Howard Cruett Wilcox collection of Halethorpe Air Meet photographs

An early event in aviation history was the air meet held at Halethorpe, Baltimore County, Maryland in November 1910. Featured airmen were Frenchmen Hubert Latham and Count Jacques de Lesseps, Americans Charles Willard, J. Armstrong Drexel, Eugene Ely, and Arch Hoxsey, and Englishman James Radley. Featured planes included Latham’s Antoinette, plus examples of the Bleriot monoplane and Wright biplane.

The field at Halethorpe was a mile long and 300 yards wide. For two weeks, visitors were treated to the spectacle of planes flying at 60 miles an hour, rising to 5,000 feet, and remaining aloft for close to an hour. There were cash prizes for altitude, speed, endurance, and distance. There were mishaps over the two week course of the meet, as inclement weather caused cancellation of many events and the collapse of a hangar tent damaging planes inside, spectators frequently had to wait for long periods while mechanical problems were corrected, and the backers lost $25,000 overall, but the crowds were sometimes 6000 strong.

The meet was organized by Baltimore hotel proprietor Colonel Jerome Joyce, who secured financial backing and press coverage for the event. The Sunpapers wrote extensively about aviation prior to the show and also paid Hubert Latham $5,000 to make what would be the first flight over Baltimore.