Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-03-02
BOAT NOT
HIT BY SNOW
Storm Falls to Prevent Keyport
Pilots Flights
speciol oorresponden,.

BIZ SpcCtut correspondent.
KEYPORT March THAT a flying
boat can neither be showed under nor
Ice bound has beer proved in a Sc
ries of tests made recently at the
keyport factory of the Aeromarine
Plane IL Motor Company. The
present winter which has been cold
and snowy has sometime prevented
even the army coast patrols and the
air mail from flying. Drifts on the
flying fields Were the cause OF all
this. The winter was. however, IDEAL
for the purpose of testing out the all
weather possibilities of the flying
boat. A great expanse of ice formed
on Raritan bay, which has been util-
lied Tor the purpose of testing the
machines.
Sometime before thu recent big fall
of snow c. j. Zimm erman, chief test
pilot OF the company, TAXED a 40 l.
two place aeromarine out on the
smooth ice. He found that the boat
slid along on its keel like O great
giant skate. The manner in which
1t responded to the controls convinced
him that he could take off success
fully. He tried the stunt and found
himself almost immediately in the
air. The ice did not pose the pas
sage of the hull IS does water.
Getting back on the ice was also
not so much of q stunt as the pilot
had r~eckoned. 1t was simply a mat
ter OF Strengthening out his machine
at the right time and height. The
hull withstood the gentle settling on
the ice. as 1t withstood landing on the
water.
Shortly after this achievement he
left Keyport for Daytona, Fla, with
his plane to act as pilot for Ingle M.
Uppercu, president of the company,
who Is an old time flying enthusiast.
Ills work on all season flying was con-
tinued by Edward Musick, another
aeromarine pilot. BY this time the
big blizzard had arrived and both>the
ice on the bay and the field along side
of the factory were covered with
snow. In the thick of the blizzard the
Princess Anne" went ashore of
Rockaway Point. Musick decided to
go. out to see If 1t was possible to aid
in any way. With Joseph ]. Boland
a company engineer as passenger, he
glided over the snow covered ice with
up by the snow precisely as a snow
shoe is upheld. He got off the thick
covering without difficulty and flew to
the wreck. only to find hat the police
boat patrol had taken the passengers
off the wreck. He few back to Key
port without landing. This time he
set the boat down on the SNOW cov-
cred landing field.
In the following days the snow
melted gradually so Musick made q
number of taReoffs and landings on
tho field. He carried several photog-
rapaers and movie men to the wreck.
In the final tests he found he could
lane on and get off ground covered
by only two or three inches OF
He clicked a number of times and 1t
was noted that he averaged fourteen
seconds on the takeOff generally glid-
ing about 700 feet before reaching
flying speed. He landed on nov in
about 450 feet.
For these tests the only change
made In the boat was the e~quipping
of the wing tip pontoons wits skids
The ships used were Aeromarine open
two place sport models with duel com
trolls sc hat either passenger or pilot
MAJ guide the boat. These 40 LIS as
they are called. are pusher boats
equipped with six cylinder, $50 horse
power, aeromarine motors. A boat
of this type was flown by Zimmerman
from keyport to Havana, cuba, n
back.