For anyone interested in flight archery history, I recommend doing a search for "The History of the NAA" volumes 1 & 2, Rhode. Fortunately, there are Acrobat PDF files available for free online if you do a search. The volumes contains hundreds of pages of meeting minutes, articles, and event reports starting in 1879, and continuing through 1977. To make it easier to find flight archery specific info, I open the document and use the search function to find the keyword "flight". It works great.
The first mention comes in 1884, when rules were put in place that allows archers to use any bow and arrows of their choice for the flight competition. Prior to that, the flight round had to be shot with the same bow and arrows used in the target competition.
Under the new rules, the flight record advanced to 234 yards, by Dr. Webb of Eaton Ohio, and it was noted he used "ordinary heavy weight target arrows." Pictures show the bows used for early flight resembled straight low-poundage English longbows. Some pictures show the tiller with a stiff center section and stiffer outer limbs.
It took another 43 years until the modern flight records exceeded 300 yards! In 1928, Howard Hill broke the prior record 1927 record of 294 yards 10 inches by sending an arrow 300 yards, 9 inches.
Alan
Alan