-1980 |
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The 1914 Burgess -Dunne Canada's First Military Plane By Courtesy of Barry D. MacKeracher |
Early Bird Plaque, 1960 From the CHIRP |
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The 1914 Burgess -Dunne Canada's First Military Plane By Courtesy of Barry D. MacKeracher |
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CLIFFORD LAWRENCE WEBSTER, retired, looked out at the sunrise over Haverhill, Mass., May 14, 1891. There came school time. From local high school he honored Dean Academy and Phillips Exeter. .He took up with the Burgess Co. & Curtis at Squantum, Mass., June, 1911, when Atwood was preparing for his Boston-Washington flight. The company also had a school on the Mineola plains under W. M. Hilliard and here Webster soloed a Burgess built Wright B, made under the first and only manufacturing license granted by The Wright Co. His ACA certificate is 69 of Oct. 10, 1911 Then came the same on floats, the Army's "coast defense" pusher seaplane, the Renault-engined fuselage tractor on floats and the Navy's Model K Renault flying boat. The Burgess-Wright marriage having been dissolved, Webster then demonstrated the allegedly non-infringing Dunne machine, bought by Army and navy, so taht the Webster career was early linked with water flying. There were other tests, of course. With World War I he became civilian instructor at the Squantum naval air station. In October of 1917 he transferred to Hampton Roads as Instructor, Flight Commander and OIC assembly course mechanics school. He becomes Naval Aviator No. 112 1/2. He was next on duty with the Marines at Miami and at some time was commissioned Lieutenant (j.g.) in the Navy. The summer of 1918 he transferred to the Marine Corps as First Lieutenant, completed advanced course in gunnery, bombing and acrobatics and overseas with the North Bombing Group of the Navy. Back on inactive duty he joined the air mail service to fly the Washington-New York and Washington-Cleveland routes. In August, 1919, he joined America Transoceanic Co. and later did general flying for the Curtiss Metropolitan Airplane Co. On April 17, 1922, he made a record one-stop Palm Beach-New York flight in the Loening air Yacht, 11:15:00, first such daylight hop. With the inception of contract routes under the Air Commerce Act of 1926 he was made transport pilot No. 297. Later he became inspector for Grumman and aerodynamics engineer with Consolidated Vultee at Allentown in Worls War II courtesy of Steve Remington - CollectAir |
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You will find a fascinating story of the building of a replica of the Burgess-Dunne on this website. There are stories and many pictures which have been provided by the builder, Barry D. MacKeracher. I thank him for allowing me to use the photo above. To access the site, just click on: Burgess-Dunne I invite you to browse the entire site by clicking on: Home. |
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You will find a brief mention of Clifford in the fascinating history of the Aero Club of New England. To access the site, just click on: Clifford L. Webster You may want to use your "Find" tool on "Webster." You will probably enjoy the whole story. |
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From The Early Birds of Aviation Roster of Members, 1996 |
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