On May 9, 1911, outside of Nome, Peterson fired up his single engine and eased the biplane forward. He opened the throttle, but the contraption still only managed to “ease” forward. Even with a push down a hill, the Tingmayuk never got up enough speed to take to the air. Probably, it was just as well. The headline in the Nome Nugget summed it up best: “Peterson Unable to Defy the Law of Gravity.”
