Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-09
THAT BUZZlNG OVERHEAD
Torresdale Citizens Ask Protection
From Noisy AIrpIanes, but, Only
Ten Years Ago, Waited
Many Hours to Hear
Just One
IlEN YEARS ago there was lttc group


Il of men composing the young Aero.
| Club in this city who patiently bore with
! the sneers and jecrs of their friends and the
open ridcule of the public in general and
| who learned to endure without resentment
! the gentle intimation that they were not
! quite right in the head These men were
simply firm believers in the coming triumph
| of the then unfamiliar contrivance called the
aeroplane.
| In spite of all opposition, they stuck to
! their prediction that they and their dctrac-
| tors would live to see. the day when the air.
! plane would be so common as scarcely to
| provoke more than a passing glnnce as ii
! flew overhead. They said that time would
! come in twenty years--or thirty. They
| even went 80 far as to say that, In hfty
! years, it would be necessary to invoke the
aid of the law to regulate hyng-and, then
| people laughed outright ut them.
The time has come much sooner than even
| these dev0tees expected. Citizens of Tor
resdalc have asked the aid Of the police to
regulate the hours of flying over their pretty
| suburb, complaining that the incessant buzz
ing of the engines of airpiancs is inter.
fcring with their life, liberty and pursuit of
happiness
TT DOES not seem possible that so great
l. revolution can have taken place in so
short a time ten years vet, If memory Is
not at fault, Armstrong DrcXr was the first
aviator who ever flew over Torresdalc and
his flight was made in November of 1910.
Drexel did not intend to fly over Torres
dale at that time; in fact, until the day
before, he had not intended to fly near this
city at ALL Yet, on the spur of the moment,
he gave Philadelphia the right to claim a
worlds altitude record of 0S!)7 feet. which,
in these days, Is only considered a moder
ately sufficient height for saIe flying, but
which, ten years ago. made people fairly
gasp.
Claude Graham White, an Englishmah,
was the individual sensation of that meet,
aud members of the Aero Club here sue
ceeded in inducing him to come to- Phila-
delphia for an exhibition at the Old Point
5rrezc racetrark. where Charles Foster
Willard, the year before had been the first
man in the city to rise from the ground in
heavier than air machine, a week or more
after the day on which he was scheduled to
make the fight.
Ihe tasco made by WiIlard-ncvitable in
ms day when he had only a gingerbread ma
chlne with putt putting little twenty five
norS'p0wec cngine--waS not so likely with
Grahame- White, who had big Farman BIZ
plane and speedy Blcrot monoplane, each
equipped with the then sensational fifty
horsepower revolving Gnom" engine Will ,
lard was held to the ground by fifteen mile
breeze: the Engishman could negotiate a
thirty mile wind and think little of it.
DI the time Grahame White came here.
- interest in aviation had been consider
nbly stirred up locally by the flight of |
Charles Is. Hamilton. on June 13, 1910, l
from New York to this city and return
under the auspices of the PUBLIC LEDGER
linmiltUn'S flight iii fifty horsepower |
CurtisS biplane was record making cross
country performance He was poted by a
special train, with the ear tops covered by
itn oil, 20, ia, H.
triangular bit ,of ground beside the Penn
Sylvania railroad track near the Potter oil
cloth factory, at Front and Tioga streets.
TRAHAME- WHITE and -Crexel had
" struck up friendship at the Belmont
Park meet. ripencd by the succeeding ex-
hbition flights in Baltimore, so when the
English hi"r came to this cit ty DrcxoI came
with him. not only for companionship but
to meet the hosts of relatives he had here
and the friends he had made during his
New York visit But Drexrl intended to
be merely an onlookcr and announced def
nitely that he would not fly.
A day or two after Grahame- White had
started his exhibition here. he and Drcxel
and the present writer were in the aviator's
room in the Bellevue Stratford, waiting for
n car to take them to Point Breeze. Drcxcl
had been standing looking out Of the window
at the clear blue sky and the slowly drifting
cirrus clouds away up in the regions that
he and other hicrs were dreaming of in
vading. No one had ever been 10000 feet
high in an nirplanc in those days and there
was keen rivalry among them as to who
should first reach that mark. Drexel was
evidently feeling the spirit move him that
day: it was ideal weather for it. Suddenly
he turned to Grahame- White:
Have you got an extra flying sut?" he
asked.
Yes" said the Engishman "Why?"
us your Blcriot in good shape?"
Perfect"
Then. if you don't mind. I'd like to
borrow the suit and the Blcriot. think
I'll try for 10000 feet this afternoon" +"
1t was enough to make any press agent
tear his hair with rage. definite an
nouncement of such an intention. with two
or three davS advance advertising Ind pub.
licity would have brought a record brcakinc
crowd to the grounds, but DreXel did not
do things that way.
Much as any business man might get
into his automobile today to run from his
home to his Office. Drexcl climbed into tLo
Bleriot and started. The plane grew
smaller and smaller as it asccndcd in wide,
graceful circles until it was lost to view in
the clouds. Then. four hours the audience
at the track waited for him to return. They
tried to be interested in Grahame- Whites
flights in his Furman, but DrpXcl and tbr
worlds altitude were the thing then and
nothing else would satisfy them.
T ATE in the evening long distance nhonc
- call came in. It was Drcxcl. Tie had
lost his way. had run out of gasoline and
had descended in a field at Oreland nor fnr
from Amber. But before he hung nm thn
nhonc he said that so far as he Could tnu
from n rough reading of his barogranh (thn
instrument which measures altitudc) no LnI
achieved his object and set the worlds rec.
nhnNEn