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Old 24 October 2009, 10:47 PM   #25 (permalink)
Rod_Filan
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Saskatoon Saskatchewan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohydro
Who's a grouchy Gus then?
Not at all, just having some fun at your expense. But you did just prove me right.
Quote:
As to the exact dating of the Botts Airship and when it was actually tested , one can take your pick of different options. One part of the PRHA website quotes January 1903, the This Point in Time booklet says late in 1903, the PRHA newsletter articles simply has it as being "sometime in 1903".

I am, however, plumping for 1904. This is because of the only comtemporary accounts I've found about the Bott's Flying Machine date from 1904. One of the accounts appeared in the September 10, 1904 issue of Scientific American. I have not been able to obtain a copy of the actual article, so do not know if the text could cast more light on the matter for us.
Once I found that there was a SciAm article in Sept. 1904, I thought then that you must have had it and that's where the Nicholl Nob test-flight date of 1904 came from. I was considering that a flight attempt that ended with the machine's destruction, and then an piece on it appearing in SciAm over a year and a half later seemed a little odd. However, I think I'll reserve judgment on exactly what happened when, until I read that article. It's not like I haven't been wrong before...

Good work here Paul. I'll certainly plow through it all.
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Cheers
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