roads just
off Newport News Point. Ely later
successfully landed his aircraft on
another US Navy vessel in another
harbor, and American naval
aviation was born.
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FLYING SCHOOL SITE SELECTION AND DEVELOPMENT: History aside, the
main attractions of the property procured by Glenn Curtiss was a mild climate
and the land's undeveloped, open flatness, suitable for a dirt runway and easy
access to the waters of Hampton Roads for seaplane operations. Its close
proximity to the Newport News to Norfolk ferry landing, the community's Small
Boat Harbor, the eastern terminus of a local streetcar line and Jefferson
Avenue...albeit unpaved at the time...were probably additional considerations.
And almost certainly, the Old Dominion Land Company, was willing to sell that
land at an attractive price to Glenn Curtiss. By 1915, a large wooden hangar
[shown below, under construction], several ancillary buildings and a seaplane
ramp existed. These improvements, plus a single, rough runway just a few
hundred feet long constituted the Curtiss Flying School at Newport News.
Thomas S. Baldwin, an associate of Glenn Curtiss, was selected to be the head
man of the Newport News school. Baldwin, born in the mid-nineteenth century,
had been an adventurous hot-air balloonist before switching to heavier-thanaircraft in 1910. He then taught himself fly at age 56.
He was often referred to as 'Captain Tom'
by his younger subordinates. He also was
known as the 'grand old man of aviation'
by American aviators of that period. And
rightfully so, for he held the following Aero
Club of America licenses in his lifetime:
•
•
•
Balloon Pilot Certificate #1
Airship Pilot Certificate #9
Airplane Pilot Certificate #7
When America entered World War I, he volunteered for military service. Eager to
benefit from his experience, the US Army put him in charge of their lighter-thanair program. He inspected...and perhaps flew...every airship produced by his
command. When the war ended, he was 65 years old and held the rank of major.
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AIRCRAFT AND INSTRUCTORS: The two types of aircraft employed in pilot
training at Glenn Curtiss' several flying schools were the Curtiss-designed and
built JN-3 or JN-4 "Jenny" biplane and the Model F seaplane. These aircraft, all
bi-planes, were roughly the same size and had similar performance
characteristics.
A Curtiss JN-4 [left] had a wing
span of a little less than 44 feet
and a length of 27 feet. A single
engine, rated at 90 horsepower
gave this aircraft a top speed of
60 miles per hour. A JN-4's
gross flying weight was less
than 2,000 pounds. Its cost, in
1915 dollars, was $5,500. The
instructor sat in the front
cockpit; the student in the rear.
The Model F flying boat was
also 27 feet long, but had a
wing span of 45 feet. Its single
engine was rated at 100
horsepower and when aloft, the
Model F could reach almost 70
miles per hour. One of these
amphibian's gross weight was
2,500 pounds, and cost $6,000.
Instructor and student sat side
by side in a single cockpit.
The school's initial staff
consisted
of
six
instructors, plus two test
pilots, several engineers
and mechanics. The first
group of instructors,
suited up to fly are
shown on the left, with
their
boss,
Thomas
Baldwin in 1916.
Aviators of the early 20th century, as might be expected were an adventurous
lot. Many of them had been daredevil motorcyclists and race car drivers before
taking to the air, and when not flying sometimes got into trouble with local law
enforcement. The January 22, 1916 issue of the Daily Press included the
following account of one student's 'need for speed':
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"Vernon Castle, aeronautical student was summoned to appear in police court
this morning on a charge of exceeding the speed limit with his automobile.
Patrolman Smith, who is responsible for Castle's predicament, avers that the
young man was rushing down Jefferson Avenue yesterday to the municipal small
boat harbor in a racing car at a speed something like thirty miles an hour".
It is not known if this fledgling aviator was given a warning or received a fine.
Neither is it known if he stopped engaging in such activities, which were
characteristic of the general public's perception back then of the irresponsible
antics of youth.
Nevertheless, curiosity surely overcame
condemnation.
Apparently,
training
flights, or perhaps, more likely
occasional demonstrations to promote
flying, drew crowds of local people to
the flying school premises to witness
aerobatics performed by the school's
instructors.
