The first two aviation meetings in Austria
The timers lined up for a group photo. (1)
Igo Etrich in front of his Taube. (2)
Archduke Rainer (left) being accompanied to the
Kaiser-Pavillon by Franz Kammann, the mayor of Wiener
Neustadt and one of the main driving forces behind
the creation of the airfield and the organization of
the meeting. (1)
The Wright, which was owned by Robert von Lieben. It
was piloted by Vincent (in German references
frequently spelled Vinzenz) Wiesenbach and Hauptmann
Stephan Petróczy von Petrócz. It had been modified by
Richard Knoller, who had redesigned the front
fuselage structure, replaced the biplane elevator
with a single plane and installed a four-wheel
landing gear. The machine had been flown by
Wiesenbach at the March-April Cannes meeting and
apparently still carried the race number from that
meeting. (3)
A group photo in front of the Wright. From left to
right; Ludwig Schmiedl, Robert von Lieben, Stephan
Petróczy von Petrócz, Karl Illner, Igo Etrich,
Wilhelm Booms, Vincent Wiesenbach, and Miecislaus
Miller. (1)
The placard on the timers' pavilion displays
number 10, and it does indeed look like Illner's
Taube in the distance. (3)
The Etrich Möve, easily recognizable by the slim rear
fuselage, flying in front of the Kaiser-Pavillon. The
machine still has the single-wheel main landing gear,
so this must be a photo from the first Sunday. (4)
An elegant visitor in front the Möve in its hangar.
It now sports a normal two-wheel main landing gear.
(5)
The lavishly decorated Kaiser-Pavillon, with the
black and yellow Habsburg flag flying above. (1)
A Warchalowski "Autobiplan" with race
number 9 taking off. According to the lists published
before the meeting, this should have been the number
of Wilhelm Booms. Unfortunately we don't know of
any photos of the Farman with a race number. (6)
Oskar Rupp, one of the timers from the
Österreichische Automobil-Klub, with his chronometer.
(4)
The Taube being prepared for take-off... (1)
...and here, moments after leaving the ground. (6)
Constantin von Economo in his Voisin, with dramatic
sunset clouds in the background. (4)
Constantin Freiherr (Baron) von Economo was a man of
many talents. He was not only an aviation pioneer and
flew combat missions in the Great War, he was already
before that a famous scientist and pioneer of
neurophysiology, and was eventually appointed
professor of psychiatry and neurology. (7)
This was "La Belle Époque", and this was
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so even the
photographers from the motoring and sports magazines
were more concerned with recording royalties and
other dignitaries than with recording aitplanes and
pilots. Therefore, in order to fill some space in
this photo column until somebody can provide photos
of airplanes and pilots, some more examples of people
visiting the meetings from the report of the meeting
in the Austrian "Allgemeine
Automobil-Zeitung". This is Archduchess Blanca
and two of her five sons, probably Archduke Anton (9
years) and Archduke Leopold (13 years)... (4)
... and this is Archduke Friedrich, Herzog von
Teschen, who would become Supreme Commander of the
Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, together
with two of his eight daughters. (4)
Wiener Neustadt is a town in the province of
Niederösterreich in eastern Austria, some 50 kilometres
south of Vienna. It is the home of one of the world's
oldest military academies, the Theresianische
Militärakademie, which was established by Empress Maria
Theresa of Austria in 1752. During the 19th century,
after the building of the Wiener Neustädter Kanal and
especially after the opening of the Südbahn railway in
1841, the city became an industrial town. Among the
factories were foundries, textile factories, clay ware
factories, a locomotive factory and the factories of
Austro-Daimler, the Austrian subsidiary of Daimler
Motoren-Gesellschaft. In 1910 it had around 32,000
inhabitants.
On June 11, 1909, the Stadtgemeinde (municipal council)
of Wiener Neustadt, headed by its mayor Franz Kammann and
inspired by the Reichstag deputy Victor Silberer and
Hauptmann Franz Hinterstoisser, commander of the
Militär-Aeronautischen Anstalt, decided to dedicate some
barren heathland on the Steinfeld, northwest of the town,
to the building of an airfield. They also approved the
construction of a hangar, which was completed at the end
of July. On July 26, Igo Etrich rented the first hangar
and the municipality built more, eight of them by the
winter and twenty-three by summer of 1910. Archduke
Friedrich sponsored the construction of a two-storey
building which would serve as royal loge and
café-restaurant. It came to be known as the
"Kaiser-Pavillon".
