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LONG ISLAND STAR-JOURNAL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1960

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50th Anniversary of Solo Flight

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200 Veteran Airmen to Honor Old Flier

The colorful days of man's first faltering steps into space-the era of "seat-of-the-pants" flying in sealing-wax-and-bailing-wire planes-will be remembered tonight on Long Island when some 200 veteran airmen gather to honor one of their number.

The guest of honor at a dinner on the site of the for-

[[image - headshot of Paul Studenski]]

DR. PAUL STUDENSKI
Soloed 50 Years Ago Today

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mer Roosevelt Field will be Dr. Paul Studenski of Brentwood, professor emeritus of economics at New York University. The occasion will be the 50th anniversary of his first solo flight.

The dinner, scheduled for 6 P.M. in the Horn and Hardart restaurant in the Roosevelt Field Shopping Center in Mineola, is being giv-

[[image - Paul Studenski in a biplane]]

PAUL STUDENSKI
At The Controls in 1912

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en by the OX-5 Club of New York. The club is named for the famous OX-5 engine designed by Glenn Curtiss, that powered 95 per cent of the U.S. World War I training planes.

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A BONZE PLAQUE, commemorating his 1910 solo will be presented to Dr. Studenski by Elmo N. Pickerill, 75, of Mineola, president of the club. The presentation will be made on behalf of the "Early Birds," the first aeronautical club, whose members all flew solo prior to 1916.

Studenski was born in Russia 7 3years ago. In 1908 he went to Paris to study medicine, having already earned a law degree in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad.)

Aviation captured his imagination. He left the Sorbonne, joined the Louis Bleriot School of Aviation in 1910, and earned International License No. 292 from the Aero-Club of France, which issued the world's first 300 air licenses.

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The following year, Studenski came to the United States. For the next three years he worked throughout the country as an aviation instructor, test pilot, racer, exhibition flyer, barnstormer and pioneer air mail pilot. The flights were made in a Bleriot Monoplane, a Curtiss biplane and a Beach National biplane.

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IN 1914 he gave up professional flying, joined the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, and attended evening classes at New York University. He received his doctorate from New York University in 1921.

Dr. Studenski served for 27 years on the N.Y.U. faculty until his retirement in 1954. He is currently senior fiscal consultant to the New York State Constitutional Revision Commission.

Among the veteran pilots gathering to honor Dr. Studenski is Mrs. Blanche Stuart Scott of Rochester-the first woman to solo an airplane in the United States.

Mrs. Scott first soloed, a little over 50 years ago, at the Mineola airfield, where Glenn Curtiss and Pickerill operated