Aero Club of the Thousand Islands
The Aero Club of the Thousand Islands, as it was known formally by April 1910, was a division of the Thousand Islands Yacht Club, headquartered in New York City, whose yachting facilities were on the St. Lawrence River at Frontenac, Thousand Islands, New York. The Yacht Club members included some 30 who were also members of the Aero Club of America and it appears that at least some 20 of those were the nucleus of an aero club within the yacht club. While we can locate a reference in the New York Times of 13 Jan. 1910 to the 20 members forming an aero club, it appears that aero club activities were already underway in the summer of 1909 when yacht club members built a flying machine behind St. Lawrence Park. More building was supposed to take place in the summer of 1910.
Dr. J. Miles Gibbons is credited with forming an aero Club of the St. Lawrence River in the summer of 1909. We believe that this was the division of the Thousand Islands Yacht Club that became formally known as the Aero Club of the Thousand Islands by April 1910. At the annual mid-winter dinner of the Thousand Islands Yacht Club on 14 Jan. 1910, a syndicate within the club exhibited an aeroplane, yet without its motor, that they had commissioned an unidentified German aviator to build. Members of the syndicate, identified at various times in 1910, included Dr. Gibbons and Alfred G. Miles, both of New York City; L. N. Rumsey of St. Louis; C. L. Hayden of Columbus, Ohio; Frederick K. Burnham, address not identified; and Price McKenney, Morrisburg, Ontario. It appears that this was the aeroplane designed by Dr. Gibbons that, when shown at Garden City in April 1910, had evolved into a large biplane with a 4-cylinder, 2-cycle, 40-h.p. Lloyd engine.
Sources
- 1910 NYT, 13 and 15 Jan., 24 Apr., 12 June, and 22 July; 1910 St. Louis Post Dispatch, 15 Jan.
| Organization names | Aero Club of the Thousand Islands |
|---|---|
| Entity type | |
| Country | US |
| City | Frontenac, Thousand Islands, New York |
| Affiliated with | |
| Scope | Local |
| Started aero | 1909 |
| Ended aero | |
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| Key people | |
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