The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-08-21
MOB CdASBS FLYING AIRSHIP.
SWARM OVER PARK LAWNS MANY
KNOCKED down AND HURT.
Knabenshue's Toledo No. 2 Sails Twenty
Blocks and Back and Circles Times
Building-Crowd AfOOt and In Tro''
leys Chsses Twas I 500 Feet Up.

leys Chases Twas 500 Feet Up.
A. Roy Knabenshue Of Toledo, Ohio, In
his bullet shaped airship, left his tent IN
vacant lot at Sixty sc cond street and Central
Park West at noon yesterday and made
trip to the Times Building and back.
Atent had been set up in the lot, and when
the airship was brou ght out and released
Yesterday 1t scared straight up In the air
for two or three hundred feet.
Something went wrong then and the
engine stopped. The machine came slowly
down and settled among the trees border
Ing the West Drive. park cop came
running I'D and told Knabenshue that il
he didn't get out Immediately he would he
arrested. Knabenshue soon adjusted mat
tiers enough to rise above the trees ana get
back to his starting point.
There repairs were effected and a second
start made at 1922. Charles j. Strobel,
the baseball nah Of Toledo, Knaben-
.hues financial hacker, and several re-
rorters started in an automobile to beat
the airship downtown. So did great
crowd which had gathered, attracted by
the unusual sight Men and women came
running from every side street and avenue
until the Circle at Fhty-ninth street was
packed with folks staring skyward.
When the airship passed over the Circle
going south the entire crowd broke and
started down Broadway and Eighth avenue.
Some were knocked down and trampled on
and the cars going south were damned.
The airship rose to height Of about I 600
feet over the Circle, hesitated and then shot
away down Broadway. 1t Travelled con-
siderably faster than the auto until the
Times Building was reached.
Knabenshue had announced his attention
OF sailing around the Flatiron Building,
but, he says, got the Times and Flatiron
buildings mixed and settled down until he
lowered Just over the tower, about 500 feet
In the air.
The airship then made turn, went up
TO it's highest rise, 1900 feet, and came
back toward the Circle.
The crowd then had grown until, the
police say, there were 5000 to 10000 people
pAoked around the statue OF Columbus.
The ropes OF the traffic squad had been
swept away and the police were lost in the
shufie.
Tho airship got in trouble again near
the Circle and made shoot for the elevated
structure at Columbus avenue, but righted
itself In time and shot up again. The
engine had stopped, however, and the
ship was merely drifting with the air eur
rents and gradually floated of over Central
Park.
When the airship started for the park
tho entire crowd broke again and swept
the police OIL their feet. Part made rush
up the West Drive and part chose Eighth
avenue.
Horses, pedestrians and even automo-
biles turned and fled north when they
sighted the oncoming crowd. The few
police In sight were helpless. In the park
the crowd parted and spread over roads,
paths and lawns, cheering and running.
Those who had gone up Eighth avenue
began jumping the wall and running over
the grass. Traffic was blocked entirely
along Eighth avenue for twenty minutes.
In the park fully score Of children were
knocked down and trampled on. One child
was bowled over by buggy, in which were
two policemen. The police drove the
buggy full tilt into the densely packed mob.
When the child went down. more scared
than hurt, the whole crowd turned its
attention to the buggy and Kissed and
'jeered
No reserves were sent for, and the crowd
was utterly unchecked throughout. No
one was seriously hurt in the stamp EIDE
from the Circle, but scores carried bruises
f, and bumps home with them.
The airship had been slowly settling,
and just fifty-four minutes after its start
home came gracefully through the trees on
the lawn opposite Sixty first street.
d;otn al o,lr N
and for time it looked as though 1t would
be demolished.
Knabenshue was cooped up inside the
netting. but his pleas to the crowd to be
careful were successful and he stalled them
of long enough for his assistants to sur
round the airship. No policeman now
threatened him with arrest. The airship
was lifted on the shoulders OF his assistants
and, with the crowd following, was carried
down the West Drive to the Fifty-ninth
street entrance and up Central Park West
to sixty-fourth street.
The crowd had made a cross cut, and
another wild scramble over the park wall
followed. The two streams OF people
came together again at this point, and
many went down. Here again the police
we're not noticeable, and the crowd had
things their own way. A space was finally
cleared about the airship, and 1t rose, sailed
over the fence and dropped down into the
lot In front OF it's tent.
The police at last made their presence
felt and were successful in keeping the
crowd cut Of the lot.
The airship was quickly run into the tent
and Knabenshue, Strobel and their assist
ants were then busy posing for almost in
Vulnerable photographers. New York'a
rival aeronaut. Lawyer Ludlow, was an
interested and excited spectator Of the
trip
Knabenshue told the reporters about his
trip.
THE first time ! started stalled my
engine by speeding 1t up to clear the trees
but 1t didn't amount to anything serious
When ! went up the second time found
quite wind blowing up above. 1t was
very difficult to steer, on account OF the
eddies and whirlpools Sometimes it got
too strong for my rudder and was forced
to drift. think my highest rise was about
800 feet, when started to come back
The reason my engine stopped on the re-
turn trip was that lost connecting plug
between my electric current and engine