Judging from the civilians' attire in the
following image, such events probably
were held on Sundays. Citizens from
Norfolk probably joined Peninsula
residents there, following a refreshing
ferry ride.
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THE FOUR HUNDRED MINUTE FLYING COURSE: In order to obtain an Aero
Club of America pilot's license, an individual had to pay a dollar a minute for the
training offered at the Curtiss flying schools. Four hundred dollars was a
substantial sum of money in the early twentieth century; equal to almost $9,000
in today's dollars.
Most of that training involved
hands-on flying in open
cockpit aircraft, followed by
the necessity to solo in order
to successfully complete the
course. Each student was
required to maintain a log of
his flights and other aviation
training activities. Following
is an example of such a log
that has survived.
No records could be found regarding the total number of students or their
success/failure ratio at the Curtiss Flying School in Newport News. Likewise, it is
not known how many students attempted to qualify in the school's seaplanes.
Fortunately, one instructor did later record some recollections, some years later
of what it was like to be a flight instructor there. An abbreviated version of his
memories follows:
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"The students came from everywhere; plain civilians, Army and Navy officers,
National Guard and many Canadians. The flying was strenuous, but interesting.
Each instructor had about ten students. The average length of a flight was twenty
minutes, and each day of flying in good weather lasted about ten hours.
"We were paid a guaranteed wage of $50 a week. When we flew more than five
hours in a single day, each additional hour of flight training was worth $10. One
week I made $350!
"On Sunday, we often took local citizens aloft. One of my passengers was an old
sailor who had been a crewman in the CSS VIRGINIA during the Civil War."
When
a
student
had
satisfactorily completed the four
hundred minute flying course at
Newport News, including a
climatic solo flight, he would
receive a certificate. Most of the
certificates that were issued at
Newport News went to students
who had trained in the landbased Curtiss 'Jenny aircraft'.
The more treasured and
relatively few certificates like
this one were presented to
those who qualified in Curtiss
Model F flying boats.
STUDENT STORIES: The school's students
were an eclectic lot, whose backgrounds often
had nothing to do with flying. For example,
Vernon Castle [the 'speedster' previously
mentioned] and his wife, Irene [depicted on the
left] were professional ballroom dancers.
To aid his native land in wartime, British-born
Vernon Castle left Broadway and made his
way to Newport News where he qualified as a
pilot. He subsequently joined the Royal Air
Force, but died in a training flight in 1918.
Another civilian student was Geoffrey O'Hara,
Canadian-born composer whose greatest
contribution to the war effort was not his flying,
but his still-famous patriotic and widely popular
song of World War I; K-K-K-Katy.
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Like everyone else, Walter Lees and his pregnant wife, Loa had to find their own
living accommodations when they arrived in the Newport News area for him to
provide flight training instruction to the school's students. They were fortunate to
obtain 'housekeeping rooms' at one of the elegant homes on Chesapeake
Avenue, which faced directly on Hampton Roads. Walter Lee's best memory of
those days follows:
"Our first baby was born March
9, 1916. I was at the station
when Aunt Emma called and
said Loa had started to have
labor pains and was going to
the hospital. I was so excited
that Captain Tom said one of
the instructors should fly me
there. The hospital [old Buxton
Hospital; now the Riverside
Rehabilitation Institute] faced
Hampton Roads. We landed
right in front of the hospital and
nosed our flying boat up on the
shore.
"I rushed into the hospital in my flying clothes, helmet and goggles, demanding
"Where's my wife?' She had had to walk there and hadn't arrived yet."
And then there was an army officer in the US Signal Corps considered too old
and too advanced in rank to train as a pilot. So, Major...later General...Billy
Mitchell traveled from Washington, DC over a number of weekends, and paid for
private flying lessons out of his own pocket.
Mitchell later became a strong advocate of and a leader in the development of
the US Army Air Corps. His solo flight at Newport News on September 4, 1916
was less auspicious. After only four hours of dual flight instruction, he misjudged
his landing and somersaulted. Hanging from his safety harness with feet
dangling, Mitchell was physically unhurt, but his pride and reputation were.
