By the early 1900s, amateur mechanics in North Dakota were building their own motor cars and whizzing down dirt roads at the mind-boggling speed of 8 miles per hour. The other rage of the time was aviation. North Dakotans were in on that, too. In 1910, Archie Hoekse created a sensation with the first successful North Dakota flight at Grand Forks. And there was Frances Klingensmith, the first woman in the state to get a pilot's license.
She gained national fame as a stunt pilot and a racer. Even more famous, Carl Ben Eielson is known for flying over the Arctic ice caps. On this date in 1909, R. N. Metcalf, a farmer from Disco, revealed his plans for a fabulous flying machine. It was a combination of a land vehicle and an airplane and could even serve as a boat. Equipped with eight propellers, the plane was designed to carry ten passengers or the equivalent weight in freight. Metcalf said that within ten days, his prototype, designed to carry two people, would be ready to fly.
Metcalf had been fascinated with flight since he was a boy. In 1908, he seriously began to explore plans to get an airplane into the skies. In 1909, he announced his plans. That October, he showed the plans to the Fargo Forum and Daily Republican. The newspaper thought it looked like a complicated mass of sails, propellers, and connecting rods. Metcalf asserted that it was not as complicated as it looked.
The boat portion was a lightweight canvas with a gasoline engine. That part of the machine would carry the passengers. Four wheels allowed it to be driven on the ground like an automobile. When on the ground, the sails folded like the wings of a bird. Metcalf said that, while the machine might need some tinkering, he was confident he was on the right track. Unfortunately, Metcalf's plans never got off the ground, and there is no further mention of his fabulous flying machine in the public record.
Dakota Datebook by Carol Butcher
