SECRETARY'S REPORT 91 



chapter. The subject under discussion was the development of human 

 flight, and each of the three speakers eminently represented the period 

 assigned to him. Gen. Frank P. Lahm, USAF retired, described his 

 first flight in 1908 when he rode as a passenger with Orville Wright, 

 told of his early training as one of the first two officers assigned by the 

 Army to receive flight instruction, and of his experiences during the 

 period of the first World War, when he performed outstanding serv- 

 ice. Col. Bernt Balchen, renowned transatlantic, arctic, and antarctic 

 flier, spoke of the "Golden Age" of aviation when many famous first 

 flights were made. He recalled his experiences with Admiral Byrd, 

 Roald Amundsen, Sir Hubert Wilkins, and other fliers of the 1920's 

 and 1930's. The present era was represented by Maj. Arthur Murray, 

 who had but recently piloted the supersonic Bell XI-A airplane to 

 a new world's altitude record of 82,325 feet. His description of the 

 physical stresses exerted on both plane and pilot at such great heights, 

 in rarefied air, and at speeds twice that of sound brought a vivid 

 realization of the great extent to which aeronautics has advanced in 

 half a century. The meeting was enhanced by a tour of the aircraft 

 collection and comparisons between such aircraft as the Wright 

 brothers' "Kitty Hawk Flyer," Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, and 

 the Bell supersonic X-1. 



Considerable interest was aroused by the delivery on its own wings 

 of the famous racing airplane Buster, constructed in 1931 by Steve 

 Wittman of Oshkosh, Wis., and flown by him and other pilots in more 

 than 50 races, winning many events until it was finally retired in 1954. 

 It is a small type of "homemade" airplane embodying excellent con- 

 struction and aerodynamics, and has earned the title "King of the 

 Midget Racers," holding several world records for speed and perform- 

 ance in its class. The 750-mile flight from Oshkosh to Washington 

 piloted by Robert Porter was made in less than 5 hours and required 

 only 11 gallons of gasoline. The Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, 

 sponsor of national contests wliich stimulate the designing and flying 

 of these little planes, kindly arranged for the formal presentation of 

 this airplane. 



December 17, 1954, marked the 51st anniversary of the Wright 

 brothers' first flight. On that date, the Early Birds, an organization 

 of pioneer fliers, unveiled a monument on Governors Island, New 

 York, to the early airmen who had flown there when that military 

 post included an aviation field. The monument is a granite boulder 

 on which is mounted a copy of a Wright brothers' propeller in bronze. 

 The pattern for that casting was one of the propellers from the first 

 military airplane in the world, built by the Wright brothers in 1909, 

 and preserved in the National Air Museum. The monument was un- 

 veiled by a helicopter, which lifted a parachute canopy from the 



