MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS
Leſt : Tod C. “Slim” Shriver at the controls of a Dietz biplane, Aero magazine, 1910. Center: Howard Dietz was a wealthy resident on Long Island who designed a biplane and hired Tod Shriver to build and test it in 1910. Dietz is shown at the controls of his invention but it was Shriver who flew it for exhibition flights. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 31, 1910. Right: Mars, Baldwin, and Shriver toured Asia aſt er making exhibition flights in Honolulu, HI, in 1910. Honolulu Advisor, January 1, 1911.
race for speed, the Gordon Bennett Trophy.
In less than a month, Curtiss built a close copy of the Golden Flier, naming it the Reims Racer. He added his own 50hp, 8-cylinder engine and made modifi cations including clipping one foot off the wings and eliminating anything that added unnecessary weight. With no time for further testing, the Racer was hastily crated for shipment. Curtiss, Shriver, and Fisher, sailed from New York on August 5, arriving at Le Havre, France a week later. Curtiss attended to Aero Club business with Bishop in Paris, while Shriver and Fisher traveled ahead by train to Reims with the Racer. Arriving at the aerodrome on August 12th, Curtiss, with Shriver, assembled the Racer he had not yet had a chance to fl y with the 50hp engine. The famous French aviator, Louis Bleriot, became the favorite to win the Gordon Bennett race fl ying his monoplane, powered by an 80hp engine. One account quoted the worried Curtiss: “When I learned of this (Bleriot’s 80hp engine) I believed my chances were very slim indeed, if in fact they had not entirely disappeared,” to which Shriver replied “Glenn, I’ve seen you win many a (motorcycle) race on the turns.” Shriver’s words were to be
prophetically accurate. On August 28th, Curtiss beat
Bleriot’s time by 5 3/5th of a second, 20
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averaging 47mph during his fi fteen- minute fl ight. He had won the Gordon Bennett Trophy, taking home the prize of $5,000, and the honor for the U.S. to host the 1910 race. Curtiss, Shiver and Fisher returned to a hero’s welcome in New York during the third week of September. By then Curtiss understood that Shriver was leaving to build and fl y his own aeroplanes.
THE DIETZ AND THE DEVIL While learning to fl y, Shriver became familiar within the group of mechanics and aviators who frequented the fi eld at Mineola, on Long Island, NY. His reputation as Curtiss’s Chief Mechanic at Reims attracted the attention of a wealthy member of Long Island society, Howard Dietz. Dietz designed a biplane, described as many early aircraft were, “of the Curtiss-type,” and chose Shriver to build and test his invention. By September 1, 1910, at Dietz’s “country residence” garage, Shriver fi nished the prototype which fl ew well. That month, at Mineola, Shriver earned the ACA’s aviator’s license #9.
By October of 1910, Shriver had made dozens of fl ights with the Dietz at Mineola, and exhibition fl ights for County Fairs in New York and Delaware. He was quoted as saying he did not consider his work dangerous, but within a four-month
period, Shriver made six known hard landings, which left him injured - all of which could have killed him. With a Dietz biplane, Shriver intended to compete in the 1910 Belmont Air Meet held October 22–30, on Long Island. During a qualifying fl ight, Shriver lost control, resulting in a spectacular crash which totaled the Dietz. Shriver survived with injuries requiring emergency treatment, but he was described as “near tears” when he realized he would not be unable to compete. Shriver may have cheered up when his former boss, “Capt.” Baldwin appeared at Belmont fl ying a “Curtiss-type” biplane of his own design, which he called the Red Devil. Baldwin used a rubberized fabric to cover the surfaces and painted the entire aircraft red. Known as a “showman,” Baldwin’s appearance with the Red Devil was always a crowd-pleaser. Baldwin had fl ying commitments in California following the Belmont meet and proposed that Shriver and aviator, Bud Mars, join him there where they would depart on a fl ying exhibition tour of the Orient. Glenn Curtiss sent Whipple S. Hall as their business manager and advance man to Hawaii, Japan, China and the Philippines. Shriver toured fl ying a newly constructed Dietz biplane, now referred to in the press as the “Shriver-Dietz”.
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