LB2016.15.879

LB2016.15.879

What appears to be two Curtiss JN "Jenny" biplanes at the Jones Airport, Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The sign on the hangar reads: Harry M, Jones PASSENGERS CARRIED. The Curtiss JN "Jenny" was a series of biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for the US Army, the "Jenny" (the common nickname derived from "JN") continued after World War I as a civil aircraft, as it became the "backbone of American postwar [civil] aviation". Thousands of surplus Jennys were sold at bargain prices to private owners in the years after the war and became central to the barnstorming era that helped awaken the US to civil aviation through much of the 1920s. Role Trainer Manufacturer Curtiss Designer Benjamin D. Thomas Introduction 1915 Retired 1927 Wikipedia contributors, "Curtiss JN Jenny," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Curtiss_JN_Jenny&oldid=1149052959 (accessed April 24, 2023). Pilot Harry M. Jones had a hangar and operated a small airport at Old Orchard Beach. The hard-packed sand surface provided a landing strip and runway for the post World War I craze of flying. A number of famous pilots and planes landed on the beach -- and some took off from there for overseas flights. Jones began his business of flying sightseeing passengers in his biplanes in 1919. https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/120