Aeroplane01

Waupaca Post

September 12, 1912

AEROPLANE DREW BIG CROWD

Short Flight at Noon after Long Delay That Made Crowd Impatient.

Better Flight in the Afternoon.

Thursday, the day advertised for the flight by a bi-plane. Waupaca could boast of the biggest crowd in the history of the city. Six or seven thousand people were on the streets during the day and half that number were probably assembled at the Demerest field in season to see the bird man start on his aerial thirty minute trip. The temperature must have been near the hundred mark and the crowd waiting impatiently for an hour and a half when the flying machine was finally run out to a clear space and he made a start though it was with difficulty that he succeeded in getting above the tree tops. The course of the machine was southwest and after crossing the river near the Dunbar bridge he alighted in the potato field across from the Orphan’s Home and in plain view from the street.

The aviator would not attempt another flight till about five o’clock, when he made a start from the field where he alighted and going south away form the city he circled to the south and east to near the hat factory and back toward the city and alighted very gracefully near his tent.

The few who saw t his flight say that it would have been quite satisfactory to the crowd if it had been substituted for that of the morning.

Viewed from another standpoint the flight was a success as no one was killed or injured and the crowd saw that the machine can be made to fly. The uncertainty of the performance makes it an unsatisfactory attraction for a local committee and the members of the committee, as well as the disappointed spectators, have our sympathy. Though the operator may be justly censured for not discovering the condition of his machine before the time set for his start, it is a more satisfactory outcome than it might have been had the operator been killed or even mangled as the result of the accident.