Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-09

Smashups are also expensive and eat into
profits
Three years ago there were aviators in
this country who made one thousand dollars
a day. Today many fly for one hundred
dollars, and are glad to get it. For exhibit
ing aviators the golden days are passing.
Brookins has given up to enter the automo-
bile business. Coffyn, now flying independ-
emily, is not making fortune. The thin,
red-haired Hamilton, who made and lost
several twenty thousand bankrolls, is now
picking up what money he can at county
fairs. When the late Calbraith P. Rodgers
crossed the American continent from New
York to Los Angeles, it cost him fifteen
thousand dollars. Harry Atwood's St. Louis
to New York trip gave him a loss of four
hundred dollars. The prize didn't come up
to his expenses. Even Beachey is finding
his earnings falling off. The business of
exhibiting aeroplanes, you see, is about dead.
PUT, urged on by the past success OF these
= men, hundreds of others are trying to
succeed like them. So opens another way
whereby money can be made from the air.
by conducting schools Of these schools
there are many. You will find them in prac-
tically every State where the aeroplane has
been. flown. But most of them are fake
backyard academies, founded by the get
rich-quick profession. Only few are known
to be trustworthy, equipped with compe-
tent instructors, actually teaching the pupils
to fly. Among these real schools are the
Wright at Dayton, Ohio; the Curtiss at
Hammondsport, New York, and San Diego,
California; the Moisant at Westbury Long
Island; the Renoist at Chicago; the Burgess
Company &. Curtiss at Marblehead, Mass
achusetts; the army school at College Point,
Maryland; and the Beatty school.
Of them the story of the Beatty school IS
perhaps the most interesting. Four years
ago Beatty was linotype operator. One
day there was an aviation meet in the city
where he worked, and he bought an adj
mission ticket. Two hours later he had de-
cided to become an aviator. Two months
later he was flying wherever an engagement
could be secured. And so Beatty went on
with his transforming; continued it until
receipts began to fall off.
Then he had another idea. He thought
school with himself, practical flyer, at the
head, would pay well. The school was or
ganized. A little tract of land was secured
down on Long Island; shed was erected.
All being ready, Beatty advertised in the
anyone flyer on payment of two hundred
and fifty dollars Breakage charges were
extra. So the Beatty school began. The
other day Beatty was counting up his profits
for the first year. There were twenty-fv
pupils at two hundred and fifty dollars.
After much figuring SO one of his very good
friends told me-he found that the net was
four thousand dollars-which was not at all
bad for a hnotyper to make out of six
months aviation school.
But the profits in conducting schools are
small. To make five thousand dollars is re-
markable. Curtiss cleared that in 1911.
The Moisant school netted four thousand,
the Burgess people three thousand, and the
Benoist thrity-eight hundred, so unofficial
reports have it.
But let us see what you would pass through
were you to enter one of these schools, hop
ing to become high-class flyer and earn the
money that Beachey earns At the outset
you would find that you would have to give
six weeks of your time to learning. That's the
period it takes at the Wright school. Four
hours day are spent in the air, the total
being divided into lessons of five to ten min
utes. The charge is generally five hundred
dollars, and you have to be bonded to the
extent of thousand dollars to safeguard
against breakage. Beatty's rates were low.
Besides, if you were to go to the Wright
school, you would find that one of the con-
ditions of accepting you as a pupil was that
you would buy machine. Then, with your
period of instruction over YOU would make