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View Full Version : 100 Years ago...Naval Aviation first


pilottj
January 18th, 2011, 08:42
Some guy by the name of Eugene Ely was crazy enough to land a plane on a boat in San Francisco Bay:salute:

http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacunithistories/Site%20Graphics/Ely_landing.jpg
crashaz
January 18th, 2011, 19:37
Hehehe yeah!!!

:salute:
X_eidos2
January 19th, 2011, 03:51
Outside the Tanforan shopping mall in San Bruno is a small plaque marking the spot where Ely took off from on his way out to the ship to make his landing. The plaque is right next to the life-size statue of the horse - Seabiscut.

Ely was also the first person to take off from a ship, but he did that on the east coast. His first landing on a ship took place on the west coast. Never have learned why the Navy had him haul his stuff from one end of the country to the other and I never read what happened to the plane after he made his landing.
TeaSea
January 19th, 2011, 15:26
8 months later Ely was dead of an airplane accident....
TeaSea
January 20th, 2011, 15:13
Sorry, that was a bit of a downer, wasn't it?
warchild
January 20th, 2011, 16:27
The accident happened during one of his landings i believe, but i could be incorrect.
pilottj
January 20th, 2011, 18:00
If you look at other pictures of this landing you will clearly see the flag on the ship blowing a tailwind. :icon_eek: I don't think they had many aviation standards that we know now as pilots. This was a brand new 'science' of flying and landing on ships, aviation as a whole still in its infantcy, it is amazing how fast aircraft were able to be adapted to ship use.