Birds of Paradise
oil on linen, 38.5" x 28.5"

Private Collection

Birds of Paradise is also available as a limited edition giclee on paper. The edition size is limited to 160 prints, most of which will only be available through the Pacific Aviation Museum's gift shop and website. However, I have 9 prints available through my own website. Print size is 28.5" x 19.5" with an image area of 24.5" x 15".

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Birds of Paradise is a depiction Lt Harold Gieger and the Curtis Model G floatplane at the mouth of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii circa 1913. The Curtis Models G & C were the first aircraft to be flown in Hawaii.

A little after 7am on a warm Friday morning, August 8, 1913, Lieutenant Geiger made aviation history by making the first airplane flight in Hawaii in S.C. No. 8. The 75 horsepower eight-cylinder Curtiss motor sputtered and backfired as the plane bobbed like a cork on its signle pontoon in the middle of the channel entrance to Pearl Harbor. Lieutenant Geiger opened the throttle and turned the plane east into a 10mph wind. He flew over Pearl Harbor but it was “a short flight with machine No. 8 in order to test the balance of this machine.” Lieutenant Geiger described the hazards:m “The entrance to Pearl Harbor, (except the channel) is a flat coral reef and the water except at high tide is so shallow that it is extremely dangerous to attempt to rise or land anywhere else than the channel. The presence of buoys, ranges and stakes also increases the danger of rising or landing anywhere than in the channel.”

On August 28, 1913, the Curtiss Tractor Scout, S.C. No. 21, was tried out for the first time. He described the flight as a series “of short jumps over the water,” which lasted 35 minutes. S.C. No. 21 was an experimental plane that had been in several accidents during its test flights at San Diego in June. Lieutenant Geiger immediately found the main pontoon was weak and the machine flew with one wing low caused by the braces on one side of the wing being short. The twisted wing gave the biplane a tendency to dive in right turns and to over-bank in the opposite direction. In fact, so many things were wrong with it he suggested that he be sent back to the Curtiss factory to tell them how they could improve the plane, but the Signal Corps did not approve his suggestion. Problems with fore and aft balance were later corrected by adjusting the stabilizer. Eventually, Lieutenant Geiger was able to fly S.C. No. 21 extensively in order to familiarize himself with its particular characteristics, but because of difficulties with the machine and the poor flying conditions, the machine was not safe to use for training personnel as originally planned.

The base at Fort Kamehameha turned out to be far from satisfactory. The old tent hangars were easily torn in storms and low tides made it difficult or impossible to get the planes to the channel. Lieutenant Geiger proposed that the engineers build a track out into the water to facilitate launching the planes regardless of the tide, but no funds were available at first. The water was so shallow that both take-off and landings were dangerous and could only be performed safely in the deep, but narrow channel. The high winds made it even more difficult, and the rest of the harbor area was only usable during high tides.

Details of Birds of Paradise
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The Galleries / WW1 Limited Editions