BERT BEAVERS

Bert Beavers in his Monoplane      These two images are copies of two beautiful 8 x 10 photographs of Bert which were recently, (12-10-05), being offered at auction on eBay. They were already sold when I found the display copies on eBay, but Dan, the owner of the online store who had sold them, has graciously allowed me to display the copies on this webpage so as to illustrate the Beavers' story. If you are interested seeing more photographs of this sort, you should visit his site by clicking on: IMAGE-451 PHOTOS BOOKS AND MORE      I think you will be as pleasantly surprised as I was to discover that he is offering some 1478 excellent quality, original photographs, many of them of special interest to early aviation fans.

 

NEWS CLIPPINGS via email from Nancy Mess, 6-4-04 Ralph,      There are numerous 1910-1914 mentions about Bert Beavers and Reyburn Watrres, both from Scranton, from their aviation achievements. I'm still tracking down more information about them, but if you want what I have surfaced so far, let me know. Sincerely, Nancy I have lost contact with Nancy, but hope to track her down and ask for even more help.

 

1911, MAY 31, Wednesday WILKES-BARRE RECORD, p.14 Beachey and McCurdy Thrill Thousands of Spectators . . . Five machines were lined up at the starting point on the field. They were the two Curtiss machines, Frank Paines Curtiss type biplane, a new and untried biplane, without a front control, built by the Scranton Motor Car Co., and to be driven by Bert Beavers of that city, a trial flight being schedule for today, and an unfinished monoplane built by four night High School manual training school boys. Frank Paine attempted a flight yesterday but pleaded a mechanical defect as an explanation for further delay. He fully expects to go up today or tomorrow. The crowd was not kept waiting long after 3:00 oclock before the first flight was made. Paines run across the field, which ended without the machine leaving the ground, was quickly followed by a flight by John McCurdy over the field as far as North St.

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Bert Beavers", using the Google search engine, (12-10-05), you will find about 16 links.The two at the top of the list are to the two photographs of Bert and his aeroplane which were being offered on ebay. Most of the others are either irrelevant, obsolete or of indeterminate value.

 

I have no information as to the dates of birth or his death.   If you have any more information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

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