I. Preisfliegen, July 10th - 24th
In the
beginning of June 1910, the Stadtgemeinde proposed to the
Österreichischen Aeronautischen Kommission to hold a
contest on the airfield on the first three Sundays of
July. It would only be open to entrants that were based
at the Wiener Neustadt airfield. Prizes would be offered
for speed, altitude and total flight time, and there
would also be a "Jungfliegerpreis"
("Junior prize") for the longest flight by a
pilot who hadn't entered any of the other contests.
The sporting arrangements would be handled by the
Österreichischen Automobil Klub. The proposal was
accepted, but it was decided to postpone the contests by
one week, resulting in the somewhat unusual schedule of a
meeting over three successive weekends, with flying only
on the 10th, 17th and 24th of July.
On the Wednesday before the meeting the town invited the
Vienna press to a tour of the airfield and the hangars in
order to ensure positive coverage in the newspapers.
Eighteen of the hangars were occupied by more or less
established airplane builders. The local Autoplan-Werke
with their Warchalowski and Pischof designs and Etrich
with their "Taube" and "Möve"
monoplanes were the most proficient of the Austrian
builders, but there were no Pischof monoplanes on
display, since Alfred von Pischof had brought the two
available machines to the Reims meeting. The Voisin of
baron Constantin von Economo and the Wright-Knoller of
industrialist Robert von Lieben, piloted by Vincent
Wiesenbach and Hauptmann Stephan Petróczy von Petrócz,
had also made successful flights. The Farman that Adolf
Warchalowski had brought to the airfield in January was
still there, now owned by the army and flown by Hauptmann
Wilhelm Booms, commander of the Wiener Neustadt aviation
station. Most of the remaining machines were new and
untested. The mayor and a couple of the flyers made
speeches, a buffet was served and later in the evening
Karl Illner, in the Möve, Adolf Warchalowski, von Economo
and Wiesenbach made short flights.
Fifteen pilots had entered the contests, but in the end
six of them would not even try to fly. During the last
weeks two more sponsored prizes were added, bringing the
total prize fund to 6,800 Kronen, one of the smallest of
the season and less than two percent of that of the
Budapest meeting two months earlier. The additional
prizes were the "Tüchtigkeitspreis"
("proficiency prize"), for the pilot who made
the longest flight on the least favourable day, and an
unusual prize for the eight-lap flight with the biggest
time difference between the first four fast laps and the
last four slow laps.
Sunday 10 July
The morning of the first day was windy and the mountains
around the airfield, the Hohe Wand, the Wechsel and the
Schneegebirge, were cloaked in heavy clouds. Around noon
there was a short rain shower. Flights looked unlikely,
but the trains from Vienna and other neighbouring towns
were still overloaded with people going to the airfield.
At three o'clock a cannon was fired to indicate that
the meeting started. The white flag flew on the
timers' pavilion, indicating that there probably
would be flying, but it was still far too windy. The
fenced-off areas for paying visitors, the hangar area and
the more expensive "Klubraum" around the
grandstands and the Kaiser-Pavillon started to fill with
elegant people from the chic Vienna high society,
nobility and representatives of the sporting world. The
Stadtkapelle played music. Some of the locals with
smaller budgets had made a little camp with improvised
tents outside the fences on the side of the airfield
facing the town.
Towards half past four a heavy rain shower with some hail
fell and forced the visitors to flee to the hangars. It
passed quickly, though, and the wind decreased. The first
member of the court arrived, Archduke Rainer. He arrived
at five o'clock, greeted by the national anthem and
immediately settled on the first floor of the
Kaiser-Pavillon. He was later followed by Archduchess
Maria Josepha and her fourteen-year old son Archduke
Maximilian.
At a quarter to six the red flag announced that flights
will take place. The numbers of the flyers were displayed
on the timers' pavilion and the contests competed for
were indicated by coloured boards: White for endurance,
blue for altitude, red for speed and yellow for the
Jungfliegerpreis. The first number to be shown was
Illner's number 10. He climbed to the seat of the
Taube, dressed in a brown suit that according to a
reporter "combined the clothing of an automobile
racer, a diver and an eskimo". He had to fight the
still turbulent winds during his short test flight of
3:39. He was followed by Adolf Warchalowski, who flew two
and a half laps at good altitude and landed smoothly
after nine and a half minutes, his engine not running
well.
