In
this Character Interview, ELY AIR LINES Volumes 1 and 2 authors Mike Ely and
Linda-Street Ely interviewed a historical character (a real person significant
to the history of aviation), and the interview was dated 1911, as if we were
there.
Interview with Eugene Ely
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
January 18, 1911
San Francisco, California
Mike: Mr. Ely, it is a pleasure to speak with you.
Congratulations—amid all this noise and celebration—on your significant
contributions, not only to aviation, but to the world, as the first person to
take off and land on a ship! How did events unfold to bring us to this
point?
Eugene Ely: I was traveling the air show circuit, performing what
the promoters called “feats of great danger and thrill” when I met Captain
Chambers of the U.S. Navy. That was last October. He was convinced it would be
possible to take off and land an airplane on a ship, and he’d been appointed by
Navy Secretary Meyer to look into how they could use aeroplanes for the
military. So he approached me about doing it.
Linda: People have said that if there is one person in the world
who would do it, you would be the one. Would you tell us what it’s like to
achieve these accomplishments?
Eugene Ely: Of course. First,
the takeoff. That was back in November. The 14th. I took off from
the USS Birmingham, in a Curtiss Pusher. The Birmingham is a
light cruiser, you see, and they built an eighty-three-foot sloping wooden
platform for me. It went over the bow like a runway and was just long enough
for the Pusher to get airborne (mostly). I flew off the ship and stayed barely
above the waves. In fact, my wheels dipped into the water just a little bit,
but I was able to pull it up. I wasn’t able to see too well though, because
ocean spray splattered all over my goggles. So instead of circling the harbor
and landing at the Norfolk Navy Yard as we had planned, I landed on the beach.
But it all went well, and we proved what we set out to prove.
Mike: It was amazing you kept
the airplane flying!
Eugene Ely: Yes, well, thank
you. Then, of course, we didn’t try to do the landing that same day. I mean, I
didn’t land on a ship the same day I took off of one. You see, we wanted to
really think this through, the landing part, because landing on a ship is a
huge challenge.
Linda: Yes, a moving target!
And now here we are just two months later, in the San Francisco Bay, and you’ve
done it! Congratulations, again!
Eugene Ely: Right. Thank you.
Well, eventually we will land on a moving target, but today, since we’re just
here to prove we can, they anchored the USS Pennsylvania to the bay. And
the Curtiss Pusher came through again – it’s a wonderful aeroplane built by
Glenn Curtiss, a great designer and builder.
Mike: And where did you take
off from today?
Eugene Ely: I took off from
the horse track down in San Bruno. Tanforan. Not far, about ten miles south of
here.
Mike: And this isn’t only the
first successful shipboard landing for an aeroplane, is it? There’s something
else special about it, too. Would you tell us what that is?
Eugene Ely: Oh yes, we just
tested out a new system that Hugh Robinson built called “tailhook.” It caught
the hooks on the bottom of my aeroplane to stop me from going into the bay. It was easy enough. I think the trick could be
successfully turned nine times out of ten.
Linda: Mr. Ely, even with your
reputation as a daring and natural flyer, we understand that most onlookers
could not fathom a successful outcome to today’s landing attempt.
Eugene Ely: That’s true. I
think many people gathered here expecting to never see me fly again.
Mike: But indeed you will, and thankfully so. So what’s next for
you?
Eugene Ely: Well, I’d like to go to work for the Navy, but we’ll
see. They need to get organized with an aviation department, and I think I’d be
the best candidate to make that happen. So far, Captain Chambers says
he’ll keep me in mind, but I think he’s a little uneasy about the kind of
exhibition flying I do. But you know, I love this stuff. It’s what I’m made of.
I guess I will be like the rest of them, keep at it until I am
killed.
Linda: Well, we’d say you’ve
had a successful day and a successful career so far. Sirens and whistles are
going off on all the ships in the bay. We’re celebrating the birth of Naval
Aviation—delivered by a civilian. And it has all begun with a great pilot named
Eugene Ely. Thank you, Mr. Ely, it’s been an honor speaking with you.
Mike and Linda Ely’s “Ely Air Lines” (Paper Airplane Publishing,
LLC, January 2020) is a collection of 100 short stories selected from the first
ten years of the couple’s weekly newspaper column about aviation – but written
specifically for the non-flying general public – YOU! The Elys aim to put a
face to the flyer’s world.
