The Washington herald., 1911-08-20
GEN. WOOD VISITS
AVIATION SCHOOL
At COLLEGE PARK
Four Aeroplanes in Air Do
Homage to Army Head.
STATION Is INSPECTED

With four aeroplanes and six aviators
for flying at College Park was establish
ed yesterday afternoon. In addition.
Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood, chief of, staff.
who visited the army school, saw six
flights of more than twenty minutes
duration each. A cross-country flight of
twenty-four miles over new territory was
made At one time Lieuts. Milling and
Kirkland, in the Burgess-Wright ma
chine; Lieuts Arnold and Kennedy, in
the Wright; Paul Peck, in the Rex
Smith, and Fritz Kastory, in the Fox
aeroplane, were flying. Several hundred
spectators viewed the flights, and saw
the most strenuous day in point of
actual flying that has passed at the
aviation field for many weeks.
Gen. Wood Inspects Camp.
Gen. Wood arrived at College Park
shortly after o'clock with his wife and
two sons, and Immediately after he had
made tour of inspection, with Capt.
Chandler as guide, the army aviators Or
dered their machines taken on the field,
and Gen. Wood then inspected the Wright
and the Burgess Wright machines.
Lieut.. Milling ascended first, with Capt.
Chandler, and in his Burgess machine
was in the air for twenty-five minutes,
attaining an altitude of more than 1000
feet in a few minutes and demonstrating
that he has succeeded in making the Bur-
CESS machine climb. He made spiral
dives and went through other evolutions
with his biplane. Five minutes after his
flight commenced. Lieut. Arnold piloted
his Wright machine into the air, and
quickly rose to about 1.500 feet.
For fifteen minutes more Lieut.. Milling
remained aloft with Lieut.. Chandler, and
then descended, when he was congratu-
lated by Gen. Wood. Lieut.. Arnold fol-
lowed him in five minutes. The two
flights were of the same duration-twen-
ty-two minutes.
Lieut., Arnold ascended at 5:2 o'clock
on his second trip, and with Lieut.. Ken
nedy as his passenger, made a flight of
SS minutes and 20 seconds. An altitude
of $500 feet within 80 feet of the Col
lege Park record was attained, and upon
the descent of the machine, Lieut.. Ar
mold and Kennedy said they had been
uncomfortably cold while in the clouds.
Rex Smith Flyer to Leave.
chine before the ayiators leave for an
extensive trip through Pennsylvania,
Maryland Virginia, and other Eastern
oldleS' was HldQe Dy raul HecR- he nrSt
made a flight of five minutes and then
stayed up for thirty-four minutes.
An incident of the flights, during
which all the aviators were in the air,
furnished amusement. Three big, raw
boned army mules, used to seeing aero
planes at a distance, must have seen
the four machines at once, for they
stampeded directly in front OF the army
hangers in an effort to be rid of the
noise IF the propellers. With Paul Pack
about twenty yards behind and fifty feet
above them, the mules ran until at last
they found leeway of escape near the
Signal Corps tent, and at last report
had not been seen. There was also a
contrast of means of travel when an
old-fashioned OK team was driven past
the field while the army aviators and
Peck were making their longest flights.
Fritz Kastory, in the Fox machine,
made his first flight, and although he
stayed in the air for only a few yards,
advanced the flying hopes of the builders.