0.05 Cubic feet (15 black and white 4 x 5 inch copy negatives)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Glass plate negatives
Place:
Kitty Hawk (N.C.)
Date:
October 20-26, 1911
Summary:
This collection consists of 15 black and white negatives, photographs created by photographer Percy Trenchard Jones of Orville Wright testing the Wright (Brothers) 1911 Glider at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in October 1911.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 15 black and white 4 x 5 inch negatives copied by the Smithsonian Institution's National Air Museum in 1963 from original 5 x 7 inch glass plate negatives created by photographer Percy Trenchard Jones (likely when employed by the New York American newspaper) and loaned by the donor for copying. The photographs depict Orville Wright and his team testing the Wright (Brothers) 1911 Glider at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, during the period of October 20 to 26, 1911. People depicted in the photographs include Orville Wright, his brother Lorin Wright, Lorin's 10-year-old son Horace Wright (nicknamed "Buster"), English pilot Alexander (Alec) Ogilvie, unidentified Wright assistants, men from the local lifesaving station, and journalists sent to cover the flights. Identified journalists include Vann Ness Harwood of the New York World, Arnold Kruckman of the New York American, and John Mitchell of the Associated Press. Unidentified, but also believed to have been present were Mr. Mitchell from the New York Herald, Mr. Verges (or Berges, possibly from the American News Service), and D. Bruce Salley, a reporter from Norfolk, Virginia.
Arrangement:
Negatives are arranged in NAM negative number order (NAM A-52372 through A-52386). Negatives are physically located inside the National Air Museum Photography Collection, NASM.XXXX.0572, 8 x 10 Negatives Series.
Biographical / Historical:
In early October 1911, Orville Wright traveled to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with his brother Lorin Wright, Lorin's 10-year-old son Horace Wright (nicknamed "Buster"), and Alexander (Alec) Ogilvie, an early British aviation pioneer and friend of the Wright brothers. Wilbur Wright, recently returned from Europe and busy with business issues, did not accompany his brothers on their trip. Their plan was to carry out more experiments with gliding and soaring flight and to test an automatic stabilizer design which the Wright Brothers had been developing since 1905. The Wright team constructed a new glider, the Wright (Brothers) 1911 Glider, on site at Kill Devil Hills, making several changes to the aircraft's design as the test flights proceeded. Orville Wright and his party had arrived at Kitty Hawk on October 10. On October 13, four journalists arrived, with two more (including Arnold Krockman from the New York American) showing up at the Wright's camp a week later on October 20. This intense scrutiny from the press—and uncooperatively high winds—led Orville to decide not to test the automatic stabilizer, instead concentrating on improving the glider's performance. On October 24, Orville made several successful flights including one establishing a new soaring record of 9 minutes 45 seconds, a flight which would stand as a world's record for the next 10 years. The 1911 glider's last flights were made on October 26; these would be the last experimental flights conducted by the Wrights at Kitty Hawk.
In the early 1910s, photographer Percy Trenchard Jones (1887-1948) worked as a journalist for the New York American newspaper before joining the Underwood News Photo Service branch of photography producer and distributor Underwood & Underwood (based in New York City); for many years Jones managed the Underwood & Underwood Studio in Washington, D.C. Jones left Underwood to form a news photo syndicate, Photograms, with two partners, but the business did not survive the Depression. Jones turned to photography of pure-bred dogs, a specialty which he would pursue throughout the rest of his career.
Provenance:
Frederic Lewis for Phyllis Jones (Mrs. Percy Trenchard Jones), gift, 1963 [NAM R-45-63], NASM.XXXX.1226.
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Gerard Kitchen O'Neill (1927-1992) was an experimental physicist, educator, inventor, entrepreneur, writer and novelist.
Scope and Contents:
Materials in this collection include notes, business papers, patents, calendar planners, reports, a thesis, correspondence, book drafts, screenplay drafts, university publications, magazines, magazine articles, newspaper articles, glass & 35mm images, photographs, a rolodex.
