Flight log, Simms Station, July 8, 1912

The five pages of diary entries and forty-eight flight logs in this section were written by Charles Wald between Friday, April 12, 1912 and October 10, 1912. They describe Charles' flights at the Wright School of Aviation at Simm's Station in Dayton, Ohio between April 12 and August 7 and his flights in the Wright Model B hydroaeroplane in Glen Head, Long Island, New York between September 9 and October 10.

The first series, flight records, contains information on weather conditions and aircraft performance. They reveal much about the unreliability of early airplanes and the constant maintenance and modifications that were needed. The flight logs also list locations, machine numbers, operators, time and date of flights, length of flights, wind velocity, remarks, and passengers. There is limited information on Wald's construction and repair work in the shop at Simms Station. Individuals mentioned in the records include Orville Wright, A.L. Welsh, Grover Bergdoll, and William Kabitzki.

The second series, negatives, mostly depicts early Wright aviators and aircraft at Huffman Prairie in Dayton and at Glen Head, Long Island. The photographs span the years 1910-1916. Of special note are photographic images of the Wright Model B hydroaeroplane at Glen Head in 1912. These are significant because most histories on the work of the Wright brothers suggest 1913 as the year of their earliest foray into water-based flying. Also depicted in these negatives is the Wright Exhibition Team in flight at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1910 and the Wright Company factory in Dayton in 1911.

Identifying numerals are marked on each negative, generally on the emulsion side. These numbers are indicated by parentheses in the container listing.

The images in this collection have been scanned and are available online in Wright State University's Campus Online Repository (CORE Scholar): http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/special_ms355/.