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Chase County Kansas Historical
Sketches
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First Plane for Chase County
There are many who remember Paul Cartter's
plane. It was owned by Paul and a man named
Woolcott. The plane was purchased in Mineola,
New York from Orville and Wilbur Wright, where Paul
was trained as a pilot. It had to be taken apart to
be shipped from there to Cottonwood Falls, and it
was assembled in the Cartter pasture where the
Chase County Nursing Home now stands.
The wings
were covered with canvas, which Mrs. Cartter had
sewed up on a household sewing machine. Later,
the WICHITA EAGLE carried a picture of this
plane with the caption: "AIRSHIP OF 1908."
The
paragraph follows: "The Kansas Airship" pictured
above was exhibited at the Stafford (Kan.) wheat
jubilee celebration in 1908 by its builders. Cartter
and Woolcott, Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. Carter
is in the pilot seat of the pusher-type biplane. <
Woolcott stands near the engine and propellers
which are behind the pilot. Struts were of bamboo
and much bailing wire was used, according to L.A.
Lowe, 215 S. Chautauqua, who saw the plane.
Lowe a World War I pilot, works in the fabrication
department of Boeing Airplane Co."
The above story is of a successful flight and
there were others; but, in 1910, Mr. Canter started
to make a flight from the same place it was assembled southeast of town, and after it was a little
higher than a telephone pole, it nose dived. The
plane was demolished and Paul received a broken
nose. He was lucky at that; but this was the end
for the plane.
By: Mrs. Virginia Cartter White
Chase County Centennial, 1872 - 1972
by Lorna Marvin.
Please submit your historical sketches.
Background and KSGenWeb logo were designed and are copyrighted by
Tom & Carolyn Ward
for the limited use of the KSGenWeb Project.
Permission is granted for use only on an official KSGenWeb page.
The USGenWeb Logo was designed by Linda Cole.
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