Early Experience With Aviation
In Chicago, Victor Loughead convinced Plew to acquire rights to one of the Montgomery's gliders and to buy a Curtiss pusher biplane. Plew hired Allan Loughead to convert the Montgomery glider into a powered aircraft. When Allan left for Chicago, he said, "I expect to see the time when aviation will be the safest means of transportation at 40 to 50 miles per hour, and the cheapest, and I'm not going to have long white whiskers when that happens. The airplane will take over both land and water travel. Flying has no barriers."
Allan and Malcom Loughead installed a 2-cylinder, 12 hp motor on the Montgomery glider with Victor acting as engineer. Allan Loughead's first flight was in Chicago in 1910 when he climbed aboard a home-made aircraft and operated its ailerons while its builder, George Gates, operated the rudder and elevators. It was the first dual-pilot controlled flight in history.
When two of Plew's trained pilots could not get the Curtiss airborne, Allan said: "I've got a $20 gold piece that says I'll make it fly, and I'm offering three-to-one odds! Any takers?" There being none, he got the airplane off the ground on his second try. Later he said of this flight, "It was partly nerve, partly confidence and partly damn foolishness. But now I was an aviator!" The Curtis pusher was powered by a 30 H.P. engine.
When Plew withdrew from aviation after two of his planes were wrecked and a student was killed, Loughead became a flight instructor with the International Aeroplane Manufacturing Company in Chicago, and also put on aerial exhibitions for 25 percent of the gate receipts. Later he said: "I was really rich the first week out. I made something like $850." Unfortunately, during an exhibition at Hoopeston, Illinois, his rain-soaked airplane failed to climb enough and it ended up dangling from some telephone wires. At that point, he decided to build a better aircraft of his own so he could collect all of the gate receipts.
Read more about this topic: Allan Haines Loughead
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