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IN NIGHT SKY AT SCHENLEY Pittsburgh Post-Sun Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Friday, August 13, 1914, Collection of Mike Kane, Aug. 23, 2005 Demonstration of Aviation as War Power. MANY WORKERS SEE SIGHT The first passenger ever carried at night in a flight of miles in all America was Harry C. Fry, who rode with Aviator Heth last evening far beyond Schenley Park oval. The lamps of the hundreds of automobilers that fringed the oval were lighted and lights showed in homes on surrounding hills. Mr. Fry has been topmost on a ship at sea and mounted the Eiffel Tower, and he wanted flying experience. He got it. The plane rocked him.in livelier fashion than he was ever moved even on a football gridiron as referee. His generous weight mutliplied the aviator's work in steadying the machine, and when it came home, the propellor blades were drenched with gasoline and oil and the planes splashed. As the wind falls toward sunset, flying is preferable in twilight hours, though there was enough breeze to keep the airman on his guard against the menace of tricky winds, the trickiest ever experienced by Eugene Heth, and he has braved the air of mountainous regions, ridden stiff ocean breezes, and piloted above prairie lands. For the evening flight he faced the wind, as he did in all his starts in the afternoon flights of last week's series that drew enormous crowds to The Post and Sun public demonstration. Keeping in mind the spectators' limited range of vision under a darkened sky, the aviator picked a course which was under the height attained by him in daylight exhibitions. In that way he enabled the watchers to keep the plane well in view. Even at the height of 800 feet he found the air cold. In the dusk the White 5-ton motor truck that presented a target in the race track infield was not any too plainly visible to the aviator. He ;piloted his craft to a point almost directly above the object of attack and dropped the "explosive" with such nearness to the target that it showed conclusively how our city of skyscrapers could be rent asunder even as the shumite shells of the Japanese shattered the Port Arthur stronghold of the Russians, the most massive fortifications the world ever knew. It was an effective flight at Schenley never to be forgotten. Among those viewing it were heard many expressions about the terrible destructiveness of lyddite bombs dropped from an aeroplane. There will be a race in the afternoon between aeroplane and motorchycle. A. G. Schmidt, speediest motorcycist in Pittsburgh, winner of many races and holder of records for fastest riding, will race his Indian motorcycle over the oval track against the Wright flyer overhead piloted by Aviator Heth. The evening demonstration is again scheduled for 7 o'clock when workers of the city will have an opportunity to attend The Post and Sun free exhibition in Schenley park. The twilight flying will include demonstrations of the progress in aerial navigation and the development of the aeroplane as an engine of war. |
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