By the time the trials of the Wright Brothers’ “heavier than air flying machine” began at Fort Myer, Virginia, in mid-September, Arnold and his classmate Ben Castle had reported for duty in San Francisco, awaiting transportation to the Philippine Islands. On 7 November 1907, they boarded the transport ship Buford, a converted rough-sailing cattle carrier, in San Francisco Bay and steamed toward the wondrous Philippines by way of Honolulu and Guam.9 The new lieutenants were unaware of the newest developments in organized aeronautics within the Signal Corps.