The third to start was von Economo in his Voisin biplane,
which due to the box-like surfaces was likened by other
pilots to a small apartment, with a room, a closet and a
kitchen. He took the turns with perfect ease and landed
after a two-lap flight of 5:37, enthusiastically
applauded. Karl Warchalowski was the first of the junior
fliers to make a flight, which lasted for a little over
two minutes. Wiesenbach took off, going for the endurance
prize. Wilhelm Booms started in the army Farman. After a
long take-off run he stayed in the air for 51 seconds,
before landing at the first turn.
Around a quarter past six, the numbers of Illner and
Adolf Warchalowski were once again displayed. They both
entered both the altitude and endurance contests. They
quickly climbed high, Illner's Taube first off the
ground, followed by a thick trail of blue smoke and the
smell of castor oil. By now, the sun had won over the
clouds and the circle of mountains around the airfield
shone in the evening sun. Wiesenbach still circled around
the field in his Knoller-modified Wright, its aluminium
paint gleaming like silver in the sun, while the machines
of Illner and Warchalowski soared high above,
"chasing each other like birds". Illner passed
at an altitude of around 200 metres almost vertically
above the spectator areas. The reporter of the
"Wiener Luftschiffer-Zeitung" wrote lyrically:
"The sun shone on the brass of the machine,
making it gleam like gold, the wings were sharply
profiled against the deep blue sky, their structure
visible through the translucent fabric like feathers - a
grandiose and fairy-tale beautiful view, this pigeon,
encircled by a heavenly halo, soaring above like the Holy
Ghost of the twentieth century".
Karl Warchalowski again took off in the second
"Autobiplan", chasing his brother during half a
lap and landed after six and a half minutes. Then von
Economo also took off, making it five machines in the
air. He intended to go for the speed prize, but could
only cover one of the required two laps. By now it had
become completely calm, and everybody was queuing to fly.
Illner had landed after eighteen minutes, but Adolf
Warchalowski, who had landed and taken off again, and
Wiesenbach were still running for the total flight time
flight. Wiesenbach would remain in the air for 48
minutes, the longest flight of the day. Karl Warchalowski
started a third flight, which would last for five
minutes.
Then a couple of the unexperienced designer-pilots came
out to test their machines, Rudolf Simon with his biplane
and Paul Fiedler with his monoplane. Simon managed to
lift off, but could only stay in the air for five
seconds. Fiedler did slightly better, but landed after
fifteen seconds. Their efforts were followed by Max Klug,
who briefly managed to get his self-built monoplane into
the air, but then rolled on the ground all the way around
the course, earning himself the nickname
"Laufkäfer" (ground beetle).
Illner took off for a third flight, this time in the
smaller Möve. It had a landing gear with only a single
wheel, which made the take-off a bit wobbly, but he
managed the difficult situation and quickly left the
ground. He climbed higher and higher during a flight of
almost half an hour, showing his complete control of the
beautiful monoplane. He even once passed the grandstands
standing up in his machine instead of sitting on his
seat! Von Economo also made a third short flight, this
time for four minutes. Booms and Fiedler tried again, but
they only made short jumps, neither of them improving on
their previous efforts. Adolf Warchalowski took off for a
fourth time. Karl Warchalowski made a fourth flight, this
time impressing the spectators with some roller-coaster
flying, going up and down in a wave-like pattern.
Wiesenbach landed after his second flight after getting
an insect in his eye, adding fifteen minutes to his total
flight time and putting him in second place in the
endurance contest.
At eight o'clock, when a cannon shot marked the end
of the day's official flying and the last visitors
were leaving, Adolf Warchalowski was still circulating,
high up and far outside the airfield, once passing over
the hangars.
Adolf Warchalowski's last 26-minute flight had
secured him the lead in the total endurance contest. He
had also taken the lead in the speed contest by covering
the ten kilometres in 9:28 and made the highest flight
(296.41 metres), but the altitude result was provisional,
since it was claimed that the altitude was reached after
eight o'clock. Karl Warchalowski's best time of
7:30 was enough to claim the lead in the
Jungfliegerpreis.
