We've come a long way.

Cozmic_Kid posted some great photos in the Creative Arts thread and this gem was there. Labeled "Senorita Lenore Riviero with Antony Jannus in Rex Smith aeroplane"

According to Wikipedia: "The Rex Smith Biplane was a pioneering biplane based mostly on designs of Glen Curtiss. It was built and demonstrated at College Park, Maryland at the same airfield that the Wright Brothers and Curtiss demonstrated their aircraft for the U.S. Army Signal Corps just North of Washington D.C." First flight 1910.
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College Park Airport is the oldest airport in the world. I used to go there when my brother was studying at the U. of Maryland in 1939. He would drop me off to watch airplanes while he worked on his cadaver, since he was a med. student then. I apologize if I posted this earlier but while he was studying I saw the first Ercoupe there and couldn't believe that anything that small and with only one wing could be anything useful. Odd tail with two vertical fins, too. The whole thing was ludicrous when everything else had two big wings and an eight cylinder engine that spouted oil and water when it ran. Then there was a little high wing thing also made of aluminum with a funny name , Luscombe. They would never make it! When I got tired of watching those silly little airplanes I went over to the railroad tracks and laid down on the ballast to feel the rush of the big steam locomotives as they roared by at 75 MPH. Never got bored over there.

 

Wow! Had no idea...used to take the MARC train (Camden line) right next to that airport everyday to work. Always checking what kind of planes they had...the yellow Cessna 195 there looks nice.

Speaking of the oldest airport still in operation, the Camden line is the oldest commuter train line still in operation. Kinda cool they're right next to one another.

 

The trains that I watched going by were the " crack" luxury trains, The Royal Blue, The President Washington, and then some high ballin' freights all coming out of the Union Station and adjacent yards. The Wright brothers initiated aerial activities at the College Park patch in 1908 I believe where they and eventually Curtiss demonstrated their airplanes to the Army Signal Corps. When my dad was a young architect in Washington, D.C. he saw from his third floor office near the Treasury Department "somebody flying a big kite" over at Ft. Meyers. That kite was the Wright Flyer while it was being demonstrated to the Signal Corps. When appropriations were being considered in congress to expand the use of "aeroplanes", a congressman complained that " the Army already had one ' aeroplane', why the hell would they want any more of them." Things never change.

 

Love how they tied her skirt together so it would not balloon.

 

That was a brave little lady!