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Flying Boat built by Stanley Hiller in 1913 and flown off San Leandro Bay.

GET ACQUAINTED WITH YOUR PRESIDENT
  Perhaps the best way to know Stanley Hiller is to have him tell his story in his own words. This he did in a talk before the Rotary Club in Nu Tree, California earlier this year. The gist of his story follows:
  "In the last few days of December 1910 and the first week of 1911, all the airplanes that would fly were at the first San Francisco Air Meet. I had gotten together several of the young men in Alameda to help me and we put together a biplane more or less like a Curtiss model. I was given au automobile engine that had been through a fire. I rebuilt it so it would run. Then I found a pattern maker to make a propeller. The San Francisco Meet had offered a $5000 prize and it was my ambition, of course, to win it. We finished the airplane and then the problem was to get it from Alameda to San Francisco. We wheeled it from Alameda to Oakland, took it across the bay on the ferry, and wheeled it again down to a field close to where the San Francisco International Airport is now located. The night we arrived a wind store sprang up. That stopped the meet and the planes were tied down so they would not blow away. When I came back to the field after the storm, the tower had blown over and smashed our machine. That ended our first airplane.
  "The next airplane I built was a monoplane with my new engine, a thirty horsepower rotary. I flew this plane in Alameda in June of 1911. This was the flight that made me eligible for membership in the Early Birds.
  "The next experience was flying off Lake Merritt with pontoons. The Alameda flat lands had problems so we tried the water. That plane had a sixty horsepower rotary engine. One of the men who helped me build it, wanted to fly it, so we drew straws. He got the flying straw although he knew even less about flying than I did. He climbed too steeply, went into a spin and down he came in the middle of the lake. We pull him out alive, but that was the end of one more plane.
  "In 1913 I built a flying boat and flew it off San Leandro Bay. It was quite successful, but it finally had a sad end because I hit a rock and put a hole in it. The last airplane I made was in 1914. The only time it got off the ground was when they hung it up in a department store in Oakland with Santa Claus in it. And Stanley Hiller had to go back to work.
  "I will say here that I made most of the money with which I built and financed the airplanes and engines, in an electrical business which I started in San Francisco. It took all the money I made, other than bare living expenses. It is hard to realize today that there was little interest in aviation by the Government, and very few people thought it would ever amount to anything. But that was the beginning of our great aviation industry of today and I am proud to say that I was one who saw and believed in its future".

YOUR NEWLY APPOINTED SECRETARY
Forrest E. Wysong was born March 30, 1894 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended college at North Carolina State University, receiving his Bachelor degree in 1915. He later did post graduated work at Columbia University, University of Southern California and DeLandas University, receiving his Doctorate in 1940. During World War I, he married Marion L. Barger in  New York City. They had two sons, Neil A. and Donald L. (deceased). On December 30, 1967 Forrest and Marion celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary.
  In 1911, while still in high school, he built a 20 foot biplane glider from plans and instructions in a book which was sold by mail for 25 cents. He made a number of attempts to fly it down a hill in Greensboro, North Carolina, but could not keep it in the air. All he succeeded in doing was accumulate a few bruises.
  In 1914, while a Senior at North Carolina State, Forrest, with the aid of four other students, built a Curtiss-type biplane. In it he installed a 75 h.p. Roberts engine, which he bought second hand, including eight foot propeller, twin radiatiors and gas tank for $450.00. After a number of grass-cutting runs up and down the field, the first flight was made on March 16, 1915 at Method, North Carolina, a surburb of Raleigh. Other flights followed.
  Upon graduation in 1915, he went to work as a draftsman for Curtiss Aeroplane Company, Buffalo, New York. While there he was associated with many notables in aviation including Glenn Curtiss, Henry Kleckler, John P. Tarbox, Charles F. Willard. He became assistant to Williard, who was Project Engineer on the design and construction of the Model T flying boat, at that time the largest airplane in the world. During his employement with Curtiss he met many early aviators; Hugh Robinson, Sam Pierce, J. A. D. McCurdy, Victor Carlstrom, Walter Less and learned to fly the Curtiss Model F flying boat with Walter Johnson as instructor.
  In January 1916 he went to work for Charles F. Williard and Robert G. Fowler at their newly organized L.W.F. Engineering Company in New York. The airplane which they designed was a biplane with a three-ply monocoque fuselage, and was the first airplane to carry the newly designed 8 cyclindar Liberty engine into the air. The next version of the Liberty engine had 12 cyclinders.
  On March 30, 1916, Forrest was commissioned Ensign in the New York Naval Militia, and during the summer of 1916, flew their Curtiss flying boat on week ends at Bayshore, Long Island. Since the Naval Militia was a fully qualified reserve unit, he was automatically in service the first day of the war. Bayshore was taken over as a Naval Air Station and Lieutenant Commander Albert C. Read was sent there to take over command, Wysong becoming Executive Officer. His next assignment was on the Naval Aircraft Program Committee in Washington, where he served under Captain Irwin with Towers, Hunsacker, Lansdowne, Mustin, Kirby Smith and others. In 1918 he served overseas at various Naval Air Stations. Returning to the United States in 1919. At the time of the historic flight of the NC boats across the Atlandtic, he was assistant to the Aid for Aviation, Commandant Third Naval District and handled the newspaper publicity for this event. He terminated his active duty in 1919 with the rant of Lieutenant.
  After World War I, the aviation business was at a low ebb for a number of years, and Forrest was forced into other pursuits. His family had to be fed. But finally in 1934, he secured employment with Lockheed. Later that year, he joined Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, California. When World War II came he went into the Flight Testing Division. On April 30, 1960 he retired as Flight Test and Research Engineer. At present he is living in Los Angeles and is active in the Mutual Fund investment business.

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Forrest Wysong at start of World War I.