Last Updated: 1/28/04
The Early Years
"AEA Junebug" by Robert Bradford
The Aerial Experimental Association (AEA)
was a group of aviation pioneers lead by Alexander Graham Bell. Glen H. Curtiss
was involved with AEA's construction of four biplanes in 1908; the Junebug was
the third. This flight on July 4, 1908 at Pleasant
Valley, Hammondsport,
NY won the Scientific American Trophy for the
first public flight in the U.S.
of more than a kilometer by staying in the air for almost a mile in front of
several hundred people. Soon after, the Wrights sued Curtiss for patent
infringement in his use of ailerons. Curtiss spent the next four years
designing and building a number of seaplanes and flying boats, including the
Triad in 1911, the first aircraft purchased by the U.S. Navy. In 1919 his NC-4
became the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic.
"The Dream Fulfilled" by Keith
Ferris
Orville Wright and Lt. Benjamin Foulois
round Shuter’s Hill, Alexandria, Virginia just before sundown on July 30, 1909, halfway
through the final test leading to U.S. purchase of the first military
aeroplane. The Wrights had sought, in vain, U.S. military interest in their
successful invention in 1905. Belated military interest led to construction of
the military flyer which flew at Fort
Myer during 1908. A
tragic accident, injuring Orville and claiming the life of Lt. Thomas
Selfridge, ended those tests. The rebuilt and modified military flyer continued
its tests in July 1909 and the dream was fulfilled as Orville, with Benny
Foulois as observer, completed the 10 mile round trip course from Fort Myer to
Shuter’s Hill (the site of today’s Masonic Temple) with an average
speed of 42.58 mph. Meeting the terms of the contract, the Wrights were paid
$20,000 plus $2500.00 bonus for each full mph over the required 40 mph.*
Mrs. Carolena Gore, mother of Technology,
Culture and Communication (formerly Humanities) Professor Emeritus Luther Y.
Gore (at left in this photo with the artist), was
one of the onlookers in the crowd that day.
"The Late Romantic Mac" by Luther Y. Gore
Five years after leaving the University in
1910 James Rogers
McConnell went to France
to see some of the war then raging in Europe.
At first he volunteered with the Red Cross as an ambulance driver but not
satisfied with that position, he volunteered for the French air service. He
soon transferred to a newly formed squadron of American volunteers flying for France that was
to become the famous LafayetteEscadrille.
He suffered a neck injury in a forced landing in 1916. He was killed in combat
in March 1917, probably as a result of the earlier neck injury which kept him
from being able to turn his head easily to look out for enemies in the air.
This collage shows various aspects of McConnell's career. The upper left hand
corner, for instance, shows a chamber pot, which Mac, as a student, had put on
the head of the statue of Thomas Jefferson on the Lawn at UVa - for which he
was nearly expelled. The lower left shows a Bleriot monoplane on which French
pilots received primary training. On the left center are bagpipes, which Mac
would play on "the Lawn" at 2 a.m. - much to the dismay of his
classmates. Also included - almost in the center - is the statue at UVa called "The
Aviator" by Gutzon Borglum (sculptor of the Mt. Rushmore
portraits) which honors Mac, the first UVa student killed in WW I. The large
bronze plaque given by the French government that used to hang on the side of
Miller Hall now hangs on the terrace wall of the Mary and David Harrison
Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture and Albert and Shirley
Small Special Collections Library a few feet away. Mac is shown standing
beside his airplane, on which he has had painted a big white foot that recalls
Mac's experience as president of the Hot Feet Society (now IMP) at UVa. *
