H.King Aeromarine Origins (Putnam)

The non-appearance of the Wrights at Jamestown must rank as one of the bigger disappointments of history. Yet an aeromarine craft was present nevertheless. A multiplane affair on floats, shown in a photograph, this was constructed in the Aeronautical Building at Jamestown by ten soldiers placed at the disposal of Mr Israel Ludlow, its originator, by the U.S. Government. Mr Ludlow had previously built a series of gliders, and by 1904 was towing them behind cars, with Charles Keeney Hamilton, later to become one of America's best-known airmen, as pilot. At Jamestown Mr Ludlow's remarkable creation was towed by a torpedo boat, but the intended two petrol engines Were apparently never installed and the craft was eventually wrecked.