 The image to the left is a JN-4 Jenny which was manufactured on Long Island by the Curtis Aircraft Company. America's predominant airplane both before and during the "Great War" was the Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny." The "Jenny" opened a new era in civilian aviation in the 1920s, as an affordable and reliable mail carrier, crop duster and barnstormer in aerial circuses. Glenn Curtiss had established the American aviation Industry in Hammondsport, New York, in 1908 (the same year that the First Aero Company took on aviation as its mission), and then re-located it to Long Island, New York by 1910. Long Island became the leader in U.S. aviation manufacturing due to the sheer number of aviation companies sprouting up there. These included Grumman, Fairchild Republic, Sperry and Chance Vought. During World War I, both Hazelhurst Field and Mitchel Field on the Hempstead Plains were major American centers for training army aviators. Naval aviators were trained at Huntington, Port Washington, and Bay Shore as well. Aircraft building also took firm hold on Long Island during World War I, as military aircraft were built by Sperry in Farmingdale, LWF in College Point, Breese in Farmingdale, and Orenco in Baldwin.
The image depicted above is part of the National Guard Heritage Series, and is entitled, The First Multi-Aircraft Cross-Country Flight. It was issued on 29 November 1968. This mission was documented with this official lithograph by the U.S. Air Force. The scene depicts the return to the airfield of the last aircraft following an epic cross-country flight, November 18-19, 1916, when pilots of the New York National Guard took part in an historic round trip which covered one hundred miles.
The central figure, surrounded by other fliers and ground personnel is Captain Raynal Cawthorne Bolling, first commander of New York's First Aero Company, Signal Corps, New York National Guard. On the ground and in the air several JN-4 airplanes can be seen which participated in the then, record-aviation landmark.
The flight, from Mineola, Long Island, New York, to Princeton, New Jersey, and return to Mineola, was hailed in the newspapers as the first "mass flight" of military aircraft in the United States. Certainly, it was an important "first" for the flidgling air arm of the militia.
Bolling himself led the flight. He was then a nine-year veteran of National Guard service, a sergeant in the famed Squadron A Cavalry, before switching over to the Air Service which was then part of the Signal Corps organization.
According to the New York Times, a total of 12 aircraft, mostly Jennies, took to the air on this auspicious occasion. Nine were from the government flying field at Mineola (later renamed Roosevelt Field), and three from Governor's Island in New York Bay.
Seven of the nine Mineola based pilots were New York citizen soldiers of the National Guard. They included, in addition to Captain Bolling, First Lieutenant James E. Miller, First Lieutenant Alexander Blair Thaw II; Sergeants Daniel Raymond Noyes, Joseph H. Stevenson and William Prentice Willetts; and Corporal Hamilton Henry Salmon, Jr.
Of this group, Bolling, Miller and Thaw were destined to die in France as members of the Air Service with the Allied Expeditionary Force. All of the then enlisted pilots became commissioned officers and Salmon, who led the squadron in its return flight from Princeton, emerged from World War I as a Major and with several enemy "kills" to his credit.
The mission set out from Mineola early on Saturday morning, November 18th. Two civilian flyers (Cord Meyer, pilot; with Hobey Baker, observer; and Philip A. Carroll) joined the group over the Narrows (now crossed by the Verazano Narrows Bridge) off Governors Island. All told, twelve aircraft reached Princeton safely and proceeded to engage in aerial acrobatics over Palmer Stadium where the Princeton-Yale football game was about to get underway. The fliers landed at a small field nearby and made it to their seats in time for the big game.
The return trip to home base on Sunday morning was to take place under trying conditions for the novice fliers. Corporal Salmon, who was picked by Bolling to lead the formation, was clocked on the ground at Mineola just 42-minutes after leaving Princeton. The distance in air miles was about 50 miles.
It was a typically cool day and extremely misty. The landmarks which were to be used for navigational purposes were, for the most part, obscured from view. Despite their bulky leather coats (see photo below) the pilots shivvered in their cockpits at 1,500 feet in the skies.
Two of the civilians dropped out of the formation with mechanical problems. The three Regular Army men decided to pass up the tricky landing at Governors Island and joined the formation heading for Mineola on Long Island. All seven of the National Guard fliers made it back without mishap, although several had to double-back after overflying the Mineola field due to the poor weather conditions.
The Arkansas-born Bolling had graduated from Harvard University in 1900, and from the Harvard Law School in 1902. In 1907 he joined the fashionable Squadron A Cavalry of New York before turned his attention to aviation in 1915. He formed the First Aero Company in November 1915 as a spin-off from the 1st Battalion, Signal Corps.
The Guardsman moved out to a new field in the Mineola area, known then as the Hempstead Plains Aviation Field. In 1916, when it became a military post for the mobilization of the unit it was given the name Hazelhurst Field, in honor of a non-commissioned officer who was killed in an airplane accident.
It was later renamed Roosevelt Field after President Theodore Roosevelt whose home was nearby in Oyster Bay. It would become a pre-World War I flying center and produce many illustrious fliers.
As for the First Aero Company, it was formally mustered out of Federal service and returned to State status on November 2, 1916. But nearly all of its members remained on active duty at Mineola in either Federal or State reserve status in order to continue their flight training.
On October 25, 1916, Captain Bolling was awarded Expert Aviator Certificate, No. 61. Meanwhile, other members of the unit earned their reserve military aviators' wings. Sergeants Noyes and Stevenson won their wings on the basis of their performance in the Princeton-Yale cross country mission.
The takeoff from Mineola started with Bolling the first to take to the air. The others followed at one-minute intervals. As they reached an altitude of about 1,000 feet, they flew wide circles while waiting for the entire formation to be airborne. On a hand signal, they strung out in a line and headed for Princeton.
When the aircraft from Governors Island went aloft to join the nine from Mineola, this made a total of twelve. "This" reported the New York Times, "was the largest number ever seen on one flight in this country."
"It was," the Times concluded, "a novel undertaking." This is an actual photo of the early flyers taken in November 1916 that made aviation history. Ostensibly, the intent of the historic mission was to view a football game between Yale University and Princeton University, not to make history.
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