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magazine, Dan A. Aldridge Jr. detailed how the history of this plane was misconstrued for decades. For years it was thought that the plane first flew in 1907. The book shows how the Epps aircraft was actually the first monoplane to fly in the United States, predating by 106 days the monoplane flight
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On August 28, 1909, he flew the machine from a cow pasture near
Brooklyn Creek. After rolling downhill, Epps took off and flew around 100 yards (91 meters) at a maximum altitude of around 50 feet (15 meters). The flight ended in a crash, but made Epps Georgia's first aviator. In 1949, Lola Trammel
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and pioneering
European aviators, Epps first conceived of the design at the age of sixteen. In 1909, he built the aircraft in the workshop of his bicycle, electrical contracting, and automobile repair business on Washington Street, Athens.
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that Epps had already made a successful flight in the machine prior to the public demonstration, testing the machine by moonlight with the help of friends at two o'clock in the morning.
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consisted of three bicycle wheels, one at the front of this frame, and two behind it. A buggy seat was located beneath the wing for the pilot. A 15 hp (11 kW) two-cylinder
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was made from scrap timber collected from a sawmill, with the flying surfaces covered in cotton. Only the undersurfaces of the wings were covered.
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motorcycle engine was mounted behind the seat and drove a two-bladed propeller from an exhaust fan mounted
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of Henry Walden, who allegedly has been mistakenly credited with the historic milestone for many years.
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unit was carried on struts at the front of the aircraft, and a single rudder on struts to its rear. The
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In his 2016 book "To Lasso the Clouds," and his article published in the April 2017 issue of
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The aircraft consisted of an open framework suspended below a wire-braced
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411:1900s United States experimental aircraft
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89:that was designed and built in 1909 in
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122:behind the wing's trailing edge. A
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218:Epps Aviation: Above and Beyond
421:Single-engined pusher aircraft
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416:Aircraft first flown in 1909
148:The Atlanta Journal Magazine
157:Air & Space/Smithsonian
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19:Epps 1909 Monoplane
306:McMichael 2007, p.1
181:Aldridge 2016, p.54
87:fixed-wing aircraft
274:Cleland 1985, p.4B
262:"Who Was Ben Epps?
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29:Type of aircraft
27:General aviation
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69:Introduction
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56:Ben T. Epps
343:Ben T. Epps
288:Nelson 2001
199:Hudson 2002
95:Ben T. Epps
405:Categories
165:References
80:Epps 1909
244:Aued 2007
102:monoplane
82:Monoplane
53:Designer
345:aircraft
131:airframe
127:elevator
124:biplane
116:Anzani
85:was a
220:, p.3
145:told
72:1909
48:Epps
24:Role
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