The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-08-02
''PEcKS BAD BOY OF
THE air. COMING TO
MAURY COUNTY FAIR
WILL MAKE A FLIGHT EACH AZ
TERNOoN OF THE MEET.
ING.
NO FLY NO PAY CONTRACT
Has Been. Doing Some Remarkable
AeropIane Work in Number OF
Kentucky Towns--At jacksonville
Last Week.

One Of the features of the fair to
be held here September 1913, inclu-
sive, will be daily flight in the air
by Horace Kearney, who styles him
self "Peck's Bad Boy of the Air"
The contract for his services was
made Wednesday with Mr.. H. M.
Pickens. representing the Curtis
Wright Aeroplane Co., of New York.
The fair management is not making
any promises with regard to what
will be done in the way of Tying,
but the contract has a mo fly, no
pay" clause. The company guaran-
tees that Kearney will make flights
of twenty minutes each day, and II
this is done the company is to pay
him $3.50 for the days, one or more
flights each day. II he fails on the
first day then the entire contract may
be abrogated.
Kearney recently rose in forty
foot street in San Francisco, and
made a fight over the bay, and re-
turned, lighting in the same place,
and Mr.. Pickens stated that there
would be no treble in getting away
from the fair ground field.
Kearney is this week at Henderson,
KY; next week he will be at Union.
town, KY, and will be in Indiana just
prior to his visit to Columbia.
Kearney was at jacksonville, KY,
on July II and made fight there in
! the afternoon, and the Daily Hustler
of that city says of the flight:
Five thousand people wednesday
at the fair grounds saw Horace
Kearney, "Peck's Bad Boy of the
Air." make two sensational flights
In his Curtis b.plane, one Of five min
utes and the other Of fifteen minutes
Displaying perfect control of his ma
chine, Kearney flew all over the sky
like a bird and at one time attained
an altitude of $500 feet.
'Kearney's machine was brought
out on the field at 4:25. Within less
than three minutes the daring young
man had seated himself and was or
his way to the sky with his eight cyl
inder engine carrying him at the rate
of sixty miles an hour. He rose il
the air pretty going north. He grad
ually rose higher in the air as III
turned his machine due west and al
he went on he went up higher. Wher
he had gone mile he circled soutl
and returned to the grounds, flying
several hundred feet over the Col
Coal Mine tipple. He killed his en-
CINE when about forty feet in the ali
and made pretty landing inside thu
race track.
Il was just testing her out" sait
Kearney when he jumped from thu
machine. He said there was some lit
tie engine trouble. Within less thai
ten minutes he was again ready tt
; fly.
"The crowd was given genuine
thrill and hearts leaped into MOUTH
when going at sixty miles an hour b.
made a sweeping dip of one hundre'
feet at a IS degree angle, and it look
ed as If he would crash headlong t
the ground.
"A scurry on the ground took plac
and frightened men and boys VIII
ran away to keep from being strucl
by the car, falling as they thought
Within fifty feet of the ground Keal
ney again assembled into the air miss
ing bunch Of high trapeze by no
les than three feet. The crowd wa
converted into wildly cheering
mob and it was some time before tn
applause subsidized. Kearney mad
, many great dips and glides, over an
t beyond the fair ground and he hand
! led his machine with the ability OF
} skillful aviator and man of stead
: nerve and daring. He circled GU
: into the country a number OF time
: and at one time was hardly NOR
j than a speck in the sky. Nearly a.
of the time he kept west of tn
grandstand in order to allow every
one to witness the fight"