I Abl. 1/I, U UINE 9, la:L
With Help from a Car
Backyard Glider Made 1910 Flight;
May Have Been Monterey's First
By Iris Harris
On Saturday afternoon, June 25, 1910,
the Presidio's Sloat monument witnessed
what may have been the first recorded flight
in Monterey. In a front-page story, the
Monterey Daily Cypress invited everyone
interested in the historic event to observe
the maiden flight of a Curtiss model glider.
Standing, feet on the ground, in a square
hole in the center of the double-winged
craft, was the pilot, Thomas Cheney of the
8th Infantry. He had volunteered to act as
aviator in place of the inventor, Monterey
photographer A. C. Heidrick, who was
more in the heavyweight class.
The glider consisted of two wings,
5 feet apart, each 20 feet long, and a frame,
all of selected white spruce, held together
by piano wire, and covered with water-
proofed silk. Heidrick had built the glider in
the backyard of his home and photo studio,
located on the corner of Reeside and Lane
Streets in New Monterey.
Unfortunately, a stronger wind was nec-
essary than the light south breeze gently
rippling the waves of nearby Monterey
Bay. The plan was for the aviator to run on -
the ground, assisted by a number of men
running ahead with a rope fastened to the
glider. Without a strong, supporting wind,
however, it was impossible to raise the
glider into the air.
But help was at hand in the form of a
chauffeured party of sightseers from Del
Monte Hotel. At the invitation of the
chauffeur, the glider was hitched to the Del
Monte car. The newspaper reported "a start
was made at a moderate pace and the glider
sneaked upward, carrying Deputy Aviator
Cheney with iC'
Fifty yards of wobbly flight to the because hedid not recognize abarrierwhen
cheers of the onlookers was abruptly ended
he saw one."
when some guy wires snapped, "and the The authof s father was an Austrian-born
whole contraption came to the ground in a former cavalryman who came to Monterey
, hurry and broke in two in the middle. with the Ist Cavalry, playing cornet in the
i Deputy Aviator Cheney, who carried his regimental band. For nearlyfour decades, he
V grit with him all the time, escaped unhurt photographed l
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