Altogether, nine competitors had made 23 flights during
the first day. No records had been beaten, but once the
weather had improved had got to see in total almost four
hours of flying, without the slightest mishap. This was
despite allowing unexperienced flyers in untested
machines to participate, something that was discouraged
by the FAI and criticised in the aviation press. They
also condemned that several flights that had been made
above crowds and hangars, endangering the people at the
airfield.
Sunday 17 July
The second day started sunny and at it least in the town
completely calm, but when it was time to start flying a
brisk breeze was blowing over the heathlands. This was a
pity, since the news of the brilliant first day and the
promising morning weather had attracted enormous crowds.
The traffic around the airfield was chaotic. Around
10,000 people passed the turnstiles of the hangar area,
despite competition from big meetings at the Baden and
Kottingbrunn racecourses between Vienna and Wiener
Neustadt, and that was only a small fraction of the
crowds that despite the burning sun wandered over the
heathland between half past three and half past four to
camp along the accessible edges of the airfield.
As always, the newspapers carefully reported the presence
of the members of the court and other prominent people.
The list of more than 100 names filled half a column in
the "Wiener Neue Presse". Archduke Rainer was
there again, this time together with his wife and from
later in the afternoon also his mother, Archduchess
Blanca, and a couple of the younger of her ten children.
They were accompanied by Archduke Friedrich with wife and
daughters.
There had been a couple of improvements at the airfield:
The boards announcing the pilots and contests had been
enlarged in order to more visible and the field was now
patrolled by mounted soldiers of Wiener Neustadt's
15th Dragoon Regiment. At four o'clock, when the
white flag was hoisted on the timers' pavilion, the
wind speed was still 5-6 m/s. The mountains around the
airfield were hidden by mist from time to time and the
weather didn't look promising.
At a quarter past five, just when the national anthem
announced the arrival of the Archduchess Blanca, the red
flag was hoisted. Adolf Warchalowski took off to compete
for speed and endurance. The wind had decreased a little
and the threatening thunder clouds had passed, but they
were still towering like a wall in front of the
mountains. Just as the engine of Warchalowski's
machine started to roar there was a flash of lightning.
He took off after a short roll, far before reaching the
white start/finish line that ran across the field. The
gusty wind still troubled him, even at heights of 30-40
metres. The machine was blown around by the turbulence,
and the pilot decided to land already after two and a
half laps, with a flight time of 5:36. Minutes later, he
was followed by Illner, who made a short test in the
Taube. During the landing he swerved into the fence that
ran around the airfield. A wire was ripped off and the
left wing was slightly damaged. It was feared that the
damage would keep him out of action for the day.
Illner soon came out again, in the Möve. He had announced
in advance that it would only be a test flight. The
machine rolled past the start/finish line and after a
long run finally left the ground, but it didn't gain
any altitude. He continued along the course, close to the
ground. At the northwest corner he touched down and then,
sometimes flying, sometimes rolling, completed the lap
back to the timing pavilion, where he shut down the
engine. The reason for the problems was that the
single-wheel main landing gear had been replaced by a
normal two-wheel setup during the week. Illner had
crashed the single-wheel machine one month earlier when
one of the wing-tip wheels collapsed and after the
troubles of the preceding Sunday they had apparently
realized that it was a failed experiment. The new landing
gear had changed the centre of gravity of the machine,
and it hadn't been tested before this flight.
The next starter, at 17:38, was von Economo in his
Voisin, who was only flying for the endurance contest.
His take-off was impressive. The propeller had hardly
begun to turn before the machine lifted off, and when he
passed the grandstands the machine was already several
metres above the ground. The wind increased and the
signal flags fluttered, the airplane bobbed and weaved,
but its brave and cool-headed pilot didn't lose his
control. He elegantly rounded the turns, climbed higher
and higher and then returned in a beautiful descent in
front of the grandstands. The loud thunder that was heard
from the wall of clouds around the airfield was mixed
with the applause.
While von Economo finished his second lap Wiesenbach
started an endurance and speed flight in his
Wright-Knoller biplane. He couldn't leave the ground
until he had passed the start line and had to be
satisfied with a flight time of 4:19.4. Von Economo
continued his flight. Lap after lap he was encouraged by
the spectators, who were grateful for the entertainment
that it seemed only he was able to provide on this windy
day. When he masterfully turned at the end of the fifth
lap and passed the grandstands at an impressive altitude,
the cheering got even louder. So completely in harmony
with its element, even the "flying box" looked
beautiful!
