Engineer, and amateur Photographer Arthur Plame recounts his first airplane flight in an October 1920 ‘The Camera’ magazine. Palme watched with interest as a local automobile dealer bought a Government surplus Curtiss Bi-plane and established daily passenger flights for a dollar a minute over the town, (probably Pittsfield MA). After a few months of watching the airplane fly over his home several times per day, and ‘landing safely,’ Palme became envious and started thinking about taking a camera along for his first flight.
Palme explains the process of figuring out what camera to use, what height and angle would be best for showing off the town below, how the pictures turned out, and even the sales he made with the 12 images captured during the 18 minute flight.
It’s an interesting article, and if you’re at work, it’ll only take a couple of minutes to read.
Arthur Palme was born around 1885 in Austria, and came to America to pursue Electrical Engineering. He lived in Pittsfield Massachusetts and was around 35 years old when he took this flight. I’m guessing Palme came to Pittsfield to work at the new ‘Electric Manufacturing’ Company, known later as ‘GE’ or ‘General Electric.’
Click image below for a larger, readable version.