The researcher should note that the collection also contains VHS tapes and audio cassettes. These items are not included in the container list but a NASM Archives staff person can assist you regarding access.
Arrangement:
Organized into 5 series:
Series 1: Professional Papers
Series 2: Publications & Reports
Series 3: Personal Papers
Series 4: Images
Series 5: Odd & Oversize
Biographical / Historical:
Gerard Kitchen O'Neill (1927-1992) was an experimental physicist, educator, inventor, entrepreneur, writer and novelist.
Gerard K. O'Neill joined the Navy at age 17, served as a radar technician from 1944 to 1946, graduated from Swarthmore College in 1950 with high honors in Physics, and received his Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 1954. He went to Princeton University in that year as an Assistant Professor, becoming a Full Professor of Physics in 1965. In the 1976-77 academic year he received the honor of serving as the Jerome Clarke Hunsaker Professor of Aerospace at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He retired from Princeton in 1985 as professor emeritus.
Dr. O'Neill's main research area was high-energy particle physics and he initiated and led large-scale projects in accelerator construction. In 1956 he invented the storage-ring technique for colliding particle beams, a method which is now the basis for nearly every new high-energy particle accelerator. In 1976 he built his first Mass Driver prototype.
Dr. O'Neill was a pioneer in the field of space colonization; his studies on the humanization of space began in 1969 as a result of his undergraduate teaching at Princeton, and one of his four books, The High Frontier, detailed his vision of humanity's movement into Earth-like habitats constructed in space. The High Frontier won the Phi Beta Kappa Award as the best science book of 1977. He also authored 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future, The Technology Edge: Opportunities for America in World Competition and co-authored a graduate textbook, Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics.
In 1977 following the success of The High Frontier, Dr. O'Neill founded the non-profit Space Studies Institute. SSI's research included work on mass drivers and the Lunar Polar Probe (renamed Lunar Prospector and flown by NASA.)
In 1967 Dr. O'Neill was a finalist, though ultimately not selected, for NASA's Astronaut Group 6, a group of scientist-astronauts to be given assignments in the Apollo Program. He returned to NASA throughout 1975-1977 to led studies on space habitats and space manufacturing; he testified twice before Congress during that time. In 1985, he was appointed by President Reagan to the National Commission on Space.
In 1983 Dr. O'Neill founded the Geostar Corporation, a satellite based positioning and communication system, based on a patent issued to him.
In 1986, O'Neill founded O'Neill Communications, Inc. which developed LAWN, a local area network device using radio waves and still in use today.
At the time of his death, Dr. O'Neill was working on a form of high-speed ground-based transportation he called "Magnetic Flight" with another company he founded, VSE International.
Dr. O'Neill was an instrument-rated pilot with some 2,500 hours of time in powered aircraft and held the Triple Diamond Badge of the Federation of the Aeronautique Internationale for sail plane flights. He was active in ultralight aircraft aviation and a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association. On most of his travels in connection with research and lectures, he piloted his own small plane.
Dr. O'Neill died from leukemia in 1992; the Clementine Mission of 1994 was dedicated to him.
Provenance:
Tasha O'Neill, Gift, 2013
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
This collection contains interviews with Reimar and Walter Horten that were recorded by David Myhra.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains interviews with Reimar and Walter Horten taped by David Myhra, author of The Horten Brothers and Their All-winged Aircraft. It includes various topics relating to the Hortens, and comprises sixty original tapes donated by Myhra, as well as two copies made by NASM, one consisting of sixty-one master reel-to-reels, and another of 120 reference CD-Rs. A box of "transcripts" for some of the tapes is also included in the collection, although it is unclear which transcripts go with which tapes.
