San Bruno and the birthplace of naval aviation

Ely’s success came on the third day of a 10-day aviation meet held at the Selfridge Aviation Field at Tanforan. An hour or so after he landed, the daring aviator, who wore a padded helmet and inflated bicycle tubes as a life preserver, took off from the special deck constructed on the Pennsylvania and returned to San Bruno.

The San Francisco Examiner hailed the 13-mile flight, proclaiming in a headline that it “revises world’s naval tactics.” The skipper of the Pennsylvania, Capt. C.F. Pond, said the flight was “the most important landing of a bird since the dove flew back to the ark.”

According to the U.S. Naval Institute, the San Bruno aviation meet set several firsts, including dropping live bombs and receiving wireless message while aloft. Ely clearly stole the show. Thousands lined the San Francisco waterfront and cheered long and hard when the aviator landed on the ship. According to the account in the Redwood City Democrat, the officers of the Pennsylvania reported that Ely “landed without mishap and with very little circling. The Curtiss biplane was in perfect shape on landing.”

All was in readiness aboard the cruiser. A wooden platform 130 feet long and 32 feet wide had been built on the quarterdeck. At intervals of about a yard, lengths of sturdy ropes were stretched across the deck, anchored at the sides with sandbags. Hooks were attached to the plane’s undercarriage. Plans called for the hooks to grab the ropes one after the other until the weight of the dragging sandbags would halt the aircraft. Just in case, a broad strip of canvas across the end of the platform was designed to stop the flimsy airplane in case the sandbags didn’t. Basically, the method is similar to that used today.

There were no mishaps, but one account said “the ropes creaked, the gunny sacks spit sand far out over the water. People held their breath as the plane shuddered to a halt, several yards short of the canvas.”

Ely’s glory days were short. He was killed in October at an aviation exhibition in Macon, Georgia. In a gruesome aftermath, spectators rushed to the site of the crash and picked it clean of souvenirs, even the pilot’s gloves and cap. Ely was 24. He was posthumously inducted in to the National Aviation Hall of Fame with a citation that proclaimed he provided “the final convincing proof of the adaptability of airplane to sea based operations. Ely’s legacy lives on every time that aircraft take off and land on ships.”

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.