20. The launch rail was problematic in Florida
In September, 1919, the remaining Kettering Bugs arrived in Florida and preparations to evaluate their performance began. The launch rail was assembled in a remote area of Carlstrom Field. Midgley was on hand to coax an improved performance from the problematic flight control system. By then nearly a year had gone by since the only fully successful flight of the Kettering Bug, and that flight had only been for a few hundred feet near Dayton. Early attempts to launch the Bug in Florida failed. The launch rail failed to generate enough speed to allow the Bug to generate enough lift to become airborne. Materials were scavenged from the damaged Bugs to attempt to reuse them as much as possible.
Orville Wright had devised the launch rail. He and his brother Wilbur had used a similar system when evaluating the Wright Flyers at Huffman Prairie. It consisted of a tower erected perpendicular to the rail on which the Bug sat. A cable was connected to the Bug, ran along the rail and then back toward the tower, where it was connected to a counterweight at the top. When the weight was dropped the Bug, its engine running at a preset speed was pulled along the rail by the cable until the latter was dropped and the aircraft lifted into the air. Several failures resulted in wrecked Bugs. The launch system was discarded in favor of a sled in which the Bug would travel under its own power over rails. Other problems were encountered, chiefly with the DePalma Engines. Results were discouraging, but the team persisted in its attempts as the number of available Kettering Bugs dwindled.