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• Pioneers fly again on the web

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What was it like to be a pioneer aviator? The web site of the Frank Coffyn Collection gives a vivid insight into the lives of the people who helped introduce the airplane to America.

The collection features nearly 200 images including photographs, prints, postcards and document clippings, identified and published for the first time. Together they tell the story of the small team of aviators that worked with the Wright Brothers to fly the airshows that were, for most of those that saw them, the first living proof of the discovery of flight.

By inspecting the images in detail, our team, led by producers Paul Glenshaw and Joss Munro, with our partners at the Wright Experience have been able to identify and classify the collection. The pictures, which came to the Empire State Aerosciences Museum as a mysterious anomyous donation, were mainly unidentified and uncredited. This called for all the joint team's unique knowledge acquired over decades studying the achievements of the Wright Brothers.

The site's publication represents the first step of an ongoing process to study and identify the images in the collection. As further details emerge about the images, they will be added to the database.

We are hoping that the publication of the pictures for the first time will elicit further information about them. We will welcome input from anyone who may have further knowledge about the collection. There is an email link with each image for contributions.

This project, sponsored by the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, was a collaboration between the Empire State Aerosciences Museum, the Wright Experience, and Cognitive Applications.