One of the instructors, using a
hand-held camera kept at the
school for just such occasions,
captured
this
image
of
Mitchell's plane before he was
helped out of his aircraft. For
years after that, whenever an
aircraft turned turtle on landing,
it was called 'A Mitchell'!
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THE SCHOOL 'CAMPUS': The wife of one of the school's instructor captured
the feel of the flying school at Newport News when she penned the following
description:
"The Curtiss School campus --- if
you could call it that --- consisted
of an area at the water's edge
where stood a small club house
[right, partly hidden behind the
stiff leg crane], an early version
of a student center, and which
also housed the manager's office.
Nearby stood a huge barn like
structure called a hanger. There
were a few sheds scattered
about which contained motor
blocks for testing engines, the
drone of which went on
continuously.
"There was the dope shop, which emitted the perpetual odor of banana oil, an
ingredient of the dope used to varnish linen fuselage and wing coverings. There
was no stockpile of spare parts in the repair shop. When a part was broken, the
airplane had to be grounded until a new one could be made. There were a few
spare wooden struts, one or two extra wooden propellers, a few bolts of linen,
and an old foot-powered sewing machine.
"There was also some extra wire and a few fittings, and the mythical "sky hook"
which was part of the initiation at the Curtiss School. Rookie fliers often looked
everywhere for the "Sky Hook" which they told snickering mechanics that their
instructor had ordered them to take with them on their first flight. More than one
fledgling flyer bit on that one!
"At the water's edge there was
a wooden landing ramp over
which the flying boats and
seaplanes were launched, and
there was a flying field nearby
which was actually only a strip
cut through a farmer's hay field.
That was the complete picture
of the school, unless you
included a restaurant across the
road, called the Greasy Spoon,
where the fliers gathered for a
cup of coffee and a sandwich."
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What the instructor's wife didn't
mention was the inevitable card
games that took place at the school
when bad weather or other
circumstances kept the students
grounded.
Perhaps
she
was
unaware...or perhaps she didn't
approve of such 'boys will be boys'
activities. In either case, one of the
school staff, who often took aerial
pictures, captured such a scene in
this photo, dated 1916.
On April 8, 1916, members of the Aero Club, including Glenn Curtiss visited the
Newport News flying school. In the center of the image, marked by a small star is
Glenn Curtiss, who actually only visited the Newport News school infrequently.
The imposing personage under the larger star is Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary
[the handwritten identification on the photograph is misspelled].
Peary led the first successful expedition to the North Pole in 1909. His
appearance at the flying school in Newport News was not mere happenstance.
In 1916 he had become chairman of the National Aerial Coast Patrol
Commission, a private organization that advocated the use of aircraft in detecting
warships and submarines off America's east coast. Peary's involvement led to
the formation of naval reserve aerial coastal patrol units being established during
World War I; primarily to hunt U-boats.
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AERIAL-RELATED ACCIDENTS: The Curtiss Flying School at Newport News
Point had its share of aviation-related accidents. Rough landings in flimsy
aircraft, often the result of trainees' lack of experience usually required repairs to
the school's flying assets. General Billy Mitchell's previously described,
embarrassing episode was not the only time a plane crashed on landing.
Airborne structural failures were
also experienced and usually
resulted
in
total
losses.
Sometimes these more serious
accidents resulted in injuries...
and even some fatalities. In
1917, flight instructor Victor
Carlstrom and trainee Cary
Epes both died when one of
their biplane's wing inexplicably
collapsed while they were flying
straight and level.
Carlstrom had previously set
world records for altitude, speed
and distance in a similar aircraft. Epes was a youthful native of Newport News,
so his sudden death was particularily shocking to the citizens of that community.
In another fatal accident, an airplane crashed on landing and caught fire. Before
the flames could be extinguished, both the student and the instructor perished.
ANITA 'NETA' SNOOK: On a lighter
note, the all male group of student flyers
at Newport News were joined in October
of 1917 by Iowa native Neta Snook. She
was the first woman accepted by the
Newport News flying school. How many
other women ever undertook flight
instruction there is not known. Her training
advanced rapidly, but before she could
solo, America entered World War I and
the government shut down flight
operations at the Curtiss Flying School.
