Curtiss Flyer Exhibited At The Des Moines Corn Exposition

 

Glenn Curtiss in his flying machine (Des Moines Register. December 3, 1909)

Des Moines was about to get a look at something most Iowans had never seen up close: a real flying machine.

Glenn H. Curtiss, one of the biggest names in the new and slightly crazy world of aviation, was sending one of his aeroplanes to the Corn Exposition. The machine was expected to arrive by express and would be assembled inside the Coliseum.

And this wasn't just any airplane.

Curtiss had recently become an international celebrity after competing against some of Europe's best aviators at Rheims, France. He won the Gordon Bennett aviation trophy there, beating Frenchman Louis Blériot in a 20-kilometer race by only a few seconds.

The Des Moines exhibition was handled by A. P. Warner of Beloit, Wisconsin, an aviator associated with Curtiss. Warner was expected to explain the machine, answer questions and show curious Iowans how this strange new invention actually worked.

There was even talk of flying it.

That part depended on the weather. Curtiss machines could fly in winds that would keep some other early aeroplanes on the ground, but December in Iowa wasn't exactly ideal flying weather. If conditions cooperated, organizers hoped to arrange a short outdoor flight.

Even sitting still, though, the aeroplane was expected to be one of the exposition's biggest attractions.

It's easy to forget just how new all of this was. The Wright brothers' Kitty Hawk flight had happened only a few years earlier. Now Iowans could walk into the Coliseum and stand a few feet away from a machine built by one of America's leading aviators.

Corn may have gotten them through the door. But chances are, plenty of people left talking about the airplane.