|
Pioneering plane builder Glenn Curtiss believed that his Flying Boat would create a new sport of "Aerial Yachting." This flying boat could race across the water at speeds that exceeded the fastest speed boat of the time, and lift into the air as an aircraft that "anybody can learn to fly" (according to the sales brochure). A flying boat made sense to a company that wanted to promote aviation. The ability to be launched from water made the airplane "safer" and more convenient than traditional aircraft. In the early days of aviation few flat, smooth, well-maintained flying fields were available, and this limited the number of civilian pilots and aircraft. The Curtiss flying boat could land in any bay, harbor, lake, or river. Lake Erie was just one of many shorelines these pilots flew from. This particular aircraft carried sightseers over Sandusky Bay and Cedar Point in northwestern Ohio during the 1920s.
|