Arrangement:
This finding aid was generated from the original recording labels. Mr. Myhra labeled most of the tapes, but each group of tapes is labeled differently. Dates are included when provided but the list does not follow a chronological order, which is irrelevant anyway considering the wandering nature of Mr. Myhra's interviews. The finding aid is arranged in groups, which roughly correspond to each set of interviews. In addition, NASM has given each tape a new number which runs consecutively from one through sixty. The original number given by David Myhra is listed in the description of each tape. The new NASM numbers for the original tapes correspond to the NASM reel numbers and the NASM CD-R numbers as to make locating each copy more convenient.
Biographical / Historical:
Reimar Horten and his brother Walter, two largely self-taught aircraft designers, were born in Bonn, Germany; Walter on March 3, 1912, and Reimar on March 12, 1915. Their interest in aircraft began as early as 1925 when they joined a fliers' club in Bonn. In 1932 Reimar and Walter commenced work on their first piloted all-wing sailplane the Ho I. The basic concept of the flying wing dates from the dawn of aviation, but the Horten brothers became the virtuosos of this aircraft. The Horten all-wing sailplanes were gliders without a fuselage or tail section. Because the fuselage and the tail section of a regular plane produced 30% to 50% of an airplane's drag, the benefit of the sailplanes was clear. During the time preceding World War II the brothers improved upon the Ho I glider, creating other models including the Ho II, Ho III, and the Ho IV--none of which had any engines. Reimar and Walter joined the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) during the course of the war where Walter flew Messerschmitt Bf-109s for six months and Reimar worked for Operation Sea Lion, whose objective was the invasion of England. Upon the cancellation of this operation the Horten brothers went on to continue their projects, developing many enhanced versions of their original flying-wing. In 1942 Reimar began working on the Ho VII at the Luftwaffe's request, a machine equipped with two pusher-type propellers and a pulse jet engine. However, the Ho VII was not strong enough to fly safely at the greater speeds made possible by the jet, so the brothers began work on the new Ho IX (code named "Go 229"), the first functional jet propelled flying wing. The arrival of the American army in 1945 ended the construction of this type of aircraft. After the war, Reimar moved to Argentina where he continued to develop his unorthodox aircraft designs; Walter stayed in Germany. Walter died in 1988 and Reimar died in 1994.
Provenance:
David Myhra, Gift, 1998
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Topic:
World War, 1939-1945 -- Germany -- Refugees Search this
One of the most significant pre-Wright brothers aeronautical experimenters was the German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal. This collection consists of three photographs of him.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of three black and white photographs of Otto Lilienthal. The first is a 2.5 by 3.5 inch (matted to 8.5 by 10 inches) formal head and shoulders portrait of Lilienthal, wearing a suit and tie, and is signed by Lilienthal. The other two prints, both measure 10.5 by 7 inches and are backed with cardboard, show Lilienthal in flight in a glider near Berlin in 1894.
Arrangement:
Collection is in original order.
Biographical / Historical:
One of the most significant pre-Wright brothers aeronautical experimenters was the German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal. Between 1891 and 1896, he built and flew a series of highly successful full-size gliders. During this period, Lilienthal made close to 2,000 brief flights in 16 different designs based on aerodynamic research he conducted in the 1870s and 1880s. Most of the gliders were monoplanes with stabilizing tail surfaces mounted at the rear and control was achieved by shifting body weight fore-and-aft and from side-to-side. Beyond his technical contributions, Lilienthal sparked aeronautical advancement from a psychological point of view, as well by unquestionably demonstrating that gliding flight was possible. He was a great inspiration to the Wright brothers in particular. They adopted his approach of glider experimentation and used his aerodynamic data as a starting point in their own research.
