Los Angeles herald., 1908-12-28
KNABENSHUE is
WONDER WORKER
YEARS PERFORMANCE SHOWS
REMARKABLE RECORD
sEVENTY.sIXTH FLIGHT WAS
MADE YESTERDAY
Has Demonstrated In Los Angeles
Airshlp's Capacity to Journey Be-
tween Fixed Points with ABB
soIute Certainty

With his flight yesterday afternoon
Roy Knabenshue closed his series Of
trips in the air for this Year, making
the seventy-sixth with his 1908 dirigible
and the most remarkable series Of voy-
| ages ever made with q controllable
! balloon. In every instance he has car
ried another man with him, and In ad-
dition he has made the first flight in
! America in which two or more persons
have been carried in an airship
All the Los Angeles events have been
| carried out on q schedule, and in none
| has any deviation been necessary. In
all the ship has been steered exactly
as the aeronaut desired, and he has ac-
complished just what he had announced
would be done. Some of the records
held by Knabenshue as a result Of his
aerial work are:
The first airship flight in America,
achieved at the Louisiana Purchase ex-
position I'm 1904.
The largest number of flights with
an airship.
The first two and three-passenger
| flights made in this country with O
steerable air craft.
The first destination trips with an
airship, both from point to point and
from town to town. In Los Angeles
Knabenshue clearly demonstrated the
feasibility of starting from one point
and landing at another previously de-
! cided upon, with q return to the original
place Of departure.
The first successful night trip with a
| steerable machine.
These are only part of the records
made by Knabenshue. During the COM
| ing year he plans to do some work with
an aeroplane, or gasless airship, in ad-
dition to his exhibitions with a dirigible
| balloon. He probably will build an
aeroplaneein Los Angeles this winter.
The gas now in the airship at Chutes
park will be transferred to the United
| States, owned by Dick Ferris, which
will be filled for a short pleasure trip
to be taken by Mr.. and Mrs Ferris
shortly after the holidays, with either
| Mr. Knabenshue or Capt. Mueller as
pilot. The trip will be made on a
pleasant day, with a landing in or near
Los Angeles after a few hours In the
air. 1t was suggested by Mrs. Ferris
IT have teased Mr.. Ferris to take a
balloon trip with me ever since he
bought the American and United States,
and he has finally consented" she said.
"If you own a balloon, why shouldn
you use it? 1 have no fear, for do
not believe there is any more danger
than in trip down Spring street, and
l can conceive of no more delightful en-
joyment than jaunt over Los An
geles"
Trips Cost Much Money
Mr.. Ferris has received the United
States, which was shipped back from
Arizona by freight. taking four and
one-half hours to go over, but 81 month
to come back. His determination TO
send the United States over the noun
tains after the i'll success of the first
experiment cost him $500. In spite Of
the fact that he lost considerable
money on the first attempt numerous
persons have questioned his good faith
in the attempt to send the balloons
eastward, but this is not the case with
| anyone we'll informed on aeronautics.
Their opinions are represented by a
statement made yesterday by Roy
Knabenshue, just before making his
ascent, when he said:
Among my acquaintances in Los An
geles I have met great many who
have expressed the opinion that Dick
Ferris had pulled off a fake balloon
race; that ne knew at the beginning
that these balloons would not go over
4 the mountains and that he was just
4 holding the race for the gate admls-
4 sions as well as personal advertising.
i In Justice to Mr.. Ferris / wish to make
i the statement, based upon my own eX-
i perience, that at most times 1t is I'M
i possible for a balloon to cross the
i mountains but that Mr.. Ferris was
Il honest in his belief that these balloons
1 could make the transcontinental trip.
i He had the word of both Capts. Wild
and Mueller that they could cross the
mountains easily and so firm was his
/ belief that he spent a very large sum
of money constructing hydrogen gas
1 plant with which to fill these balloons,
I when illuminating gas would have an
| swered for any ordinary purpose.
4 ST have talked with Mr.. Ferris on the
subject a number OF times, and he
l sincerely regrets having made the effort
I and laying himself liable to the ridicule
Of the public. / arrived from Phoenix
the day of the race, and just in time
to see Capt. Mueller get away, and al
the time know that felt a trifie dis
appointed myself, but 1 realized that
1.-The weather conditions were dead
against the trip across the range. II
seems to me that every fair-minded cit1-
/, zen should realize that Mr.. Ferris has
/, lost considerable money in this effort
! to pull off a transcontinental trip and
that he was sincere in his belief that
/ it could be done
"As a matter of fact the attempts I,
conauer the desert with balloons were
the first of the sort, and Mr.. Ferris
was the first person with nerve enough
to finance such an undertaking. 1t at
i, tracted a great deal of attention out
side Of Los Angeles, and was excellent
=. advertising for California. Mr.. Ferris
himself paid the bills. and for this Los
Angeles should give him credit"
Negotiations are on for a trip BY
Knabenshue in his dirigible. taking 9
l moving picture machine for the or
pheum circuit to obtain aerial views o.
Los Angeles and the surrounding coun-
try in winter, but these have not yei
been completed.