By Steve Landwehr
HAMILTON — Orville and Wilbur Wright became the iconic pioneers of American aviation when the airplane they designed and built became the first heavier-than-air craft to maintain flight in 1903.
Local aviators were a little later to the game, but festivities planned in Hamilton on Saturday will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first successful, manned flight in New England on Feb. 28, 1910.
It began as a lark, preceded by what must have been an astonishing caravan passing through the streets of Marblehead, Salem and Beverly before arriving at frozen Chebacco Lake in Hamilton.
The Flying Fish, as it was called, was airborne for barely more than the length of a football field, but that was long enough to win its designer a $5,000 bet and earn a place in the history books.
The story has a tie to Gordon College, the Wright brothers and the tragic death of one of the main characters.
Alexander Kundrot, a member of the Massachusetts Aviation Historical Society, said Saturday's event is one of three planned this year to honor the achievements of the plane's designer, Marblehead's W. Starling Burgess.
Kundrot suspects everyone involved with the first flight was more than a little concerned.
"(Augustus) Herring had done glider flights before," Kundrot said. "But they'd built this plane and never flown it."
Burgess was a well-known yacht designer by the time he and Herring collaborated on their first plane. Burgess' skills were on display in the finely crafted H-B 1 they exhibited at the Boston Aerial Exposition in 1910.
According to the aviation society's records, a visiting carousel manufacturer took one look and offered $5,000 for the plane, if he could see it fly.
Norman Prince was one of Burgess' associates, and his family owned the Princemere estate, acres of land that are now part of the Gordon College campus with frontage on Chebacco Lake.
Prince suggested the frozen lake surface would make a good spot for takeoff and landing. The problem was the plane was miles away in Marblehead.
According to the aviation society's records, it was disassembled and loaded onto a horse-drawn wagon with Burgess and Prince on board, reportedly dapper in top hats, frock coats and fake beards.
Once at the lake and with the plane reassembled, the next problem was starting the 25-horsepower Curtiss engine that would power the propeller.
In the days before antifreeze and electric starter motors, engines that were going to be run outdoors in the winter were drained of oil and water the night before. In the morning, the fluids were heated — not too hot or they'd crack the engine block — and poured back in.
The trick was to make sure the engine started before the water froze and cracked the block.
According to records, the kitchen stove in the Prince family's Villa Veranda was used to heat the water and castor oil that cooled and lubricated the engine, and it was successfully started.
"And away we go," Prince is reported to have said.
Into the air
With Herring at the controls, stakes were driven into the ice in front of the plane to keep it from moving before all was ready.
From about where Hamilton used to have a town beach, the stakes were removed and the plane headed westward into the air, reaching a height of about 30 feet. The flight ended with a bit of a thud, breaking the left skid and Herring's seat.
"He was probably keeping an eye on the trees in the distance, and he set it down," Kundrot said.
Burgess and Herring continued to improve the plane through flights near what is now the Plum Island airfield in the spring and summer of 2010.
The Flying Duck's first flight was Herring's last notable contribution to aviation history, but Burgess left a more rounded impression.
His craftsmanship attracted the notice of other plane designers.
"The Wright brothers were bicycle-makers," Kundrot said, and not equipped for "aeroplane" construction.
They gave their first commercial contract to build their patented Model B planes to Burgess. In all, Burgess would produce more than 800 planes at two factories in Marblehead before selling his company and returning to yacht design.
He was aided in his endeavors by Prince, who — over his father's objections — went on to help found the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of American pilots who flew for France during World War I.
"He got his (pilot's) license under an assumed name," Kundrot said.
The senior Prince's fears proved well-founded. Norman Prince was mortally wounded while attempting a night landing on Oct. 12, 1916. He was 29.
The nation's fascination with flying propelled Burgess' success, Kundrot said.
"As fast he built them, people bought them," he said.
The cost for one of his planes was about $5,000, while a brand-new Model T was about $850.
Those who wanted to get a flying license went to the Wright brothers for a couple of hours of instruction before taking off.
"There was a lot of trial and error," Kundrot said.
The evolution of aviation
ThenNow
AircraftThe Flying DuckAirbus A380
PowerSingle, four-cylinder 25-horsepower engineFour jet engines, 81,500 pounds of thrust each
SeatsOneUp to 853
Weight (empty)360-400 pounds608,000 pounds
Wing span26 feet, 9 inches262 feet
Length33 feet240 feet
Want to go?
What: Short ceremony plus slide show, commemorating the 100th anniversary of New England's first manned flight
When: Saturday, Feb. 27, 2 p.m.
Where: Hamilton-Wenham Public Library, 14 Union St., Hamilton
Other observances: Fly-in on Saturday, April 17, at the Plum Island Airport; installation of historic markers in Hamilton and Newbury; Harvard-Boston Air Meet centennial, in Quincy in September.
