? Photo, biplane, maybe 1910?

[IGh]

An unidentified photo was recently added to the online Globe-Democrat collection. No other information.

The aircraft, a biplane, with tricycle landing gear, appears to be of the "headless" design (both Stabilizers AFT of the pilot). I'm guessing this is from about 1910 (maybe the October 1910 meet). Maybe a Curtiss aircraft? Date of Event?

http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cgi-bin/getimage.exe?CISOROOT=/stlglobedem&CISOPTR=966&DMSCALE=75.00000&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&REC=7&DMTHUMB=1&DMROTATE=0
[Missouri Digital Heritage : Globe-Democrat Collection]

[con-pilot]

I'm pretty sure it is the Curtiss Pusher.

[treadigraph]

I think it's Lincoln Beachey's Little Looper, circa 1914. Very similar view in Annette Carson's "Flight Fantastic" and looks identical to me.

Edit:

Actually, looking at it again, I realise that the Little Looper in the book's pic had equal span upper and lower mainplanes, plus has "mid gap" ailerons mounted between the two planes as per the Curtiss "Headless" aircraft (Curtiss had built Beachey's original Special Looper). However, reading the text, he modified the aircraft to have longer upper wings and trailing edge ailerons, which seems to fit with the pic in this thread.

[drawbarz]

I thought the Little Looper had equal span wings and ailerons mounted between the upper and lower wings on the out board struts...I have a 3 view drawing of it somewhere.

John

I have just read about the same span and aileron mod...:)

[Sir George Cayley]

I'll see you a Curtiss and raise you a Ryan!

Sir George Cayley

[IGh]

The Baldwin "Red Devil" may have had varying configurations (some photos showed a structure-frame protruding forward of the pilot).

from Ralph Cooper's site: Thomas Scott Baldwin (http://earlyaviators.com/ebaldto3.htm)"... the afternoon of Sept. 10, 1910 ... the route was down the Mississippi ... large part of the city's population saw the flight, thousands of persons standing on Eads Bridge and cheering wildly as Baldwin flew over the bridge ... return by air ... electrified the spectators by flying under the east span of Eads Bridge ... and under McKinley Bridge. This scooting under bridges was a feat of pure dare-deviltry ..."
Here's a pic off wiki':

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Baldwin_red_devil.jpg/800px-Baldwin_red_devil.jpg

[IGh]

The web offered some more information about the 1910 exhibitions, and the Curtiss aircraft used by several of the dare-devil pilots (usually for $$$$).

Tom Baldwin's 1911 Red Devil was one of the derivatives of the Herring-Curtis Model D
http://web.archive.org/web/20030928111129/www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/mh_papers/images/fly3s.jpg

The photo shows the Interplane ailerons, equal span wings, and forward Horizontal Stabilator (not "headless")

Before Baldwin's exhibition in Saint Louis in September 1910, Charles Hamilton made exhibition flights up the west coast:
Los Angeles aviation meet January 1910
Phoenix fairgrounds in February 1910
Seattle Meadows Race Track from March 12th to 14th, 1910
Near Vancouver at Minoru Race Track, March 25th, 1910.
Vancouver event of March 1910, 100 years ago, is covered here:
First in the Air (http://web.archive.org/web/20061002030913/http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/mh_papers/firstintheair.html)

Seattle event of March 1910 is covered here:
The Seattle Times: Pacific Northwest Magazine (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/0831/nowthen.html)

One main mystery remains about the Globe-Democrat image in initial message (top slot above): WHEN was this event shown in the G-D photo??That G-D image shows a later version, NOT the aircraft that Tom Baldwin flew on Saturday September 10th 1910 (under Eads Bridge). Globe-Democrat photo GDPS000798.jpg shows a latter version of “Red Devil” [lacking Inter-plane ailerons, less span lower wing than upper wing, lacking forward-protruding Horizontal Stabilator (headless)].
Post –Dispatch, Sunday September 11th 1910, Part 3 and 4 “News and Sporting Section” page one, shows photo taken on Saturday the 10th,
“Daring Aviator who flew yesterday for St. Louis throngs and photographs showing him in flight over Mississippi”.
That P-D photo captures the CONFIGURATION of Baldwin’s aircraft as of Saturday September 10th 1910 : then it was still a Herring-Curtiss Model D.

[Trike Flyer]

The pilot in the Globe-Democrat photograph is Lincoln Beachey in the extended upper wing span version of his "Little Looper." The photo was made in September 1914. Additional information can be found at the Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum web site (www.airandspacemuseum.org)--the news posting for 22 Nov 2011.

[IGh]

Wow, the historian finally ID'd that old Globe-Democrat glass-plate-negative photograph. THANKs for that LINK, and for answering that old question about the real origin of that photo [shown in first message of this thread].

From just above, from "Trike Flyer" dated Jan'19th, "... photo was made in September 1914...."

That link (message just above) took several minutes of poking, then I found that historic research, in the story "Museum Curator and Aviation Historian Solves Photo ID Mystery, Published November 22, 2011,
"AVIATOR AND AEROPLANE ON OLD PHOTOGRAPH IDENTIFIED",
by Jack M. Abercrombie,
News (http://airandspacemuseum.org/news/?paged=2)
Story includes several other old photo's, and his description of how the mislabeled photo was finally ID'd:"... Noted aviation historians have observed ... that the pictured aeroplane is not the 'Red Devil.' Some historians have suggested that the aeroplane configuration more nearly resembles one of the “Little Looper” airframes flown by Lincoln Beachey. But there the matter lay dormant for nearly three decades.
"... a break-through of sorts occurred. ... Museum received a donation of a large, 20 x 24 inch, photograph identical to that shown ...
"... The photograph is sufficiently large to show details not heretofore available–details which lead to identification of both the time period as well as the pilot and aeroplane.

"The first clue as to the date of the photograph was a sign on the side of the ship which identified the owners of “St. Louis”—the St. Louis & Tennessee River Packet Co. Since there have been at least a half dozen steamers named “St. Louis,” this total identification was important because this specific boat was not built until 1912—two years after the “Red Devil” flew under the bridge. (The steamer sank in 1918 after being wrecked by a snag ...

"... Lincoln Beachey had, indeed, visited St. Louis during the 1914 tour. On 20 September, he performed at the old Maxwelton Racetrack in St. Louis County, where in addition to performing several aerial stunts, he “raced” against an automobile driven by Barney Oldfield in one of 35 or so staged events ... [see the photos] ...

"... the aeroplane aerodynamic configuration is one of several that Beachey flew during his exhibition days. This particular one is that on display as the original aeroplane in the Hiller Aviation Museum in California. It is the same configuration that a week after his St. Louis visit, Beachey flew over the U.S. Capitol building and the Whitehouse on 28 September 1914 ...
"But there is more to the story—a comparison of the aeroplane in the “over-the-riverfront” image to the “Oldfield Leads” image in the next morning’s newspaper shows that the two aeroplane images are identical! There are several indications that the Globe-Democrat superimposed the aeroplane image from the over-the-riverfront photograph onto the racetrack photo for some unknown reason. ... As a result, the riverfront photographer got no credit for one of the greatest St. Louis aviation historic photographs of all time."