O.K.,
Bates Airship, 1909 as Bates himself called this aircraft; also referred as
Bates Flyer by the newspapers
RBailey is the winner, having been the first to give the correct ID at least of the builder.
The followig posts give us some proof about how controversial an identification could be, also on well documented aeroplanes, like the Bates Airship or Flyer.
Bates used the word
Airship to refer this aircraft - may be since he was testing his machine on the shore, ready to sail away...
Quote:
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"Use of the word "airship" to describe Bates' plane demonstrates that this event took place so early in the history of aviation that the terminology was not yet settled. Eventually the word "airship" was properly applied only to dirigibles".
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Also controversial and a difficult issue is the attribution of a date, even when we have contemporary sources at hand, like in this case - the photo bears the date 1908, while the event is to be put in the 1909 timeline.
So Rbayley gets the full score and will be the one who has to post the next challenge,
while I'd give Aerohydro a bonus of 0,20 points, having been the first to bring out the word
Airship (Breguet is the final judge about this), a welcome contribute to turn these challenges in pieces of collaborative research and technical tables about early aeroplanes - that's what will last, after and above all.