THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 17, 1994 TAG: 9412170241
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENNIS JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
When you look at pictures of Eugene B. Ely, flying an airplane off a Navy ship for the first time in history, you're struck by how different the scene appears from today.
The 80-year-old images show a spindly airplane, a jury-rigged deck, a ship at anchor instead of in motion.
But it is what Ely shares with modern naval aviators that gives him his lasting impact, elevating him from barnstormer to pioneer: a belief that who controls the air controls the war, and that ships can extend that control around the world.
``People like Ely wanted to advance aviation because they felt it was the future of the military,'' said Amy Yarsinske, a Norfolk author who is writing a book on naval aviation.
Ely's bold flight, as well as contributions like the first landing on a Navy ship shortly afterward, have given him a place among aviation's giants. His name will be entered today in the First Flight Society Shrine at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk.
Also being inducted today is former President George Bush, who as a Navy pilot was shot down in the Pacific during World War II. Bush is not scheduled to attend the ceremonies.
You can see Ely's daring in the photos of his launch, on display at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Nauticus.
Unlike the thick steel decks of modern carriers, three football fields long, Ely's flight deck was a platform he had assembled the night before atop a Navy cruiser.
His fragile airplane resembles the Wright flier - wood and fabric pushed by a propeller from behind and offering the pilot no protection; Ely's goggles would freeze as a storm rose during his five-minute flight.
Then there is the ship, the Birmingham, anchored in the James River. A modern carrier would be under way, its movement through the water helping the planes it launches.
Ely already had a daredevil's reputation when - despite his fear of water - he helped talk the Navy into carrier aviation. Fellow pioneer Glenn Curtiss, the man for whom Ely flew as chief pilot, built the plane Ely would use.
``For somebody who knew the perils of flying over water, and the fact that if he crashed he would drown, and knowing there was a squall coming, he was a courageous man,'' Yarsinske said.
Ely developed the scheme with Capt. Washington I. Chambers, regarded as the father of naval aviation. But support was less than universal.
``Curtiss and the Wright brothers didn't want him to do this,'' Yarsinske said. ``Curtiss came around to the whole thing only after the man in charge of aviation, Chambers, said it was a good thing to do.''
Then Ely nearly confirmed their worst fears.
At 3:17 on the afternoon of Nov. 11, 1910, just after fitting the biplane with an engine shipped in that morning, the 24-year-old pilot powered the craft down the sloped deck of the Birmingham. He dipped 35 terrifying feet toward the river, splintering the wooden propeller, before he finally gained altitude and made his brief flight to Willoughby Spit.
A civilian, he had set in motion the creation of naval aviation - part of the triad of surface, submarine and air forces that makes up the modern Navy. In her forthcoming book, ``Wings Over the Bay: The History of the Birthplace of Naval Aviation,'' Yarsinske calls Ely the father of naval aviation - Chambers notwithstanding.
Ely took the Hudson Pusher, first in a line of carrier aircraft that has included some of the military's most storied planes, and sold it immediately to a Baltimore millionaire. He used the $500 to buy his wife a ring.
Ely went on to help develop the shipboard technology that made carrier aviation possible, including the taut horizontal cables stretched across the deck that seize planes as they land. In making the first landing aboard a Navy ship, on the West Coast, he used dozens of cables held by sandbags and people. Modern carriers have four cables, attached to spools below deck.
``In a short span of time, he influenced aviation through his brilliant understanding of engineering and flight performance,'' Yarsinske said.
Within 18 months of his James River flight, Ely was killed flying a tricky maneuver at an air show in Georgia. It was the first time his wife and promoter, Mabel, had not been there to prepare his plane for a show.
``He was a great pilot, and pioneer, and all those things because he dared to take up something he had wanted to do in life,'' Yarsinske said.
``Like Glenn Curtiss, he had been totally distracted and bored by what others were doing. Most kids tried to climb trees; he climbed trees and tried to figure ways to fly off them.'' ILLUSTRATION: A SAMPLING OF CARRIER PLANES
Ely led the way for carrier aviation with his first flight off the
Birmingham, in the James River in 1910.
WWII: Grumman F4F Wildcat
Korea: Douglas AD Skyraider
Vietnam: McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom
Present day: FA/18
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
The Ely exhibit at the naval museum in Nauticus includes a model of
the Curtiss Hudson Pusher, by Tom Hesse.
Ely's first flight off the Birmingham, anchored in the James River
on Nov. 11, 1910.
Eugene B. Ely makes the first landing on a Navy ship, aboard the
cruiser Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor in 1911. Rushing to
beat others, Ely tried the landing just a few weeks after making
the first takeoff from a Navy ship in the James River.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
The Wright Brothers National Memorial marks the 91st anniversary
of powered flight with a celebration today at the memorial in Kitty
Hawk. Among the highlights are two inductions into the First Flight
Society Shrine: Eugene B. Ely, who was the first to fly planes from
a Navy ship, and former President George Bush, a World War II Navy
pilot. A flyover featuring scores of modern and vintage aircraft
will begin at 10:35 a.m. - the time on Dec. 17, 1903, that Orville
Wright made his famous flight.
For more information, call (919) 441-9926.
by CNB