Nebraskaland

October 2023 • Nebraskaland 45 opened. After Charles returned to Omaha in 1907, the brothers built a dirigible airship — yet another Nebraska first. The Comet's hydrogen-filled silk gasbag was 52 feet long and only capable of lifting one man. Its eight-horsepower engine left it vulnerable to strong winds. Flying above the city on Oct. 3, Charles was swept southward over the Missouri River. Dropping to treetop level, he called to a fisherman below to row out and catch the rope. "Pull your own damned rope!" the man called back. Other fishermen were more generous and brought the airship down safely. A few weeks later, the Baysdorfers entered the Comet in an airship race in St. Louis, but its engine failed and the wind carried it to an inglorious landing half a mile off course. Within a few years, the Baysdorfers turned their attention to airplanes. The aviation craze was in full swing when the first "aeroplanes" flew in Nebraska in 1910. Glenn Curtiss — rival of the Wright Brothers — led a five-day air show July 23- 27 in Omaha. On Sept. 6, Arch Hoxsey, of the Wright flying team, crashed his plane into a stable at the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln, walking away with minor injuries. The Baysdorfers' first plane was based on Glenn Curtiss's design. Otto and Gus worked with the Curtiss mechanics during the Omaha air show, and Curtiss himself visited the Baysdorfer's shop while he was in town. The brothers built everything but the motor and propeller at their Omaha shop. After the first flights at Waterloo, Charles and Gus made some other Nebraska flights in 1911, but soon left the state to tour with a nationally known aviation team. Charles was still flying in 1912 when the New York World interviewed his wife, Artye, for a Sept. 7 article "Constant Agony for the Wives of the Aviators." By this time, so many prominent aviators had died in crashes that there was serious talk of banning public exhibition flights. Like most adventurers' wives of the era, Artye expressed confidence in her "sensible" and "cool- headed" husband, even while admitting that "I simply cannot go to the field and watch him go up. … I just have to shut my eyes and clench my fists and keep telling myself that he is all right and that he will come back safely." Young women were attracted to pilots, Artye said, but she warned that it was better to admire a pilot from the grandstand "than to keep wondering all the time how long it will be before your only remaining comfort will be to sit dressed in black with nothing but his picture and his press clippings to comfort you!" A year later, Charles crashed into a mountain in Vermont while doing stunt flying for the movie "The Battle in the Clouds." His engine failed during a mock bombing run. He suffered burns and a broken leg, but Artye's worst fears were not realized. Charles survived, gave up flying and became a A Wright fl yer at the Nebraska State Fair, 1910. HISTORY NEBRASKA, RG3356-10-5

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