There I landed on the sloping hillside, and went immediately to a
telephone to call up the New York World. I told them I had landed within
the city limits and was coming down the river to Governor's Island soon.
I got more oil, some one among the crowd, that gathered as if by magic,
turned my propeller, and I got away safely on the last leg of the
flight. While I had complied with the conditions governing the flight by
landing in the city limits, I wanted to go on to Governor's Island and
give the people the chance to see the machine in flight.
From the extreme northern limits of New York to Governor's Island, at
the southern limits, was the most inspiring part of the trip. News of
the approach of the aeroplane had spread throughout the city, and I
could see crowds everywhere.
New York can turn out a million people probably quicker than any other
place on earth, and it certainly looked as though half of the population
was along Riverside Drive or on top of the thousands of apartment houses
that stretch for miles along the river. Every craft on the river turned
on its siren and faint sounds of the clamour reached me even above the
roar of my motor. It seemed but a moment until the Statue of Liberty
came into view. I turned westward, circled the Lady with the Torch and
alighted safely on the parade ground on Governor's Island.
General Frederick Grant, commanding the Department of the East, was one
of the first officers who came up to extend congratulations and to
compliment me on the success of the undertaking. From that moment I had
little chance for anything except the luncheons and dinners to which I
was invited. First came the luncheon at the Astor House given by the New
York World, and then the big banquet at the Hotel Astor, presided over
by Mayor Gaynor and attended by many prominent men interested in
aviation. The speeches were all highly laudatory, of course, and there
were many predictions by the orators that the Hudson river would become
a highway for aerial craft, as it had for steam craft when Fulton first
steered the old Clermont from New York to Albany.
On the trip down from Albany I carried a letter from the mayor of that
city to Mayor Gaynor, and delivered it in less time than it would have
taken the fastest mail train. My actual flying time was two hours,
fifty-one minutes, the distance one hundred and fifty-two miles, and the
average speed fifty-two miles an hour.
From Albany to Poughkeepsie is eighty-seven miles, and by making this in
a continuous flight I had, incidentally, won the Scientific American
trophy for the third time. It now became my personal property, and its
formal presentation was made at the annual dinner of the Aero Club of
America for that year.
NOTE BY AUGUSTUS POST
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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