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this would be a good idea. The next thing I knew Mr. Hagar wanted me to buy a Wright machine somewhere. I said, "How about building one?" "We haven't the time. There surely must be some machine around here." I knew my old friend Leo Stevens had a machine that needed repairs and could be utilized for the purpose so we bought it from him, [[strikethrough]] and we got [[/strikethrough]] secured the necessary parts from Dayton, made the repairs, shipped it to our field and started to use it.

Then Mr. Hagar called me in and told me, "I want you to change the controls on that Wright machine to a Curtiss control. These people in the steel company want it done." I tried to explain to Mr. Hagar that it wasn't the practical thing to do because the machine was controlled differently from a Curtiss machine. In other words, the warped wings had a decided effect where as the aileron didn't, and to put the aileron control on the Wright wings would spell disaster. It didn't make any difference to Mr. Hagar. So we did it. And on the first flight the machine was demolished and the pilot was taken to the hospital where he finally survived his injuries. 

I was called into a meeting of the board of directors one day. Mr. Frank Manville said, "Mr. Knabenshue, you've had [[strikethrough]] a lot of [[/strikethrough]] considerable experience. What would you do if you owned this company and had plenty of money to run it?"

"I'm rather glad you asked me. Our law suit has been struggling through the courts and getting no where and is wasting a lot of money. The first thing I would do would be to effect some kind of compromise with the Curtiss Corporation, and the second thing is I would go to Washington and make peace with the officials down there and start making airplanes for them."

"I think that is a very sensible idea. Can't we send Mr. Knabenshue to Washington?"