An Airshow Early in the 20th Century

Early Flight Showbiz

   The more I read in that first volume of Reiner Stach’s biography of Franz Kafka, the more I recognize how unusual it is. For example, many pages are spent on a vacation visit to Brescia of two weeks or so, very early in the 20^th century, by Kafka and a couple of friends. The destination was an event of which there could not have been many.
   On the occasion of a flight in a small plane across the English channel, a “convention” that was put together of show off small planes (one seaters) by the people in attendance who flew them and took care of them, though the account points out that not much of a distinction was made between pilots and persons active in other roles.

   The spectator-audience could see all the flying events, since they went neither high nor far. Kafka clearly had a good time and was no doubt typical of the public who attended the rare event. (It took much time and determination to make that trip to Northern Italy.

   Why a rare occasion? Because there were not many years when flying airplanes remained close enough to the ground so that even when up and flying, they could be observed. I would guess that there were not many gatherings that paid attention to aviation in that very early era. Only a few years later, the aviators went up higher, flying faster, having a very different impact on the spectators on the ground.

   Both Kafka and Max Brod wrote accounts of their impression and in that way recouped some of the cost of the trip.