1930 Newspaper Abstracts

The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XXXV #10, Thursday, March 6, 1930:
p. 1, c. 7 -

SURRATT FARM
        SELECTED AS
                AIRPORT SITE
        ------------

         ...The Surratt tract of land consists of 157 acres....   It will
be on the proposed concrete highway from the National Cemetery to Shiloh
Park....Actual work on the field will commence tomorrow, according to S.
F. Tannas, the president [National Airways System, Inc.]....  Indications
are now that the Chas. Surratt farm located 3 miles northeast of the city
will be the site.... Capt. Chas. C. Baughan, director of flying schools
for the company is in the city and is enrolling students for the three
courses in flying...."



The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XXXV #10, Thursday, March 6, 1930:
p. 5, c. 2 -

AAIRWAY [sic] DIRECTOR
        BUILT FIRST PLANE
                FLOWN IN CORINTH
        ---------------

        With the recent selection of E. F. Waits as a director of the
National Airways System, Inc. memories of the first plane ever built and
flown in the city of Corinth are received.
        Interesting a friend, Max Weisner, a professional wrestler in his
proposition Waits installed a workshop on the third floor of the building
occupied by the McAmis Drug store and there carried on his building
operation on what was to be the first plane ever actually constructed (
and as later events proved, the first ever to be flown) in this section
of the country.  This was in 1909.  The plane constructed by Waits and
Weisner was a monoplane and had one seat.  The method of propulsion was a
2-cylinder double oppose motor weighing 112 pounds.  The chassis was
built of bamboo and weighed 100 pounds.
        After the completion of the machine it was carried to a field two
miles south of the city where the first hop was made in it.  ...many
spectators were present....  Mr. Waits climbed into the cock-pit and gave
the word to "Shove off.
        The little plane slowly rose into the air and soared about 100
feet, coming down in a tree top.  The pilot was scratched up in the fall
and suffered a cut on one of his hands sustained when a piano wire strut
came in contact with it.  This caused no little suffering and finally
developed blood poison causing weeks of suffering.
        The little ship was brought back to town and the next year was
taken to St. Louis for exhibition at the first Aero Show ever
held. 

                                                   
                                                    
        One of the features ... that entire control of the machine
could be exercised with a steering wheel similar to an auto Waits said
that if he had placed a break on the tail-piece instead of a wheel he
would have perfected the machine and made it worth while, but he could
not see that far ahead...."



St.Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, May 15?, 1930:
p. , c. -

CROSS COUNTRY FLYER NEARLY
        CRASHES AT END OF TRIP
        -----------
Out of Fuel, Turner Ground Loops
   Making Dead Stick Landing;
     Fails to Set Record.

Special to the Post-Dispatch.
        NEW YORK, May 14. -- Roscoe Turner and Gilmore, the flying lion
cub, failed to beat the Lindbergh transcontinental airplane speed record
but they came down to a spectacular and unexpected finish last night at
Curtiss Field, L.I.  Headed for Roosevelt Field on the last small reserve
tank of gasoline, Turner ran out of fuel 3000 feet high and glided into a
"dead stick" landing at the nearest field, which happened to be lighted
for the Curtiss-Wright Flying School night training activities.  The fast
Lockheed monoplane ground-looped as it rolled to a stop, damaging one
wheel, so that Turner was unable to continue to Roosevelt Field.
        The landing was at 8:40 p.m., Turner's elapsed time from Los
Angeles to New York being approximately 46 minutes, 37 seconds, longer
than that of Lindbergh's who took 14 hours, 45 minutes and 30 seconds for
the trip.
        Turner said he had experienced trouble all the way.  He took off
from Los Angeles yesterday at 5 a.m., New York time.  He was well behind
Lindbergh's schedule when he landed at Wichita, Kan., and lost another
seven minutes there to his famous predecessor but made about the same
showing of speed from there to New York despite storm areas encountered
over Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  An oil leak forced him to land at
the Middletown, Pa., air depot for more oil, Turner said, but he took off
again almost immediately.


Abstracts (c) Copyright 1993 Stephanie L. Sandy

  Data transcription by: Milton Sandy, Jr. Corinth, MS - April 20, 1993