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The aerial parade, also which took place on the last day of the meet was absolutely unique. It showed the progress man has made since the days of Adam, when he walked on two feet, as the band-men walked in the remarkable procession.
After the pedestrians came the horsemen, then the ox cart driven by Ezra Meeker, an old man who had made the trip across the continent by the Oregon Trail in the early days and retraced his path just a few years ago in the same kind of vehicle.
Then came the modern buggy, the bicycles, from the old 'high wheeler' to the present day 'motor-bike'. Then the automobile, and the old-fashioned spherical gas bag. This was a captive balloon used by a local newspaper for obtaining photographs.
After that came the dirigible and the various types of heavier than air machines, among them the ones which hold the world's record for speed, long distance and altitude flights. Although they were not in the line, the electric cars and railway trains were visible from the grandstand., and thus we had a wonderful summing up of man's progress for getting about the world.
Perhaps the most wonderful thought of all is that up to a few generations ago, in the time of Jefferson, say, the horse set the pace for rapid travel. All these inventions which have made the whole world neighbors and which may soon erase all boundary lines that the earth-bound humanity has traced, all these are the products of our own restless age, whose ambitions soar even to the skies.
From: Latest Successes in Flight by Charlton Lawrence Edholm.Technical world magazine, April 1910
Link to French Museum Page with images of how people in 1910 envisioned the year 2000!
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