Eugene Ely was the first person to fly a plane off a ship in November 1910, thus beginning the glorious tradition of naval aviation. The event took place here in Hampton Roads on board the light cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-2). As we approach the 100th anniversary of this event, the Naval Historical Foundation and Bill Rositzke of Fairfax Station, Virginia produced two very nice videos about the event. One is on Eugene Ely and one on the flight itself.
The top video has the seaplane thing backwards: Curtiss developed his floatplane (and later, the flying boat) _after_ Ely's two flights. And Chambers preferred seaplanes to landplanes, though he was concerned about launching them from ships and pushed the development of the catapult. Excellent presentation of Ely's flight, though.
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