Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-07-14
J. $. ID STUDY
 AIR FLY|NG' Will Open Department of Aeronautics at National
 Capital.
FOR AIR AND WATER
"lruckbeat' Is New Type of Machine Being Experimented With by
 Army Officers.
(By Jonathan Winfield.)

dition to the aviation school at Col iege Park, Md. the government will. Tn the course of few weeks, open a department of aeronautics at Wash ington barracks.
 This fact, interesting inasmuch as it will be the first time that the army has taken up the handling of hydro- aeroplanes, has been brought to light by the announcement that Capt. Paul Peck and Lieut.. Joseph M. Kennedy his pupil, are equipping their ma chimes with pontoons. The pontoons arrived at College Park on the day be- fore that on which Lieut.. Hazelhurst, U. s. A., and A. l.. Welsh were kill ed by falling in their airship.
 Owing to the death of these two aviators the work on the new style of flying machines intended for use in air and on the water has been somewhat delayed hut it is hoped be- fore long the "duckboat'' as the new type machine is known, will be ready for action and the nations capital will be treated to new form of eX- citement. Good work has already been done on the Severn River by Lieuts. Towers and Ellyson, U. S. N., and it is the hope and aim of the army officers to equal if not to sur pass, the records established by the naval officers.
 Captain Peck is particularly anxious to take part in the new sport. He is not a novice at the water-flying game by any means for he enjoys that dis tinction of being one of the first men in the world to fly in machine of this type.
 A hanger of the most improved type equipped with everything that makes for successful aviation (not foi getting complete first aid to the injured kit) will be erected on the waterfront, not far from the arse nal. This will be the home of the 4OW Cy pS oA etSA AeAl Niole. II OA eAS PA So- ent the machine that Captain Peck has been driving at College Park will be equipped with pontoons. These were bought by the government for $500, and so arranged that they may be easily attached to the regu- lar type of plane now ill use in the army. The pontoons add only 30 pounds to the weight of the machine and are sufficient to support 1000 pounds on the surface of the water.
 They are made of air tight metal, shaped like huge cigars, pointed sharply at the start. Four pontoons will be placed on each machine in a horizontal position.
 The ;.eroplane used by Captain Peck is equipped with these bicycle wheels for starting from and landing on the earth's surface. These wheels, vixen the biplane is fitted up as a sduckboat," are left exposed in such manner that the machine can be brought down either on land or on
 
 the water.
 Lieutenant Kennedy, who will be associated with Captain Peck in the manipulation of the hydroaeroplane at the Washington barracks, has just reteurned fro ma course of instruction at the Curtiss factory in New York. He has already become proficient in the management of the hydroaero- plane and declares that any aviator familiar with the control of the ordi- nary aeroplane may, in the course of few days, learn to fly a machine from the surface of the water.
 Lieutenant Kennedy is enthusiastic of the prospects of being assigned to overwater flying. He says it is one of the most delightful sports imagin- able and predicts that it will soon become as popular as ice skating in winter To further his contention Lieutenant Kennedy asserts that there Is practically no element of danger m flying over the water and points to the fact that, up to the present, no one has lost his life in hydro aeroplane.
 when the new station is erected at the Washington barracks number oi new experiments will be tried. One of the first to be attempted will ne starting and landing in rough wa ter An apparatus to disturb the us- uaily placid surface of the Potomac VIII he Installed so that the machines nay practice landing in near-surf
 By tuning this machine up to a ereater or lesser pitch. the height of the wavea may be regulated and ane ayiators will thus be able to practice in conparatiyely smooth or