In conjunction with the St. Louis section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the University will hold a ceremony at 4 p.m. Nov. 12 on the south-facing wall of McMillan Hall, commemorating the field west of Olin Library extending to the Field House as the “aeronautic concourse” of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
Representatives of the two institutions, plus the Missouri Historical Society, will place an 18-by-24-inch bronze commemorative plaque at the site, deemed a “significant aerospace site” by the AIAA’s Historic Aerospace Sites Program.
A reception will follow at the Rettener Gallery just inside the entrance of the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Science Building.
To emphasize and publicize developments in the newly evolving realm of aeronautics, organizers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (commonly known as the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair) appropriated the unprecedented amount of $200,000 for aeronautic events, of which $100,000 was to be for a grand prize “for aeronautic achievement considerably beyond anything yet attained!” This contest was open to airships and “flying machines” of any description.
To accommodate the aerial events, a fenced aeronautic concourse of roughly 14 acres was established on the exposition grounds (technically, on land leased from the then-newly relocated Washington University). Numerous flights were made by various airships, including Tom Baldwin’s impressive California Arrow, America’s first successful dirigible. A Santos-Dumont airship couldn’t fly because of a ripped gas envelope, and William Avery, one of aviation pioneer Octave Chanute’s protégés, made glider demonstration flights.
The Wright brothers, who had made their epochal flights at Kitty Hawk, N.C., only months earlier, did not participate, having concluded, after touring the site earlier that year, that the performance required in the grand prize contest was unachievable (a belief ultimately proved true, as the $100,000 grand prize remained unclaimed).
The aeronautical activities were nevertheless the highlight of the fair — the first time in history that a mass flying contest had been organized and conducted.
For more information, contact Frederick Roos at The Boeing Co. (233-2530; frederick.w.roos@boeing.com); or Salvatore Sutera, Ph.D., senior professor of biomedical engineering, (935-8538; sps@biomed.wustl.edu).
Those interested in attending should notify Emily Springer at (703) 264-7533 or emilys@aiaa.org.