Provenance:
Unknown, NASM.XXXX.1093
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
This collection consists of approximately 209 images taken by C. Hadley Smith pertaining to Schweizer Aircraft Corporation.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of approximately 209 images taken by C. Hadley Smith pertaining to Schweizer Aircraft Corporation. The images are in negative format, and are 4 by 5 inches or smaller. They are a mix of black and white and color. The collection also contains a few color transparencies. The negatives are in individually numbered envelopes with a number scheme applied by Smith which is comprised of the date (year-month-day) and a shot number from that day. Some of the envelopes contain duplicate negatives or contact prints, and some contain two separate images. The images show Schweizer aircraft (including many air to air shots), as well as some shots of ephemera such as illustrations, magazine spreads, and advertising materials. Aircraft shown in the collection include the Schweizer SGS 1-26B; Schweizer SGS 1-26C; Schweizer SGS 1-26E; Schweizer SGS 1-23H; Schweizer SGU 2-22E; Schweizer SGS 2-32 (including tail number N2477W, marked as the 1000th Schweizer Sailplane); Schweizer SGS 1-34; Schweizer SGS 2-33; Schweizer TSC-1A1 Teal Amphibian; and the Schweizer SGS 1-35.
Arrangement:
This collection is in original order using the numbers that were applied by the creator.
Biographical / Historical:
Schweizer Aircraft Corporation was formed in 1939 by brothers Paul, William, and Ernest Schweizer in Elmira, New York. The Schweizer brothers built their first glider in 1930 and went on to produce numerous models of gliders, helicopters, and small agricultural aircraft. Schweizer was acquired by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 2004 and operated as a subsidiary until ceasing operations in 2012.
C. Hadley Smith (1910-2004) began taking photographs at age five and received formal training in photography at the Patuxent River Naval Air Base where he served as a Photographer's Mate First Class during World War II. After the war, he began his career as a commercial photographer in Ithaca, New York. One of his clients was Schweizer Aircraft Corporation.
Provenance:
Hadley Smith, Gift, 2017, NASM.2018.0009
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
This collection consists of the Bensen B-8 Gyro-Glider documentation: Building and Operating Manual; plan drawings; Rotorcraft Dictionary; Bensen-related brochures; list of tools needed to build a gyrocopter; Building and Operating Material Specifications for Bensen Models B-8 and B-8M; Catalog No. 81 and order form; Installment Purchase Plan documents and price list; and a "I'd Rather be flying a Bensen Gyrocopter" bumper sticker.
Biographical / Historical:
In 1953, Dr. Igor Bensen, an immigrant from the USSR where he had been chief research engineer of the Kaman Aircraft Corporation, established the Bensen Aircraft Corporation in Raleigh, North Carolina. He initially planned to produce commercial helicopters, but switched to the private market when he realized that the relative safety of rotary craft would be attractive to private pilots. His first aircraft was the Bensen B-8 Gyro-Glider, which was unpowered and could be flown without a pilot's license in the United States. It could be built at home from a kit that an aspiring pilot would purchase from the company or could be purchased already assembled.
Provenance:
Dave Spriggs, Gift, Year received
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
3.09 Cubic feet ((1 records center box) (4 flatboxes))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Publications
Photographs
Clippings
Scrapbooks
Date:
1940-1945
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains four wooden covered scrapbooks designed by John E. Parker which include clippings and photographs of the company during this period. Collection also includes 'General Survey Organization Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation;' 'Postwar Products Survey Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation;' newsclippings on NAC; 'TOW Lines' published by NAC; and other material about the company and John Parker.
Biographical / Historical:
John E. Parker was a Naval Academy graduate, and an entrepreneur. Parker was the president of Northwestern Aeronautical Corporation (NAC), which made wooden gliders for the war effort. Allied forces used the unpowered gliders at the Normandy D-Day invasion and at other battles to silently carry troops into enemy territory. The company assembled fifteen gliders a day in a huge plant on Minnehaha Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota. After the War, Parker also became president of the newly created Engineering Research Associates (ERA), a computer development company.
General:
NASMrev
Provenance:
Estate of John E. Parker, Gift, 1990, 1991-0005, NASM
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
![View Wright (Brothers) 1911 Glider Tests, Kitty Hawk [Jones] digital asset: Finding aid](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=120&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/findingaid.gif "Finding aid")
