Search Results

The aircraft in the picture is a Curtiss Jenny.  Records show that the tail number (#1) corresponds to an aircraft that had a mishap enroute to West Virginia, and was destroyed in a crash on August 4, 1917.  In this crash Cadet C.B. Lambert (of Welch, West Virginia) was killed, and Lieutenant William Frey was injured.  (See newspaper Wheeling Register, August 4, 1917.)

1. Bennett, Lt. Louis and Fellow Pilot with World War I Airplane

Officers of the West Virginia Flying Corps, including (left to right) Lieutenant Thomas Kent, Captain Louis Bennett, Jr., and Lieutenant William Frey.  They are standing in front of a Curtiss JN or "Jenny" aircraft.  This photograph appeared with an article regarding the W. Va. Flying Corps in the July 29, 1917 issue of the Wheeling Sunday News on page eight of part iii.

2. Bennett, Lt. Louis (Center) and with Fellow Pilots

Preparing to start aircraft #1 Curtiss JN-4 and "grass cutter" training plane. Plane #1 was destroyed in a crash on August 4, 1917.  In this crash Cadet C.B. Lambert (of Welch, West Virginia) was killed, and Lieutenant William Frey was injured.  (See newspaper Wheeling Register, August 4, 1917.)  Each ground crewman in the picture is about to "turn over the prop" in order to start the engines of the airplanes.

3. Preparing to Start Planes at West Virginia Flying Corps Big Hangar in Beech Bottom, W. Va.