Wiesenbach took off again, this time trying for the
endurance and speed contests. After completing a quarter
of a lap, he slipped inside a pylon and came very close
to the ground, but he climbed quickly again and followed
von Economo to complete a lap. Von Economo displayed some
showmanship by gliding down from around twenty to only
two or three metres above the ground right in front of
the grandstands. He quickly climbed again and landed
smoothly after completing six and a half laps. Wiesenbach
landed immediately afterwards. Then Adolf Warchalowski
made a flight with a passenger on board, but only
completed half a lap. Booms also tried to make a
passenger flight, but without success.
At around a quarter to seven a long pause started. The
clouds moved closer, the wind ripped the flags and some
drops of rain fell. The thunder clouds soon retreated
into the background and the lack of flying offered the
friends of nature a chance to watch the white lightnings
against the leaden clouds, with a rainbow to the left and
the Puchberger Wände of the Schneeberg in strangely sharp
light to the right. Most of the spectators gave up the
hope of seeing any flying and left the airfield, even
though the red flag stubbornly stayed up, and indeed,
there would be some more flying in the end.
Around half past seven von Economo's machine was
rolled out from the hangars. He again started an
endurance flight. After a quick take-off he soon climbed
to a considerable altitude, but he landed in front of the
timers' pavilion already after half a lap. Then Adolf
Warchalowski started an endurance and speed flight, which
lasted for 20 minutes. While he completed his fourth lap
Illner came out with his "Taube", which had
been repaired, to compete for endurance and altitude. But
the "Taube" didn't do much better than the
"Möve". It only managed to leave the ground for
a short while. Von Economo once again started an
endurance flight while Warchalowski completed his seventh
lap. In front of the grandstands a race developed, from
which the Voisin pilot emerged as winner. Illner took off
again, and against the background of the thunder clouds
the three white machines crossed the sky in V formation.
Then they flew three abreast, the Autobiplan outside, the
Voisin on the inside and the "Taube" in the
middle. Illner landed almost immediately, followed by
Warchalowski, who had flown eight and a half laps, and at
last Baron von Economo touched down. Soon thereafter the
black flag and a cannon shot announced the end of the
day's flights.
During the day, four flyers had made nine official
flights, that only counted towards the endurance prize.
The longest flight was von Economo's first flight,
which lasted 33:43.4, but Adolf Warchalowski had
increased his lead in the total flying time contest.
Illner was only credited with 30 seconds of officially
timed flights. Because of the windy conditions there
hadn't been any improvements in the altitude and
speed contests.
The more experienced flyers had shown that they could
handle windy conditions and the novice flyers who
didn't try only displayed common sense. The
vice-president of the Austrian Aëro-Klub emphasised the
record crowds of the day, and stated that von Economo was
in a good position for the Tüchtigkeitspreis, for the
longest flight on least favourable flying day.
Sunday 24 July
This should have been the last day of the meeting.
However, it had rained all through the night and the
morning and the weather looked so miserable at midday
that the officials decided to call the day off. It was
announced on posters at the cash desks of the railway
stations in Vienna that the contests would not take place
on this day, but that they were suspended until the next
Sunday, July 31st, and that tickets that were already
bought would be valid on the 31st.
A large number of visitors were already at the airfield,
however, including the minister of War, General Franz
Xaver Freiherr von Schönaich. The lack of flying enabled
him to make a long tour of all the hangars, guided by the
flyers and organizers, before deciding to leave the
airfield at half past five. He explained that if he had
stayed, he could have tempted the pilots to fly, and
since the wind speed was still around 10 m/s he
didn't want them to take any risks. During the
afternoon the skies brightened, but the winds only
decreased slowly. First towards half past seven the few
spectators that had endured in patience got something to
watch, as Illner and Karl Warchalowski each made a
successful flight.
During the evening the flyers, the members of the sports
commission and the airfield committee had a meeting,
chaired by Bürgermeister Kammann. The flyers protested
the postponement of the last day, since the rules stated
that the contests would be open on the originally
intended days, regardless of the weather. In respect of
this, it was decided that the contest was closed on July
24th. The results after the second day were final, except
Adolf Warchalowski's highest flight on the first day,
which was ruled to have been made after the end of the
allowed flying time. This meant that the altitude prize
went to Illner, who reached 184.78 metres on the first
day. For the same reason, Warchalowski's total flying
time on the first day was reduced by some seven minutes,
but he still won by a large margin. The Tüchtigkeitspreis
was awarded to von Economo for his flight on the second
day.
