Early Air Meet

---

I purchased these negatives around 1980 from a business owned by Teri Sullivan called "The Junk Shop" located on Mendenhall Street in Bozeman. Since then I have researched their origin, without reaching a conclusion. The fairgrounds are very distinctive. Accounts from newspaper reports make me believe they were photographed in Montana.

The airship is remarkable. With the name clearly visible, it appears to be a 1907 Baysdorfer-Yeager airship "Comet." Photos of it appear in a write-up about George E. Yager, an early birdman who plied the skies of the west. This might also have been piloted by Horace B. Wild More info can be found here: http://www.http://earlyaviators.com/eyeager.htm. And here is a great history on the Comet: http://www.earlyaeroplanes.com/archive3.htm#kites

Update 4 Dec 2014: Photos are pre-1912. A Google search turned up a listing in a July 1912 Aero Mart for the engine and parts of the Comet. See http://tinyurl.com/o6q38q9