When I was young I often heard folks say people have invented almost everything but they cannot learn to fly. Experiments have been made for centuries with little success. Count Zeppelin invented a dirigible balloon and many experiments and real flights were made culminating with the disaster at Lakehurst.
In December 1903, the Wright Brothers made their first flight in a plane. From then on real progress has been made.
A few years later we were picking blackberries in the field. The first plane was flown to Atlantic City and it passed directly over us, a big box kite contraption with a motor and the pilot suspended between the wings, piloted by that daredevil Grover Bergdoll. He got to Atlantic City all right, but had to make a landing on the way back to Philadelphia. [Ed. Note: This flight was in August 1913.]
Little did I think that I would someday make a trip in a plane, but in 1930 when Schooley had an airfield in McKee City, Ed Gisel and myself took a sightseeing trip over Cologne and back. It was a windy day and that little _____ dove around like a bat. We were glad to get back to earth again.
Several years later I rode regular passenger plane from Washington to Camden and in 1946 to the Pacific coast and return, and now it's a common thing to travel by plane.