II. Preisfliegen, July 31st
The organizers of
course wanted to make good on the promise to the
ticketholders for the last day. At the same time, the
pilots had, quite justifiably, refused to simply postpone
the last day of the meeting. The solution was to quickly
organize a new meeting, with new contests and new prize
money. This required quick action by all parties, but the
Österreichische Aëronautische Kommission was not very
responsive. Its president received the necessary request
only on Wednesday morning. In the same afternoon the
accompanying detailed proposal arrived, and at nine
o'clock in the evening an urgent telegram from Wiener
Neustadt. According to its rules, the commission only met
on Mondays, and the invitation to the meetings must be
received by the members three days in advance. The new
event for which permission was requested would take place
four days later, already on the Sunday, so a regular
invitation to a meeting discussing the event was of
course out of the question. The organizers in Wiener
Neustadt had already announced the meeting and put up
posters, and the aviators besieged the president of the
commission with requests to exceptionally let the meeting
go ahead.
It was only after considering that the new meeting was
merely a replacement for the cancelled third day of the
first meeting , and that the municipality of Wiener
Neustadt would have to pay damages to ticket holders and
others that had been told the meeting would last for
three days, that its president quite extraordinarily,
without a meeting of the commission, decided in the
commission's name to allow the meeting to be held. It
was clearly stated in the decision that such late forced
and extraordinary action would never be allowed again. It
was decreed that in the future applications for holding
of aviation meetings had to be made at least fourteen
days in advance of the meeting. Furthermore, no doubt
because the previous meeting hadn't obeyed the
FAI's instructions, the president required that in
the future, only pilots who had been granted an Austrian
pilot's licence would be allowed to participate in
contests. With this, the second meeting could go ahead.
There were some changes to the rules and the contests. As
prescribed by the commission, entry was limited to
licenced pilots. Shortly before the meeting Karl
Warchalowski and Wilhelm Booms, who had at the previous
meeting been considered "Jungflieger", had
passed their examinations and been granted licenses. The
contest rules differed in some respect from the first
meeting. There was of course no
"Jungfliegerpreis". The endurance prize would
not be given for the longest total flight time of the
meeting, but for the longest non-stop flight, with a
minimum time of 30 minutes. There would be a similar
endurance contest for officers, who could only compete
for an honorary prize, and for which the minimum time was
five minutes. A minimum requirement was also decided for
the altitude contest, where 100 metres would be required.
The speed contest would be for the shorter distance of
one lap. There would be a prize for passenger flights,
for the longest flight of at least three kilometres with
the shortest take-off. The winning of prizes would also
be made more difficult by the requirement of a minimum
number of contestants: For the endurance and passenger
prizes at least three and for the altitude, speed and
officers' prizes two. Several of the prizes were
donated by sponsors.
Sunday 31 July
The weather looked good from the town, with a cloud-free
sky and almost complete calm that promised perfect
conditions, but at the airfield it was quite windy. The
crowds were smaller than on the previous days, but the
Südbahn still claimed to have transported 6000 visitors.
On the side of the airfield that faced Wiener Neustadt
there were still a lot of visitors, but the
"Klubraum" and the other areas restricted to
paying visitors were less popular. It seemed like most of
the crowds were locals from Wiener Neustadt, and that
they were mostly satisfied with the free areas. Among the
guests were Duchess Antonia von Parma and her daughters,
Prince Don Jaime von Bourbon, Prince and Princess Hugo
von Thurn und Taxis and several ministers and
high-ranking officers.
At four o'clock, when the cannon shot announced the
start of the meeting, a strong wind was blowing across
the airfield, stronger than on the first two flying days.
To make things worse, it was blowing from the southeast,
from the Wiener Neustadt direction, which meant the
flyers had the wind from behind during the take-offs.
There was not much hope of calmer weather until the
evening.
The visitors, who realised that they couldn't expect
flying until the evening, spent their time walking in the
hangars, which always had something interesting to offer.
