The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-09-24
Aerial RouteEst blish ed
as Feature of Avia-
ton Meet.
Fl | Hi MADE BY
EARL OVINGION
First Days Contests Are Medi
OGRE, Although Ely Furnishes
Some Thrills-Three Bird
women Will Have Share in
Program-Miss Moisant
Circles Course.

New York. September 2S.-The first
United States mail ever transported by
aeroplane was carried to-day from the
Long Island. to Garden City. dis
lance of Ave miles. By Earl L. Owing
ton in a Bleriot machine. His flight
for this purpose was the leading fea-
ture Of the international meets open
ing day. ovington took only one bag
of mail, held it between his knees. and
when he was over Garden City he
dropped II on the signal of man who
waved a flag IS per arrangement This
bag contained about seventy-i ive POUNDS
OF letters and post cards. He left be-
hind fully 900 pounds OF mail matter,
which was later sent BY automobile
to Garden City post-office, although 1t
bore the special post office stamp OF
Aerial Station No. |. Aerial Special
Service"
The flying contests to-day were me-
dioore, the most interesting being the
search by "a number of aviators for
detachment of the Eighteenth Infantry,
United States Army. which had been
secreted in a clump OF woods three
miles southeast of the field. six of
the most prominent aviators, Including
Tom sopwith. of England: Grahame-
White, Eugene Ely. j. a. ID. AlcCurdy
and Beatty. secured the countryside for
an hour. but none was able to find the
soldiers.
Ely DnzzIcs Crowd
Eugene Ely made a spectacular
fight late in the afternoon, showing
the perfect control of his machine.
he dazzied the crowd by turning his
machine head down and dropping 500
feet and then checking his flight when
near the turf and roatng off.
MISS Matilde Moissant was the only
woman to make flight In the twenty
tour-nile breeze which prevailed dur
ing the afternoon. She crcled the
course several times in a monoplane
and made a safe landing. DIR. Henry
walden. who has had number OF
faiis before, had bad spill this after
noon on the northeast turn. when he
tried to cut under Lee Hammond's ma
chine in the finish of the cross- country
flight
Walden ventured too close to the
turf. the tail OF his monoplane struck,
and 1t turned g somersault Walden
leaped. and although he sustained a
severe shock. he saved himself from
serious injury
Mile. Helene Dutrieu. the daring lit
tie French aviator. who holds the rec
ord for distance among the feminine
aviators OF the world. arrived to-day
on the French liner La Provence, Just
In time for the opening of the aviation
meet.
Mile. Dutrteu has a very particular
mission-that is. to have an air race
with two of Americas best known wo-
men aviators. Miss Quimby and Miss
Moissant.
The French woman is just thirty
years old. weighs just ninety five
pounds. and is heart whole and fancy
free. After making these admissions,
she added:
And the man who wants me must
catch me in the air"
Mile. Dutriu has had three bad falls,
once cropping on the roof of a house
in Odessa. but she has escaped with
the simplest little bruises.
Yet; ah! You cannot tell. nm
lucky. butt and she leaned over
and tapped the deck of the steamship.
Uses Farmnn BipInne.
Mile. Dutrieu brought with her a
Farman biplane. built especially for
her by Henry Farman. which she will
use in her contest for the honors ot
the air with Misses Matilda Moissant
and Harriet ouimby.
II have been q sportswoman all my
life" said Mile Dutrleu to-day when
bicycles were the craze I rode them
then / followed with automobiles. and
nof l am an aviation enthusiast"
While In America Mile Dutrieu in
tends to carry women passengers In
her biplane. She snid that with ten
aeroplanes she could fly from the At
lantic to the Pacific Ocean.
She has made several records for
height and distance against women
aviators. Her altitude record is 2,640
feet, while her distance record IS $50
kilometers in two hours and thirty
FIVE minutes made at Mourmelon.
France, a few days before she sailed
for New York.