Breguet's pre-1914 ID Challenge #101

[aerohydro]

Scoreboard at the end of challenge #100:

18.60 Rbailey
13.20 Varese2002
9.70 aerohydro
9.20 Aquilius
6.70 richard B
6.30 matte_kudasai
6.00 Cruze
6.00 YavorD
5.50 Airarticles
5.00 Flamingo
**************
(those above this section have to wait 12 hours before answering,
those below may answer immediately)
**************
3.70 Rod_Filan
3.00 joegertler
2.00 berman
2.00 Lodzermensch
2.00 sobrien
1.10 Froggy
1.00 Doc
1.00 paolomiana
0.40 Wind In The Wires

Earlier Challenges are to be found here: Breguet's Pre-1914 Aircraft Challenge

The rules of engagement:

1. The thread title must be "Bréguet's Pre-1914 ID Challenge #......".
2. The score board, link and rules must be copied to the beginning of each thread, so that we know where we are. The score board and the correct answer to the challenge must also be placed at end of each thread.
3. The flying object must have been dreamt up before 1914 (no limit backwards in time ....).
4. There are no limits to the flying object for the pre-1914 series. There is no ruling that it must be flown, or completely built.
5. Machines which exist only as 'paper', that is absolutely no material has been cut to construct it, are excluded from this ID Challenge
6. The picture / drawing must show as much of the flying object as possible, but views showing the machine 'incomplete' are possible (with discretion).
7. Challenges which depict a machine already earlier presented are disqualified.
8. If there is any doubt as to the eligibility of a flying object for the challenge details should be PM'd to Breguet BEFORE the object is submitted.
9. Once someone has got 5 correct answers under their belt they belong to the ROYALTY. Once they belong to the ROYALTY they must wait 12hrs after the posting of the new challenge before they can post an answer.
10. To be eligible for correct ID an answer must include at least one characteristic of the aircraft that helped in its identification.
11. The first person to ID the challenge correctly gets to post the next challenge. If this can not be done for any reason Breguet himself will post the next challenge.
12. If a ROYALTY gives the correct answer too early, the challenge is over, he gets no point but has to post the next one. In lieu of the fact that the "novices" have in effect been "cheated" of their "exclusive" time that next post should be a relatively easy one. Anyone repeating the correct answer at the right time gets neither a point nor the right to post the next challenge.
13. The final arbitrator in relation to questions about the rules will be Breguet.

[aerohydro]

And here is what it looks like from the top:



Cheers,
Paul

[aerohydro]

A couple of clues:

• Although it's an ornithopter, it was referred to as an "Airship"
• It's American, but it's not mentioned within the Aerofiles website

Cheers,
Paul

[aerohydro]

More clues:

• The design dates from the 1890s. It was said to have made a number of successful flights, but these took place inside of a tent!
  
• In 1901, the inventor formed a business partnership with another designer of flying machines

Cheers,
Paul

[aerohydro]

This should bring forth the answer:

• 31.672 north, 97.099 west

Cheers,
Paul

[Doc]

Yep, that did it. That is lat and long for Elm Mott, Texas, near Waco. I assume this is the airship of W.D. Custead. There is a book on the subject, which I don't have. Did W.D. Custead Fly First?: The Story of W.D. Custead of Elm Mott- Waco, Texas - Airship Builder Before the Wrights Flew
Author: Pocock, Nick
ISBN10: 0915376008
ISBN13: 9780915376001
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 6/1/1974
Publisher(s): Special Aviation Pubn

It's all over the web used.

You mention that Custead later went into business with someone in aviation. Article From Boston Transcript, August 19, 1901:

"An Airship Partnership

Whitehead of Bridgeport and Custead of
Texas Expect Much From an Acetylene motor

BRIDGEPORT, Conn., Aug. 19. With a view to perfecting a flying machine for commercial purposes Gustave Whitehead of this city, and W. D. Custead of Waco Texas, have formed a partnership. Both are inventors. Whitehead has a flying machine and Custead an airship. Last week Whitehead flew in his machine half a mile. Whitehead's machine is equipped with two engines, one to propel it on the ground, on wheels, and the other to make the wings, or propellers, go. In order to fly the machine is speeded to a sufficient momentum on the ground by the lower engine, and then the engine running the propellers is started, which raises the machine in the air at an angle of about six degrees. Custead's airship rises vertically from the ground and requires no running start, but the hopes of both inventors are pinned to a new pressure generator which Whitehead has invented. He has demonstrated that the generator will work, for he used it to furnish power for both of his engines at the trial of his machine last Tuesday. Calcium carbide is used as fuel. By a series of rapid explosions the acetylene gas is forced into chambers where it comes into contact with a chemical preparation. This produces a powerful and even piston pressure. The chemical preparation is the secret of the new generator, and Whitehead will not reveal the ingredients. This new generator will it is claimed by both inventors, lessen the weight of motor power 75 per cent. Mr. Custead is backed by a number of Texas and Southern capitalists for the manufacture of the new airship. The company is capitalized at $100,000. "

Doc

[aerohydro]

And Doc has it!!

This is indeed the Custead Airship, circa 1899.

Here is a brief overview of William Downing Custead's claim to fame.

The illustrations used in this ID Challenge come from the booklet Did W.D. Custead Fly First? by Nick Pocock and they in turn come from an article in the April 2nd, 1899 issue of the Waco Times Herald. This was just one of a number of newspaper articles that were published in the 1890s about Custead's efforts.

The Airship was approx. 30 feet long, and originally had a bamboo framework. Exactly when Custead started his work on it is unclear, but it's known that by the mid-to-late 1890s it was being tested and was, supposedly, making numerous tethered flights inside of a tent that Custead had erected next to his home in Elm Mott, Texas, a fairly small hamlet located just north of Waco. The town has now got a huge interstate highway running through the center of it. The site that the tent was on is no longer accessible as it was later formed into an artificial lake, which can be seen in this Google Map.



In 1900, Custead went on to form the "Custead Airship Company", with a capital stock of $100,000 worth of shares. As you can see from the letterhead, the airship design had evolved by that time. Those readers who own copies of History by Contract by O'Dwyer and Randolph, and which delves quite deeply into the work of Gustave Whitehead, may recognize this 'new' airship as being one of the illustrations in that book.





Apart from the indoor flights made by the Custead Airship, there is also a somewhat apocryphal story of a flight that it had made from Elm Mott to the nearby town of Tokio, Texas and back again. This would have entailed a flight of some 14 miles! Possibly this story originated as a joke, because of the name of the town being tied up with the 'other' Tokyo, just a few thousand miles to the east!

Cheers,
Paul

[aerohydro]

Answer to ID Challenge #101 - the 1899 Custead Airship

Scoreboard at the end of challenge #101:

18.60 Rbailey
13.20 Varese2002
9.70 aerohydro
9.20 Aquilius
6.70 richard B
6.30 matte_kudasai
6.00 Cruze
6.00 YavorD
5.50 Airarticles
5.00 Flamingo
**************
(those above this section have to wait 12 hours before answering,
those below may answer immediately)
**************
3.70 Rod_Filan
3.00 joegertler
2.00 berman
2.00 Lodzermensch
2.00 sobrien
2.00 Doc
1.10 Froggy
1.00 paolomiana
0.40 Wind In The Wires

This doubles the number of points that Doc has. Ironically, I had also posted the ID Challenge (#031) that Doc gained his first lot of points from. We must have some type of special connection ...

Cheers,
Paul