There were a couple of novelties: The machine built by
Otto Hieronymus for Laurin & Klement, a completely
Austrian product, since the engine also was produced by
that company. There was also the unusual
"Minimus" biplane of Hans Rittmeister von
Umlauff, which Jakob Lohner & Co. had built to his
design. In front of hangar No. 19, which contained the
Voisin of Count Alexander Kolowrat, there was always a
group of curious people. They were apparently less
interested in the machine than in the amusing spectacle
that the owner of the hangar, who had made it quite
home-like in there, provided as pastime: In the door
there was a monkey, who played tricks with a cute little
dog. In the hangar of Igo Etrich one could see Illner
busy at work repairing some damages that the Taube had
suffered during a practice flight. Unfortunately, it
wouldn't be able to make as fine flights as three
weeks earlier.
Towards seven o'clock the winds finally reduced and
quickly, one after the other, the two Warchalowski
Autobiplans were pushed out onto the airfield. The first
to take the seat was Karl Warchalowski, who started for
endurance and altitude. Adolf Warchalowski took off some
minutes after him, only for the speed contest. He landed
after completing a lap, while Karl Warchalowski circled
the field for almost half an hour, all the time climbing
higher and higher. Soon after Adolf Warchalowski landed,
von Lieben's Wright-Knoller machine appeared. This
time it was not Wiesenbach at the controls, but Hauptmann
Petróczy, who shared the machine, which von Lieben had
put at the disposal of the army. He was going for the
officers' prize. With his regular slow flight at
three to four metres off the ground he dominated the
field. He stayed in the air for more than three quarters
of an hour, and the longer he stayed in the air the more
he gave the spectators the impression of solid, practical
air travel. Every time the machine passed the spectator
areas, the pilot was heartily cheered.
Meanwhile, Adolf Warchalowski made another speed flight,
making it three machines in the air, but unfortunately it
was now too dark for the spectators to be able to fully
enjoy the spectacle. Karl Warchalowski had by now reached
an altitude of at least 100 metres. On one lap he drifted
off the course in front of the grandstands and flew above
the crowds, a mistake for which he was reprimanded by the
officials. Adolf Warchalowski also approached the borders
of the public areas, but on purpose - he spread blue
ribbons with the text "Gruß aus der
Lüften" (Greetings from the air). Karl Warchalowski
flew one more lap, but then his engine stopped right in
front of the timers' pavilion. It looked like a
difficult moment, since the machine dropped quickly, but
the pilot was in full control and finished with a
beautiful glide and a smooth landing. His flight time was
26:19, the second longest of the day, and he had reached
a height of 112.71 metres. The engine problems robbed him
of the civilian endurance prize, since he didn't
reach the minimum 30 minutes, but the flight won him the
altitude prize. A Corporal Westermeyer of the 15 Dragoon
Regiment, who should have served as an orderly for the
altitude measurements, had been injured when his horse
was frightened. He fell off and the horse stepped on his
head and he had to be removed unconscious, but the
organizers had apparently found somebody to replace him.
Booms made a flight on the Farman. It lasted only a
little above two minutes, but it saved the officers'
prize for Petróczy, since the requirement of two
competitors was fulfilled. Petróczy landed after 46:20,
by far the longest flight of the day. Then Illner took
off in the Taube for the endurance and altitude prizes.
He landed again already after a little more than eight
minutes without getting very high, but he had prepared a
surprise for the spectators: He released three real
living pigeons from the machine during his flight!
During the last minutes of the meeting Adolf Warchalowski
took off for the passenger prize, with his wife Anna on
board, and landed after 4:36.8. Wiesenbach, who also
tried for the passenger prize, only reached 49 seconds.
In total, six pilots had made eight official flights.
After the end of the official flights von Umlauff made a
successful flight in his "Minimus".
Conclusion
Although featuring most of the accomplished Austrian
flyers and constructors these were a couple of low-budget
local meetings. No sensational flights were made, and the
meetings were hardly reported at all in the French and
British aviation press. The weather hadn't been kind
to the organizers, but the Austrian aviation press hailed
the first day as a great success, comparing the native
flyers favourably with the highly paid foreign
primadonnas of the extremely expensive Budapest meeting.
They also expressed pleasure that there had been no
accidents. The following days hadn't been as
successful, and after the success of the first two days
the crowds on the last day were below expectations. The
meetings had run well and the organization, the officials
and the town of Wiener Neustadt were praised. There would
be several more meetings at the airfield. It is still
used, and it is one of the oldest active airfields in the
world.
Spectators trying to get the best view of Karl Illner
in the Taube. (1)
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