Collier To Fly To Europe?

New York Times 100 years ago today, June 23, 1913:
Publisher Building a Hydro-Aeroplane, Marblehead Hears.
Special to The New York Times.
    MARBLEHEAD, Mass., June 22.— Robert J. Collier, the New York publisher, it is said, will attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the Fall in a flying boat equipped with a 200 horse power engine of French design and capable of 100 miles an hour or more.
    The hydro-aeroplane is being constructed at the Burgess-Curtiss aeroplane plant, Marblehead, with much secrecy. It will be larger and nearly twice as swift as the craft constructed for the Navy Department recently, which has made forty successful flights. It will cost between $15, 000 and $20, 000.
    Mr. Collier, it is said, told the designers that he wanted the craft merely for sport, but his intimate friends say that he is bent upon attempting the transatlantic flight. He has been to Marblehead several times in the past few weeks, and will try out the flying boat over the harbor in about two weeks. The machine will be entirely finished by the middle of July.
    The flying boat, it is said, will be the largest and fastest hydro-aeroplane in the world. A special 20-cylinder Anzani engine, with 200 horse power, has been imported at a cost of $10,000. It is made almost entirely of aluminium, weighing about 700 pounds. The gross weight of the machine, including the weight of the aviator and a passenger, will be 2,200 pounds. The planes are 45 feet in length from tip to tip, and are made of special varnished linen.
    They are seven feet apart and supported by a single line of uprights of steel, with steel wire bracings, resembling cables on suspension bridges.
    The propellers have eight-foot blades, made of solid mahogany, set at right angles, making four blades. The engine is situated between the planes, behind and almost two feet above the head of the operator. It can easily be "turned over" by a wheel arrangement without necessitating the operator leaving his seat.
    Besides carrying a tank with a capacity of fifty gallons, there is room in the craft for another tank of the same size. This would give Mr. Collier sufficient gasoline to carry him across the ocean.
    The air craft will sit lightly on the water, and in this position can make from sixty to seventy-five miles an hour. It is unsinkable. and this, with its speed, removes most of the danger of descending to the water in flight.
    All parts of the flying boat have been finished, and it will take about two weeks longer to assemble them. The craft resembles the naval flying boat, but is several feet longer, and its engine will have three times the horse power.