September 1, 1923.

 

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, August 8, 1922. An eventful Tuesday.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, August 8, 1922. An eventful Tuesday.: 

Tuesday, August 8, 1922. An eventful Tuesday.

Here's more on the story involved in the photograph appearing above.

1922 - Into the Grand Canyon and Out Again by Airplane

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, November 10, 1921. Hanging in there.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, November 10, 1921. Hanging in there.: 

Thursday, November 10, 1921. Hanging in there.

"Fearless Freddie", a Hollywood stuntman,  negotiating a transfer from aircraft to automobile on this date in 1921.
 

First "Crop Dusting". August 3, 1921.

On this day in 1921, crop dusting, spraying pesticides by air, was performed for the first time in an experiment involving the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

First crop dusting being conducted.

The first flight featured Army Air Corps pilot John A. Macready and aircraft engineer Etienne Dormoy who performed the test with a Curtiss JN4 over a field outside of Troy, Ohio.  Lead arsenate was sprayed to attack caterpillars.

Dormay left, Macready right.

Macready would complete an Army career prior to World War Two, leaving the service in 1926, but was recalled to serve in the Second World War.  He retired from the Army Air Force in 1948.  He was a legendary pilot at the time and had many firsts while in the service, including being the first Air Corps pilot to parachute from a stricken aircraft at night.

March 29, 1921. Standing by the biplane.

A photograph taken on this day in 1921.  I believe the airplane is a Curtis Jenny.

 

Curtiss JN-4D, Denver International Airport

I have passed underneath this Curtis Jenny hundreds of times, but I never fail to take note of it.  Surprisingly, for one reason or another, I apparently never took a photograph of it until just the other day, even though I have photographed another biplane that's hanging from the ceiling at the Denver International Airport.

Jennies were surprisingly large, as this photo demonstrated.  Obsolescent at the time of hteir introduction, they none the less formed the backbone of the early American military airborne fleet and saw service in the Border War, as it came to be known to the Army, which of course wasn't a full war but threatened to become one. 

After World War One JN-4s were sold off and they became a common barn stormer aircraft.  There are a surprisingly large number of them left around today, a few of which still fly on rare occasion.