Biplanes in Mexico (was ATDTDA (33) - p. 927-30 - railroads)

[grladams at teleport.com]

Just for fun, bi-plane and / or winged creature / trespassers imagery we
can scarecely make out, fading in and out on our collective cave wall...
I came across this passage in Secret History of the World/Mark Booth on the
train today. 
The specific point is in the chapter where we learn about the Nephilim and
the "rebel angels,"--the Watchers, for whom all mysteries had _not yet_
been revealed. In passing their seed as well as their incomplete education
on to mankind, much trouble will be wrought on earth. Their progeny, once
they dropped in on earth and loved women included, according to Manetho, an
Egyptian historian of the third century, "double-winged human beings," p.88
Watchers seem not to have kept "appointed habitations". ..not having kept
to their appointed seasons, it seems to be referring to them in some way as
timekeepers. 
If you let it just gel in the head it sort of makes sense. 

Thanks for the Black Narcissus reference. 
Jill
Original Message:
-----------------
From: David Payne dpayne1912 at hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 18:27:01 +0000
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Biplanes in Mexico (was ATDTDA (33) - p. 927-30 - railroads)



Laura (kelber at mindspring.com) wrote:
>
> "The harsh hum filled the valley."
>
> A biplane turns up. "Though this was the first time it had come up this
> way, the Tarahumares appeared to know what it was."

Just stumbled across this!!!! 

"Although, at the beginning of the year 1911, there was practically no
aviation in Mexico, the development was so fast that by 1913 the airplane
had demonstrated its usefulness in was and had even been used to bomb naval
vessels. To those who would see, the events taking place in and over Mexico
clearly foreshadowed the future importance of this weapon [...] in
February, 1911, Charles K. Hamilton [of the John Moisant flying circus!]
[...] took off from El Paso and flew to Ciudad Juarez, circling twice above
the latter city. It was then held by the forces of the Mexican General
Navarro. The soldiers, Hamilton reported, showed great fright when he
appeared in the skies, running frantically for shelter. Then Roland Garros
[...] flew his monoplane over the same route, but at an altitude greater
than Hamiton’s 900 feet. The following day Rene Simon flew [also in a
monoplane?] directly over the camp of the insurrectionist General Orozco.
These were the first scouting flights of an!
  airplane under actual war conditions.” (Freudenthal 1945, _How Aviation
“Firsts” Took Place in Mexico_, from JSTOR)

Is the biplane on ATD p. 927 Hamilton’s flight? 

The event feels right: the first wartime use of a plane for scouting (not
long before aerial WWI combat).

Are the time (Feb. 1911) and location (Ciudad Juarez at 900 feet over
General Navarro's troops) correct -- or even close? (My sense of the
text-time and -geography are too poor here...)

See http://www.earlyaviators.com/ehamilch.htm for more on Hamilton,
including pictures of his planes (Garrow and Simon are also have pages on
this site).
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