My family went to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome recently and spent an afternoon surrounded by planes from the 1910s and 20s. Here are four of them flying stunts in formation (click to enlarge):
Everything there was great – has there ever been a better name for an airplane than “Tiger Moth”? – but there was one plane that I fell in love with the moment I saw it.
Hanriot was a French plane manufacturing company from 1907 and 1936, and their later planes were fairly standard for the era. Rhinebeck has one of the early ones, from 1910, and it is a 500-pound, 30-foot wing dragonfly, which the pilot rides like a canoe. People have flown to the moon, people have flown planes capable fo carrying 850 passengers, but nothing else has ever been as beautiful as this early Hanriot.
First, here it is, a collection fo canvas and wood, with a big iron engine, flying and recreating the wonder of flight as it must have been over one hundred years ago:
And here are some close-up pictures from the ground:
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