Help with photo id pusher plane and people

[cellerfeller]

I recently bought an old book at an antique store and found this early black and white photograph inside it. A fellow told me the plane is a very early pusher type. I wonder if anyone can id the plane an any of the people in the photograph. The fellow who said the plane was a pusher type also said the man in the suit was Lindberg. I haven't been able to find this image anywhere else on line so once again I am leaning on the folks at Treasurenet for assistance.

 

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[mojjax]

He does look like him !!!

 

[Deep1]

Yes, I agree.
It looks like him.
Google Charles Lindbergh, near the top of the page ,click images.
It has 100's of images of him.

 

[Red-Coat]

… A fellow told me the plane is a very early pusher type... also said the man in the suit was Lindberg.

That appears to be exactly what it is and it does look like Lindbergh doesn't it? But surely the plane isn't contemporary with the clothes worn by the participants in this event? Also Lindbergh was born in 1902, so the picture would have to have been taken in the late 1920s or early 1930s. That would be more consistent with the clothing, I think. Perhaps a surviving example of an early plane being presented to a museum, or taking part in an air show or something like that?

The soldier on the left of the plane appears to be wearing US Marine Corps 'dress blues' (other ranks) but that doesn't give much of a clue to the date since the uniform went essentially unchanged from the late 1800s onwards. The dude with the cigar towards the far left in the comedy hat may help to track down the location. He appears to be wearing a Masonic or Fraternity fez. Lindbergh himself was a member of such an organisation. Here he is wearing his Ancient Egyptian Order of Sciots fez:



Mr Cigar's fez is not from that organisation though. It seems to read SEL### PAT### with perhaps a shield between the two words but perhaps you can make out the letters more clearly in the original picture. I looked for something similar on the "Fez Museum" website (oh, yes there is!) but couldn't find a similar example, whether Masonic or not.

 

[Plug N Play]

Guessing a Curtiss Pusher, Later than 1909 ... say 1910 - 1914 ?

1928 Sept. Lindbergh borrows stunt pilot, Al Wilson's 1910 Curtiss and goes for a ride.

Not the same Curtiss you have in your picture, but close.
What bothers me about yours is that we don't see any radiators.
Was it flyable ? It doesn't look like it.

They did have four different engine options available for these.
Anyone know if an air-cooled option was a possibility ?

Here's Lindbergh in 1928:



The aircraft were getting upgraded constantly, even faster as WW I approached.
This was the closest one I came across. It also is taken at a later date, and looks
like it might be the same plane ?? No radiators. Was this plane just a "poser" ?
Is it possible this is the same one ?

 

[Plug N Play]

1918 Gaston Chevrolet vs. Curtiss Pusher

5 lap race ... the car got a 1 lap head start, and now they're off :
The car won by half a lap.



Dang, you almost had him. You go, girl !
Ruth Law and her Curtiss Pusher:
(with radiators)

 

[ToddsPoint]

I don't think that's Charles Lindbergh. He was a real tall lanky guy. That guy in the pic is short. Gary

 

[Doubter in MD]

The man in the suit is holding "Air Mail" and it looks like he's depositing it in a hopper full of other air mail attached to the plane.

And I agree with others who have said that this is probably a "reenactment" of some kind. The cap the marine is wearing is post WW I. The plane in the pic is pre-WW I.

 

[Plug N Play]

Wasn't going to post about this guy ... but, who knows? ... maybe ?
Interesting reading, on its own. Does it tie in to your picture ? ... ?

Henry Woodhouse (1884–1970)(aviator fraud, short, con man, poser)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Woodhouse_(forger)
https://www.history.com/news/aviation-con-man-henry-woodhouse

Clipped from above link:

"Woodhouse’s gift for résumé inflation was matched by one for cozying up to, and often being photographed with, the famous and powerful. Among his acquaintances, he supposedly could count such A-list aviators as Orville Wright, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, as well as arctic explorers like Roald Amundsen and Admirals Richard E. Byrd and Robert E. Peary."

Henry Woodhouse, seventh from the left, seen on May 15, 1918 as one of the first regularly scheduled airmail flights in the United States took place.



A big maybe ... but an interesting maybe:

 

[Bramblefind]

Just a thought but since you are in Nova Scotia (if that is where you found the book?) maybe look into J.A.D. McCurdy-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_Douglas_McCurdy

John A. D. McCurdy