The Newport News school soon reopened under the auspices of the Army Air
Service, but by that time Neta Snook had moved on to another private flying
school to obtain her pilot's license. In addition to being the first woman student
accepted at the Newport News school, she was the first woman in America to
own an aviation business and to run a commercial airfield. But she is best known
for helping Amelia Earhart learn to fly in 1920.
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MANEUVERING AIRCRAFT: The land-based trainer aircraft used at the Curtiss
Flying School were light enough to be pushed around by ground crews. They
could also be taxied about the facility, but because they were 'tail draggers', their
pilots had to swing them back and forth to be able to see where they were going.
The flying boats presented an entirely different set of circumstances. To be
moved about on land, they had to be first placed on small wheeled dollies. Then,
when it came time for them to
be
launched
over
the
beachfront
into
Hampton
Roads, the amphibian aircraft
were pushed by hand along a
wooden ramp that extended
past the low tide mark. Upon
return from a successful flight,
the process reversed.
POSTWAR PROBLEMS: At the conclusion of World War I, the operation of the
Curtiss Flying School reverted to Glenn Curtiss. But several factors prevented
the school from remaining in business for more than another few years.
The number of people anxious to learn to fly declined greatly, following the
absence of any patriotic war-related incentive. Also, by that time, nearby military
air fields were meeting the pilot training needs of both the US Army and Navy.
In addition, aircraft developed during the war that had improved capabilities,
could not be safely operated from the school's air strip. Simply put, landing or
taking off towards Hampton Roads was too dangerous in a high-powered aircraft,
due to the close proximity of the school's big hangar at the east end of the sole
runway that was also too short for postwar aircraft.
Water and maritime installations on two sides, and commercial and residential
growth on the remaining two sides of the school effectively prevented any
practical expansion of the school's facilities. This vintage aerial view, looking
west and taken from one of the school's aircraft aptly illustrates the situation that
ultimately resulted in Glenn Curtiss moving his Virginia-based operation to
another of his schools in 1922.
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NEWPORT
NEWS
POINT
TODAY: Over time, all of the flying
school's
structures
there
disappeared. A parking lot for use
by ferry boat 'walk-on' patrons
occupied the hangar site. In 1938,
a transmitter building [white
structure, far left in this vintage
post card image] and its associated
tower for radio station WGH. It was
located roughly in the center of the
school's unimproved air strip.
By 1957, completion of the Hampton
Roads Bridge Tunnel ended ferryboat
operations, and traffic on that portion of
Jefferson Avenue leading to the ferry
terminal building dropped off considerably.
Subsequent redevelopment of the Newport
News Point area included creation of
present-day, tranquil Lincoln Park, situated
where Glenn Curtiss' biplanes and flying
boats once buzzed busily about.
The only indication in that area which
indicates that a flying school ever was
based near Newport News Point is this
historical marker.
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A PERSONAL POSTSCRIPT: When I was a young lad, I occasionally journeyed
to Norfolk with my parents via one of the ferryboats that frequently crisscrossed
the historic waters of Hampton Roads. On such brief voyages, my father would
remind me of the Battle of Hampton Roads and its historic importance.
But my mother, either coming on
going...sometimes both...would retell
one of my favorite family stories. Her
oldest brother, Alexander Hazard
Williams, Jr., [whose first name is my
middle name...which is not a
coincidence] trained as a pilot at the
Newport News flying school when it
was being operated under the
auspices of the US Army Air Service.
Although 'Uncle Alec' did not make it
to France in time to fly in combat, his
later life was filled with adventures. He
was a shipping agent, stationed in the
Orient after World War I, then a
publicist who hob-nobbed with the rich
and famous in New York City before
and after World War II. During that
war, he headed the nation's Fat
Salvage Campaign (a short-lived
activity about which I plan to
write...someday).
In parallel with all that he did to make a living, Uncle Alec also authored five
books before passing away 'far too young' at age 58. He was like a sparkler...that
burns brightly...but only briefly.
Bill Lee
April 2015
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