Then & Now: Wright Brothers Exhibition Team – Princeton

With the success of their first flight of 1903, the Wright brothers had proved that flight was possible. By 1908, they had perfected their aeronautical engineering and created a machine that they could control and fly.

The same year they founded the Wright Company and began selling planes. To survive in the industry that they had created, the Wrights created an exhibition team to keep their competitors in check and appeal to the public in order to sell airplanes.

In 1910, Wilbur and Orville Wright established a team of aviators to exhibit their flying machine. Dirigible pilot, Augustus Roy Knabenshue, was hired by the Wrights to manage the team and gathered a handful of students to begin training for the air shows.

The Wright team made its first public appearance June 13, 1910, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The team would exhibit its flying machines in air shows across the country until 1911.

Crating and uncrating their aircraft from railcars, thrilling crowds, dealing with local promoters, counting gate receipts, competing with rival exhibition aviators and setting aerial records, the Wright exhibition pilots introduced the airplane to dozens of small towns across the U.S., including Princeton.

There were rewards and risks in this business. The shows earned acclaim in the press and adoration by the crowds. Accidents also began to happen, and two of the team’s star flyers were killed. As newer pilots were trained and joined the team, performances continued across the country. The last big meet the team participated in was in Chicago in August 1911.

J. Clifford Turpin was the first Purdue University graduate student to become an aviator. He received his flight training from Orville Wright and would eventually join the Wright Exhibition Team, which was a group of early aviators trained by the Wright brothers. The team performed aerial shows across the country and set altitude records and endurance records.

The Then photograph shows J.C. Turpin and his biplane at the Bureau County Fairgrounds in Princeton on July 3, 1911. It was the first exhibition for this plane, which measured 32 feet long and weighed 680 pounds. It also featured a 35 horse-power, 4-cylinder water-cooled engine. The machine was a new design that the Wright Brothers were perfecting for flights on half-mile runways.

The following day, an estimated 9,000 people gathered at the Bureau County Fairgrounds to watch as Turpin soared into the sky. The interurban ran special trains from Morris to Princeton to accommodate all the spectators. Turpin made four successful flights that reached altitudes of 2,500 feet before touching down, each time, to standing ovations.

The Now photograph shows a view of the Bureau County Fairgrounds today.