But I ran into one the other day that got me to thinking about how fast the new technology called aviation swept America. As best I can tell, this was a promotional piece from about 1912. Had it been about 1918 I would not have been surprised for we had some pretty good little airplanes flying in World War I. But this was a promotion for a barnstorming airplane that was in Gainesville. Apparently it was flying out of the old brick yard, or a pasture nearby, which probably was the enterprise located in the general area near where Cargill is located today. The barnstormers traditionally did all kinds of stunts with their old airplanes, and then took adventuresome passengers up; for a quick ride. These events drew darn near everybody in town.
Anyway, the interesting thing to me is that it was in December, 1903, that the Wright brothers made their famous first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That flight lasted 12 seconds and traveled a bit more than 30 yards. That was the first powered flight, and it appears that 10 years later there was an airplane in Gainesville, Georgia, taking passengers up for a ride.
We read all kinds of things nowadays about the technological revolution surrounding computers and high-tech, and very often you will read that this new technology is moving faster than any similar change has ever happened before. But it seems to me for the airplane to have been invented in 1903, and an airplane to be flying in Gainesville 10 years later is a pretty fast adoption rate.
This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/9/190310