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KNABENSHUE #6

Our flying was nearly all straight, but we did have a few stunts. One I remember was called the "SPIRAL DIP" and was billed as a death defying stunt, consisting of the plane tilted perpendicular and making a tight circle in six and two fifths seconds, of course the plane would loose about 500 feet altitude which made it necessary for the pilot to be very careful. Another stunt was the "OCEAN ROLL", named after a popular song of that period. There was no thought of barrel rolls, looping or upside down flying, ships of that time would not stand the strain.

We made money, too. My account book shows that in 1910 we collected $272,000- of which $190,298.28 was net profit. Ninteen-ten was the heyday of the Wright Exhibitions. Then other builders sta[[crossed out]] [[?]] [[/crossed out]]rted to compete and the profits fell. The Wrights started to manufacture and sell machines for $5000 each, and by the end of the season of 1911 the exhibition business began to fall off and the Directors decided to abandon exhibiting and devote their effore to the manufacture and sale of the Wright Brothers Airplanes.

I moved my family to Los Angeles and bought a home at 112 No. Harvard Blvd. and there designed and constructed the first American dirigible which successfully operated thirteen months carrying passengers. During this period Wilbur died and Orville asked me to return to Dayton, this was impossible as I was having all I could handle and could not leave. However the following spring I moved my ship to Chicago and made passenger flights from Decoration day until the middle of August.

As soon as my contract was completed at White City, I made the trip to Dayton and found Orville in bed with an ailment resulting from his accident at Fort Meyer in 1908.